Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report

collection / QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 05/06 21 high — and Roman Signer’s Ladder with barrel 2001 — literally, a ladder, barrel and balloon — both employ everyday materials and objects manipulated into unexpected forms and associations. Both works will be displayed at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). CINEMA The role of the Gallery’s Australian Cinémathèque is to collect, conserve, present and interpret film and screen culture. To this end, several significant acquisitions by key filmmakers were made during the year. In 2004 the Gallery acquired the film O Tamaiti 1996 by Samoan/New Zealand filmmaker Sima Urale. Still life 2001 is an important acquisition for the Pacific collection and is another strong example of Urale’s work. It examines Western attitudes to ageing, and provides a strong contrast to O Tamaiti’s exploration of Samoan family life. The Gallery also acquired four films by internationally recognised Indian filmmaker Kumar Shahani — The Bamboo Flute 2000, Immanence 1991, Kasba 1990 and The Khayal Saga 1988. Shahani’s films draw on the historical literature of Indian civilisation, and explore the cultural memory of classical Indian art works, texts and objects. Kasba 1990 adapts the Chekhov short story, In the Hollow 1900, to an Indian context and employs the visual language of the tradition of miniature painting to explore themes of the industrialisation of India and the emancipation of women. DISPLAYING THE COLLECTION A variety of Collection displays during the year allowed audiences to appreciate the scope and depth of the Gallery’s collecting areas. Providing an insight into Australia’s colonial history was ‘Luminous: Watercolour Landscapes of the Federation Era’. This display focused on the era following Australia’s Federation in 1901, when the pastoral landscape became a symbol of strong national sentiment. It showcased the Gallery’s collection of Federation landscapes by artists including W Lister Lister and JJ Hilder. ‘Exposure: Australian Photography from the 1930s to the 1950s’ featured the work of photographers Max Dupain, Olive Cotton and Rose Simmonds. The exhibition explored the photographers’ responses to modern life, produced as Australia emerged from the devastation wrought by World War One and the Great Depression. ‘New Painting from the Contemporary Australian Collection’ showcased the strength of current painting by Australian artists employing contemporary approaches and media. Included were works by Hilarie Mais, Eugene Carchesio, Marion Borgelt, Louise Forthun and Jon Cattapan. Encompassing a variety of media, ‘New Acquisitions: Indigenous Australian Art’ presented works relating to dance and performance, as well as fibre works, Arnhem Land art, and paintings from the Central and Western Deserts. Highlights included works by the award-winning artist Gulumbu Yunupingu and celebrated fibre artist Lena Yarinkura. ‘Black Ink: Indigenous Prints from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’ presented highlights from the Gallery’s important collection of prints by Indigenous artists. Aboriginal artists began experimenting with printmaking in the late 1960s, many finding it a productive extension of existing practices such as engraving, carving, and incising designs onto ceremonial and utilitarian items. Korean–Japanese artist Lee Ufan is considered one of East Asia’s most significant artists, and the Gallery’s important holdings of his work were displayed in a Collection focus during the year. The display showcased a series of drawings and prints recently acquired by the Gallery, and included Relatum 2002, previously featured in APT 2002. As an artist, writer and philosopher, Lee explores the relationship between objects, ideas, consciousness and existence. In 2005, to celebrate the 100th birthday of Pablo Picasso’s La Belle Hollandaise 1905, the Gallery curated a Collection focus around this much-loved masterwork. La Belle Hollandaise was painted in the summer of 1905 when Picasso visited The Netherlands. The display also included four other works by the artist including an etching, drypoint, pencil and watercolour wash, and gouache wash. DOCUMENTING AND MANAGING THE COLLECTION The Registration section continued to provide support in the physical and legal management of the Gallery’s Collection and of the objects in the Gallery’s custody as loans, exhibitions and acquisition submissions. Work continued on the planning and preparation for the opening of the Gallery of Modern Art, including the Collection relocation project which began in earnest in January 2006. Some 52 objects were lent from the Collection to regional, national and international galleries for exhibition purposes. These included the loan of Camille Pissarro’s La lessive a Éràgny (Washing day at Éràgny) 1901 to the ‘Camille Pissarro Retrospective’ at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and National Gallery of Victoria (November 2005 – May 2006); and Rosemary Laing’s flight research #5 to the Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition ‘The Unquiet Landscapes of Rosemary Laing’, which travelled to the Kunsthallen Brandts Timothy Cook Australia b.1958, (Tiwi people) Jilamara, Milikapiti, Melville Island 2003 Natural pigments on canvas, 90 x 80cm The Xstrata Coal Indigenous Art Collection. Purchased 2005 with funds from Xstrata Coal through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation