Previous exhibitions 2004
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Margaret Preston:
Australian printmaker
18 December 2004 – 25 April 2005
Margaret Preston’s prints produced between 1916 and 1956 show an artist moving away from European traditions to a unique art based on the land and experience of the Asia-Pacific region. Her work of the 1920s is energetically decorative and popular; that produced in the 1950s – when she was in her late 70s – is profound.
Margaret Preston Rocks in Roper River Valley N.T. 1953 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra © Margaret Preston, 1953. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney
2 October 2004 – 6 March 2005
This exhibition exploits the dramatic qualities of big, bold – and scary – paintings. Drawn from the collection of Australian and International art, Big spooks features large neo-expressionist and surrealist-inspired paintings that will thrill and engage young viewers. Dare to enter the Children’s Gallery and see Big spooks!
Richard Bosman Drowning man 1983 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1983
![WH Fox Talbot Articles of glass [plate 4] from The pencil of nature c 1844 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra](/web/20170223191319im_/http://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/Images/106523a.jpg)
Surface beauty:
photographic reflections on glass and china
11 December 2004 – 6 March 2005
Drawn largely from the Gallery's collection, this exhibition presents photographs of china and glassware from the 1840s through to the present day, ranging from classic still-life studies and modernist advertising to contemporary photomedia by artists who pay direct tribute to Talbot’s images.
WH Fox Talbot Articles of glass [plate 4] from The pencil of nature c 1844 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Vivienne Westwood:
34 years in fashion
12 November 2004 – 30 January 2005
Vivienne Westwood is one of Britain's best-known and admired fashion
designers. She has made a major contribution to international fashion
for over three decades and was awarded British Designer of the year in
1990 and 1991. In 1992 she was honoured with the Order of the British
Empire for her outstanding contribution to fashion. This exhibition brings
together many clothes, accessories and images along with film and music
to tell her remarkable and controversial fashion story. Drawn from Westwood's
personal archive and the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection, it is
the largest exhibition ever devoted to her work.
Victoria and Albert Museum Westwood website
Exhibition organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Vivienne Westwood Pair of woman’s stamped leather stiletto platform shoes Spring-Summer 1994 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1995 with funds donated by Eva and Marc Besen through the Besen Foundation
No ordinary place:
The art of David Malangi
31 July – 7 November 2004
David Malangi (1927–1999) of the Manharrngu people was a leading figure in the development of the Central Arnhem Land bark painting movement and holds a prominent place in Australian Aboriginal art. Made famous by his design used on the Australian one dollar note when Australia converted to decimal currency in 1966, Malangi painted over a period of four decades. He was a major instigator of Gallery's Aboriginal Memorial, contributing ten magnificent hollow logs to the project. The exhibition traces the development of Malangi’s work from the early bark paintings of the 1960s that record his patrilineally inherited land and ceremonies, to the masterful dedications to his mother’s land and culture for which he was also responsible and where he spent the last thirty years of his life.
Travelling exhibition itinerary
David Malangi Gurrmirringu the Great Hunter (Manharrngu mortuary rite #1) 1969 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1987 © David Malangi. Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia
Printed light:
photographic vision and the modern print
31 July – 7 November 2004
Printed light examines the way in which photographic material
and ‘ways of seeing’ have influenced 20th-century artists
who also work in the print medium. Some artists exploit photography by
manipulating, appropriating and/or subverting photographic imagery in
their work. For others, the influence of photography is more subtle and
tangential. Their work may, for example, refer back to a hyper-realism
that pre-dates photography. In others again, it may be the way in which
photographic ‘framing’ has conditioned a particular way of
seeing. This exhibition highlights the extraordinary strength of the Gallery's
International Print collection.
Richard Estes No title (Grant’s) 1972 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1977
Montien Boonma:
Temple of the mind
23 July – 10 October 2004
Montien Boonma (1953–2000) was one of Asia's most distinguished contemporary artists. This retrospective – curated by Thailand's leading art historian, Apinan Poshyananda, for the Asia Society, New York – demonstrates the broad range of materials and techniques that the artist explored, including large-scale sculptures in metal, wood and ceramic, pen, crayon and pencil drawings and organic collages on paper. Montien Boonma’s contemplative installations draw on the spirit and senses of Thailand, combining overtly Buddhist imagery with industrial and ephemeral materials such as gold leaf, fragrant spices, earth and charcoal.
Asia Society's Montien Boonma: Temple of the mind website
Montien Boonma: Temple of the Mind is organised by the Asia Society and Museum, New York.
Montien Boonma: Temple of the Mind is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., Blakemore Foundation, and New York State Council on the Arts.
Montien Boonma Temple of the Mind: Sala for the Mind 1995 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1995
23 July – 10 October 2004
Sean Scully is one of the most significant international figures of postwar abstract painting. His work draws on the influence of Mark Rothko, bringing a sensuous, painterly quality to the application of geometry. Scully¹s work involves the sequence, variation and repetition of squares, rectangles and chequerboard patterns. This exhibition – conceived and organised by the Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere, Finland – is broadly representative of the artist¹s work, consisting of oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, etchings and photographs from the last 15 years. The inclusion of Scully's photographs will provide visitors with an understanding of the starting point for his evocative use of form and colour in vernacular buildings.
Sean Scully Bigland 1987–88 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra © Sean Scully
From little things big things grow
12 June – 19 September 2004
Gather round people I'll tell you a story...
This Children's Gallery exhibition features colourful, engaging works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island artists. The title is from Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody’s song about Indigenous Land Rights, and many of the works are imbued with a strong sense of story drawn from the artists’ own experiences of living and working on the land.
Joan Nancy Stokes The Black and White Ringers 2002 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2003
John Glover and the Colonial Picturesque
24 April – 18 July 2004
This is the first major survey of John Glover for almost a quarter of a century. The exhibition draws on public and private collections in Australia and overseas and incorporates a number of rediscovered pictures which have come to light in recent years. The exhibition addresses a range of issues including Glover’s early career and reputation in England; his representations of the Australian landscape and its Indigenous inhabitants; his painting technique and style; and questions of attribution. John Glover and the Colonial Picturesque is a Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and Art Exhibitions Australia Touring Exhibition.
John Glover Mount Wellington and Hobart town from Kangaroo Point (detail) 1831–33 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased with funds from the Nerissa Johnson Bequest 2001
The Edwardians:
Secrets and desires
12 March – 14 June 2004
The Edwardians: Secrets and Desires showcases the art of the Edwardian period (1900–1914). Among Australia’s most loved artists are those who went to study and live in Europe at the turn of the 19th century. Many of these artists stayed abroad for as long as two decades and, like Australian film stars of today, became figures on the world stage. This exhibition places the work of these Australian artists in the context of the European artists who influenced them. The exhibition shows how artists dramatised their subjects to portray the glamour and artifice of aristocratic life and the dramatic shift from a period of established order to the beginnings of a more modern world, reflecting a greater variety of social experiences.
George Lambert Chesham Street 1910 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1993
13 March – 30 May 2004
Visit a recreated artist’s studio from the turn of the century in Making pictures, an exhibition for the Children’s Gallery. Designed to complement The Edwardians: Secrets and Desires, Making Pictures includes works by George Lambert, Hugh Ramsay, Thea Proctor and Rupert Bunny who were working in Europe during the Edwardian era. The exhibition also includes the original easel and paintbox belonging to Hugh Ramsay and facsimile editions of the artists’ sketch books. Children are invited to create their own self portrait and explore the display through other interactive activities.
Hugh Ramsay Self-portrait c 1902 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1965
13 March – 30 May 2004
A selection from 32 cars for the 20th century play Mozart’s Requiem quietly.
Presented by the National Gallery of Australia and Sydney Festival
Over the past four decades Nam June Paik has made an exceptional contribution to world art through his radical manipulation of electronic, video and televisual art forms. Born in Korea in 1932, he studied and worked in Japan, Germany and Hong Kong before moving in 1964 to New York where he now lives and works.
This sculptural installation presents eight vintage automobiles, each stripped of its engine and interior, painted silver and crammed with disused electronic detritus and fitted with a sound component. The work offers an evocative homage to the technologies and obsolescence which so marked the 20th century.
Nam June Paik 32 cars for the 20th century play Mozart's Requiem quietly 1997 Samsung Museum of Modern Art Samsung Foundation of Culture Seoul
Place made:
Australian Print Workshop
31 January – 11 April 2004
Established in 1981 as the Victorian Print Workshop, the Australian Print Workshop (APW) has attracted many of Australia’s leading artists on the basis of its reputation for collaborating with artists to produce printed images and its excellent professional support facilities. The Gallery has recently acquired the APW’s Archive 2 of workshop proofs. A hundred prints from some fifty major artists who have worked with the APW since its inception have been selected from this major archive for place made: Australian Print Workshop.
William Robinson Creation landscape – Man and the Spheres II 1991 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Australian Print Workshop Archive 2. Purchased with the assistance of the Gordon Darling Australasian Print Fund 2002