Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report

collection / QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 05/06 17 COLLECTION One of the Queensland Art Gallery’s key goals is the development, management and conservation of the Collection to the highest art museum standards. In 2005–06 the Gallery acquired 338 works. AUSTRALIAN ART In 2005, the Foundation launched an appeal to acquire City lights 1952, a major early work by distinguished Australian artist Charles Blackman. Especially meaningful for Brisbane residents, the painting has a direct connection with the Gallery — it is painted from the perspective of North Quay, across the river from the Gallery, and depicts the traffic at night near the Brisbane River, with the arches of old Victoria Bridge in view. The painting was acquired through the generosity of Foundation members and the Queensland community, and is an important addition to the Gallery’s Australian art collection. Also depicting local scenes are two significant oil paintings by William Bustard — (Brisbane River, Indooroopilly) and ( Brisbane River, view to Graceville church) , both c.1940s. Bustard became an important figure in the development of art in Queensland after migrating to the city in 1921, and these works are significant contributions to the Gallery’s holdings of modernist work from Brisbane. A strong group of contemporary works by Australian artists was acquired by the Gallery during the year. Tracey Moffatt is arguably Australia’s best known contemporary artist and Adventure series 2004 marks an important addition to the Gallery’s substantial collection of work by this Queensland- born artist. The work was photographed in Brisbane, and explores a combination of comic strips, television series and Moffatt’s childhood memories to create deliberately artificial and playful images commenting on the seductive power of the mass media in contemporary life. Brisbane artist Anne Wallace addresses themes of nostalgia and longing in That was long ago 2005, from the ‘Song cycle’ series. This painting — together with Sometimes I wonder 2005, also from the same series — enriches the Gallery’s holdings of works by this significant local artist. Gordon Bennett uses modern Western art techniques and references to strike a sophisticated multi-layered attack on the official history of the Aboriginal and colonial ‘problem’, as represented in Australian art and history. Interior (Modern art) 11 Nov. 2004 2005, by Bennett’s alter ego, John Citizen, reworks images from advertising and from the social pages of Brisbane’s Courier-Mail in a playful critique of contemporary society. Additional acquisition highlights for the year included works by Indigenous artists Irene Entata and Pedro Wonaeamirri. Wonaeamirri is the leading young Tiwi painter who continues to paint traditional jilamara, or ‘good design’. The acquisition of Wonaeamirri’s Pwoja (Pukumani body paint design) 2005 allows the Gallery to display a coherent and impressive group of works by Tiwi artists from Bathurst and Melville Islands. Since 1990, the Arrernte (Aranda) people from Hermannsburg, near Alice Springs, have been producing a vibrant and highly original form of ceramic art. Gallery holdings include a group of 21 of these unique pots, and the acquisition of Mission days 2005 by Irene Entata further reflects the distinctive visual culture and history of the region. A significant addition to the Gallery’s growing collection of Indigenous Australian fibre art was Hot-air balloon 2006 by distinguished Indigenous artist Yvonne Koolmatrie. Embodying the form and lightness of a real hot-air balloon, Koolmatrie’s work is woven from grasses and embellished with decorative variations on the coil-weave stitch. During the year, the Gallery also added to its holdings of work by Torres Strait Islander Dennis Nona, whose prints are Tim Johnson (artist) Australia b.1947 Brendan Smith (collaborating artist) Australia b.1964 Two phoenix 2005 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 153 x 183cm Purchased 2006 with funds from Macquarie Bank Foundation through and with the assistance of the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation