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The National Gallery of Australia is continuously adding to the national collection, keeping abreast of emerging art as well as expanding existing collections.

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Albert Namatjira Standley Chasm about 1945. Gift of Marilyn Darling AC in memory of Gordon Darling AC CMG 2016. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program. © Namatjira Legacy Trust, Licensed by Viscopy

As an Indigenous artist and traditional custodian, Namatjira was aware of the physical presence of ancestral beings embodied in the towering ghost gums and geological forms of the surrounding mountains and gorges. It is this numinous quality that entranced Gordon and Marilyn Darling who, over the last 30 years, formed an extraordinary collection of watercolours by Namatjira. Since 2008, they have generously gifted over 55 paintings to the National Gallery of Australia and supported the research and future acquisition of works on paper. Read more

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Albert Namatjira Inside Gosses Bluff 1945. Gift of Marilyn Darling AC in memory of Gordon Darling AC CMG 2016. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program. © Namatjira Legacy Trust, Licensed by Viscopy

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Philip Wolfhagen A litany of vapours 2007, oil on beeswax linen (7 panels). Purchased with the assistance of the Foundation Gala Dinner Fund 2017.

Philip Wolfhagen’s multi-panelled magnum opus A litany of vapours depicts cloud formations as they arc over the landscape. It is a celebration of the transient nature of weather patterns and their effect on the earth. Like British romantic painters John Constable and JMW Turner, Wolfhagen finds the humble cloud a thing of great beauty, worthy of contemplation and exploration. To stand before this work is to feel as though you are floating among the clouds, immersed in nature. A litany of vapours was acquired with the generous support of the many contributors to the annual Foundation Gala Dinner Fund. Read more

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Arthur Streeton The Point Wharf, Mosman Bay 1893, oil on canvas. Purchased with the assistance of Allan and Maria Myers and the NGA Foundation 2017

The Point Wharf, Mosman's Bay is one of Streeton's most striking responses to the landscape of Sydney's Middle Harbour. The wharf was located on the eastern side of Curraghbeena Point, opposite Cremorne, and was most likely painted from the Cremorne boathouse. Streeton employs a broad palette to convey the warmth of the sun, and the dynamism of the landscape. Read more

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Brian Blanchflower Canopy XXVIII—Stochastic cloud (Homage to Iannis Xenakis) 1991–92, oil, pumice powder, acrylic on laminated hessian (four parts). Gift of James and Jacqui Erskine 2017. Donated throught the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program. © Brian Blanchflower

The heavens and infinite space are at the core of Brian Blanchflower’s major work Canopy XXVIII—Stochastic cloud (Homage to Iannis Xenakis), one of two gifts by James and Jacqui Erskine. The textured hessian ground emphasises the materiality of the surface, and provides a striking counterpoint to a sense of the world without boundaries. The title refers to Blanchflower’s fascination with the idea of charting the intangible. Read more

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Ildiko Kovacs Full moon 2011, oil on plywood. Gift of James and Jacqui Erskine 2017. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program. © Ildiko Kovacs

The second gift from James and Jacqui Erskine, Ildiko Kovacs’s Full moon, also evokes a sense of the sky, albeit in very different ways. In this work, the reduced, luminous palette is combined with a bold, linear expression, conveying a sense of poetic feeling along with a mastery of painting. Read more

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Rosalie Gascoigne Letting go 5 1991 (detail), assemblage of torn linoleum pieces on weathered wood panels. Gift of Hester Gascoigne in honour of her mother Rosalie Cascoigne 2015. © The estate of Rosalie Gascoigne. Licensed by Viscopy.

This remarkable nine-panel work was a generous gift from the artist’s daughter Hester in honour of her mother. The expansiveness of Letting go, as a whole, captures the vastness of the landscape in which Rosalie Gascoigne found herself when she moved from Auckland to Mount Stromlo in Canberra, where her husband worked as an astronomer at the observatory. This is one of some fifty works by Gascoigne that employ linoleum, which was often sourced from local dumps. Despite its domestic origins, the linoleum here conveys more about natural phenomena—in its new configurations, it evokes land, light and air. Read more

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Rosalie Gascoigne Letting go 1991, assemblage of torn linoleum pieces on weathered wood panels. Gift of Hester Gascoigne in honour of her mother Rosalie Cascoigne 2015. © The estate of Rosalie Gascoigne. Licensed by Viscopy.