Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report 1996-97

As a result of the realignment of the Gallery's administrative structure Contemporary Australian Art early in the financial year, the former Curatorial & Support Services Program As the opening venue for the 1997 Moët & Chandon Touring Exhibition, was redefined and renamed as the Curatorial & Collection Development the Gallery was the recipient of a grant of $50 000 from the Moët & Program. Chandon Australian Art Foundation for the purchase of contemporary Australian art. This made possible the acquisition of boldly experimental The main responsibilities of the Curatorial & Collection Development sculptures by younger artists Hany Armanious, Yenda Carson and Ross Program are: Moore, who were not represented in the collection. Also with these funds • To develop, research, document and interpret the Collection; the Gallery acquired new works by artists already represented in the • To maintain the highest art museum standards for the preservation and collection—Scott Redford, Sharon Jewell, Sebastian Di Mauro and Leonard management of the Collection and temporary exhibitions; Brown. • To provide professional services to support the Gallery's Collection and exhibition-based program. The purchase of a large installation Home 1995-96 by Callum Morton, with funds from John Potter and Roz MacAllan through the Contemporary Australian A r t Art Acquisition Program, has provided the Gallery with a good example The Gallery's nineteenth-century collection was enhanced by the acquisition of the architecturally-based style of sculpture prominent in recent art. One of several important works. Henry Short's Fruit and flowers 1859, a still life of the rare early works by the important Australian sculptor Rosalie in the grand manner, is an excellent example of the ambition of Melbourne Gascoigne, Gross rock 1979, was also acquired and complements the society and its painters in the Gold Rush era. Remarkably, the painting had Gallery's large, wall assemblage by this artist. Through the gift from the been in the possession of the Chandler family of Wurtulla, Queensland Gallery Society of the painting The function 1996 by Stewart MacFarlane, since its creation. Chester Earles's Inter/or with figures 1872 is a fine genre the Gallery has acquired a memorable image of a prominent Brisbane painting depicting a romantic proposal, which was also painted in Melbourne, building (the Customs House) by this strongly idiosyncratic painter. The It was generously donated to the Gallery by leading Australian art collector Gallery also purchased The connoisseur 1986 by the New Zealand-born Dr Joseph Brown, AO, OBE. painter Caroline Williams, who has long been an Australian resident. The major acquisition of the year was Girolamo Nerli's The sitting 1889, Two exhibitions stressed the importance of the Gallery's involvement with which has significantly advanced the representation of the Heidelberg Asian countries. In collaboration with Asialink, the Curator, Contemporary School in the collection. This cosmopolitan work is clearly influenced by Australian Art assembled an exhibition of recent Australian painting and Whistler's aesthetic manner, and draws together Nerli's interests in the sculpture, initiated by the Queensland Art Gallery for the Seoul Art Centre new international world of the younger Australian artists—on the walls in Korea. For her installation 'Fully Exploited Labour', Brisbane artist Pat behind the model are Oriental artefacts, and a 9 x 5 painting, probably Hoffie commissioned the Galicia family of billboard painters in The by Charles Conder. The Gallery has also acquired a beautiful silk fan by Philippines to produce three immense variations on well-known paintings Conder, the gift of the Hon. Legh Davis, MLC of Adelaide. in the Gallery's Collection, which were displayed in Gallery 14, virtually filling the entire space. A work by the distinguished modernist painter Tony Tuckson was acquired, the first to enter the collection. Abstract on cardboard no. / 1955 is a pivotal Decorative Arts work in Tuckson's exploration of diverse modes of abstraction, which sits The major acquisition was a group of contemporary metalwork and well with the Gallery's holdings of his contemporary, Ian Fairweather. jewellery forming the focus of an exhibition, organised by the Gallery, which opened at the Shanghai Museum on 20 May: 'Contemporary Vessels Special focus 'hangs' have explored the riches of the Australian collection. and jewels: Australian Fine Metalwork'. In 1982 the Gallery produced a Three-month displays of the work of the social realist artist Noel Counihan, 'Survey of Contemporary Australian Craft' which included a substantial of James Gleeson and surrealism, of the Melbourne tonalist artists surrounding component of metalwork—in essence this group provides 'snapshots' of Max Meldrum, and of the diverse ways modernist artists portrayed the contemporary metalwork fifteen years later. Several of the artists whose figure, have proved a lively addition to the Gallery program. work was included in the earlier exhibition are now represented with major later works. These include Susan Cohn Bow/ 1997, Marian Hosking Several important works from the collection are touring with the regional Hoyshed box /997 and Carlier Makigawa Offering bowl III 1997. exhibition 'The Urban Edge: Historical and Contemporary Works from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection', including Roland Wake/in's The Significant practitioners who were not included in the earlier exhibition Bridge under construct/on 1928 and Albert Tucker's Tramstop 1946. now have a significant representation in the collection. These are: Robert Baines Vessel 8 (from 'Redline' series) 1996, Robert Foster The ghost teapot Work on the forthcoming book on the Australian art collection has 1992 and Johannes Kuhnen Coffee pot 1992. Younger generation continued. With its planned launch in 1998, the Gallery will publish a metalworkers include Mark Edgoose (who was awarded the VicHealth significant new resource on the history of Australian art. National Craft Award in 1995 for a similar work), Marl Funaki, Catherine 22