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12 December 2008 – 22 March 2009
For the first time audiences in Australia have the opportunity to see an exhibition devoted to one of the most significant and admired French artists of the nineteenth century, Edgar Degas.
The National Gallery of Australia presents important paintings and sculptures by Degas, as well as drawings, experimental monotypes and photographs. The exhibition draws works from major Degas collections, including Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Musée des Beaux Arts, Pau, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
The exhibition highlights the artist’s favourite themes of modern life in Paris, such as portraits, horseracing, the ballet, laundresses and bathers, and demonstrates his skill as a master painter, sculptor and draughtsman.
Edgar Degas Dancers, pink and green c 1890 (detail) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York HO Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs HO Havemeyer, 1929 Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
13 Sep 2008 – 8 March 2009 | Childrens Gallery
Visit an exhibition that is just like home. Home at last features prints, drawings, photographs, paintings and decorative arts by Australian artists from the national collection.
The exhibition links art making and the home and demonstrates that works of art are often inspired by the artist’s home environment.
Picture my world is a collaborative project between the Gallery and early childhood educational centres in the Canberra region in response to the themes of home and sense of place in Home at last nga.gov.au/picturemyworld
Howard Arkley Floral exterior 1996
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 2001 © The Estate of Howard Arkley
![Te Fenua Enata People War club [u'u] wood, fibre National Gallery of Australia, Canberra](/web/20170223191044im_/http://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/IMAGES/191376.jpg)
Gods, ghosts and men:
Pacific arts from the National Gallery of Australia
10 October 2008 – 11 January 2009
This is the first major exhibition of Pacific art to be held in Australia for nearly twenty years. It embraces the diverse Melanesian and Polynesian sculptural traditions of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Easter Island, New Zealand and the Marquesas Islands.
Many of the works are by unnamed artists and have never before been seen by the Australian public. The works are often iconic and exquisite and include dance costumes, spirit figures and other sculptures in stone and wood as well as fibre arts, dating from as early as 3500 BCE to the present day.
Proudly supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund.
Te Fenua Enata People War club [u'u] wood, fibre
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
![Andre Roosevelt 'Legong dancer, Bali [Ni Pollok, aged about 11, later the model and wife of Belgian painter in Bali, A J. Le Mayeur]' 1928 gelatin silver photograph Collection of the National Gallery of Australia](/web/20170223191044im_/http://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/Images/171989.jpg)
Picture Paradise:
Asia–Pacific photography
1840s – 1940s
11 July – 28 September 2008
Picture Paradise is the first ever comparative survey exhibition of the history of photography in the Asia–Pacific region, from the formative decades of the 1840s to 1860s to the early 1940s and the advent of the Second World War.
The exhibition chronicles the developments in photography throughout South and Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific to the west coast of North America. Early photography in the Asia–Pacific region reveals the beauty and cultural diversity of the region.
Picture Paradise is presented in conjunction with Vivid, Australia’s inaugural National Photography Festival, celebrating photography’s vital role in Australian life and history.
Proudly supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund
This exhibition is part of Vivid Australia's first ever National Photography Festival. Find out more about at nla.gov.au/vivid
Andre Roosevelt Legong dancer, Bali 1928 gelatin silver photograph
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Richard Larter:
A retrospective
20 June – 14 September 2008
Richard Larter is widely considered to be one of Australia’s most distinguished artists. Born in 1929 he arrived in Australia from England in 1962 and, over the ensuing four decades, created an impressive, provocative, lively body of work.
Larter’s lively wit and satirical insights are matched by his considerable abilities as a draughtsman and particularly as a great colourist. His ability to combine politics, history and sexuality mixed with feeling for colour makes his works unique, energetic and challenging.
Richard Larter Sliding Easy 1970 (detail) synthetic polymer paint on hardboard
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
12 April – 30 August 2008 | Children's Gallery
An exhibition designed especially for children 3-8 years old in conjunction with Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape.
Discover art works which are made from trees, are about trees or even things that live in trees. Treescape’s aim is to stimulate an appreciation of trees as a subject for interesting and exciting artworks.
See paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, sculpture, installations, furniture and more.
Children can trace a tree to take home and have fun with a magnetic tree.
View more
Patrick Collins Curtain call 2003 (detail) ceramic, earthenware, tin-glazed
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
![Monet 'Meules, milieu du jour [Haystacks, midday] [also known as Meules au soleil, milieu du jour and Grainstacks, midday]' 1890 Painting, oil on canvas Collection of the National Gallery of Australia](/web/20170223191044im_/http://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/Images/29073.jpg)
Turner to Monet:
The triumph of landscape
14 March – 9 June 2008
Turner to Monet presents an opportunity to experience paintings never before seen in Australia, and only at the National Gallery of Australia.
Works by the finest artists of the time – Turner, Constable, Friedrich, Corot, Courbet, Glover, von Guérard, Church, Streeton, Roberts, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet – have been gathered from public and private collections from around the world.
The exhibition provides a unique opportunity for Australians to see landscape masterpieces in oil and watercolour from the finest collections of the world, including Tate Britain, Royal Academy of Arts, J Paul Getty Museum, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Kröller-Müller Museum.
Claude Monet Haystacks, midday 1890 (detail) Collection of the National Gallery of Australia
Australian Surrealism:
The Agapitos Wilson collection
16 February – 11 May 2008
Surrealism, the great revolutionary movement originating in France in the 1920s, was to change the course of Australian art in the 1940s. A generation of Australian artists including James Gleeson, Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Arthur Boyd and Max Dupain encountered Surrealism at a formative time in their careers, and its influence transformed their art forever.
Drawn from the recently acquired James Agapitos OAM, and Ray Wilson OAM, collection of Australian Surrealist art, this exhibition shows the extraordinary breadth of Surrealist practice in this country from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Clifford Bayliss Man wearing a bowler hat 1945 Purchased with the assistance of James Agapitos OAM and Ray Wilson OAM 2007 © Mrs Josephine Bayliss; courtesy Bridget McDonnell Gallery
![John Brack 'Study for the painting and the lithograph 'Junior Latin American' [Sketch for 'Junior Latin American']' 1969conte crayon, pencil image Collection of the National Gallery of Australia © Helen Brack](/web/20170223191044im_/http://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/Images/106321.jpg)
14 July 2007 – 30 March 2008
By looking closely at drawings we can get a powerful insight into the thoughts, ideas and processes that artists explore in their works.
Beginning with the drawings of George Lambert, Drawn in explores some of the ways in which artists use drawing. George Lambert was a master draughtsman, who captured the changing world around him through his pencil impressions and explored new artistic ideas. This exhibition aims to show the way drawing can make thinking visible.
John Brack Study for the painting and the lithograph 'Junior Latin American' 1969 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia © Helen Brack
National Indigenous Art Triennial 07:
culture warriors
13 October 2007 – 10 February 2008
The National Gallery of Australia is delighted to present the inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial. The work of thirty artists has been selected, representing the diversity of regions around Australia and demonstrating the incredible range of contemporary Indigenous art practice. The National Indigenous Art Triennial provides a highly considered snapshot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contemporary art practice.
Richard Bell Australian Art Its An Aboriginal thing 2006 (detail) synthetic polymer paint on canvas acquired 2006 TarraWarra Museum of Art collection
1 September 2007 – 27 January 2008
Robert Rauschenberg moved to New York in 1949, at a time when the avant-garde art scene was dominated by Abstract Expressionism. Right from the beginning, Rauschenberg worked beyond the restrictions imposed by media, style and convention, and adopted a unique experimental methodology that combined gestural mark-making with its antithesis – mechanically reproduced imagery.
His work has been of central influence in many of the significant developments of post-war American art and has provided countless blueprints for artistic innovation by younger generations.
Robert Rauschenberg Horsefeathers Thirteen – I 1972 (detail) planographic, stencil, collage © Robert Rauschenberg
![Otagaki Rengetsu 'Fluttering merrily' hanging scroll [kakemono] 1840s-50s calligraphy, painting Private collection, Zurich](/web/20170223191044im_/http://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/Images/16254a.jpg)
Black robe, white mist:
art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu
8 September 2007 – 27 January 2008
Otagaki Rengetsu (1791–1875), Lotus Moon, was a Japanese Buddhist nun whose tragic life inspired extraordinary creativity. One of a small number of prominent female artists of 19th-century Japan, Rengetsu was a poet, calligrapher, potter and painter.
Largely drawn from international private collections, Black robe, white mist shows contemplative works of paper and clay inscribed with Rengetsu’s elegant poetry and understated calligraphy. Her work reflects the beauty of the imperfect and unconventional.
Otagaki Rengetsu Fluttering merrily hanging scroll [kakemono] 1840s-50s (detail) calligraphy, painting Private collection, Zurich