Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

Artlink Adelaide Brisbane Races Ahead Adelaidt• has li1•1•n justifiably proud of its nrt facilitiC's in both lh<' performing and ,·i~ual arts, but wilh the open ing of the first stag,• of the Queensland Cultural ent re , the new Queensland Art Gallery. Brisba ne has left its southern sist,•r. Adelaiclt'. for dead in visual :irt spaces, and by 1984 will outpar,• with its new r-tuseum and Per· formin/.' .-\n~ L'umplcx . Prinr 10 till' opening of th<' (jueens· land .-\n (iall1•ry. 13risbune could al· ready boast impressive spact:s displayi ng visual art •- th,• Brisbane Civic Art Galler.,· and '.\lu sc um. and the lnstitu•l• of r.tod,•rn A rt. In addition there is the well ,•s talil i-. lwd Art Museum at the Uni,·crsi l." ,if queen~land. with a roll1 °l·ti..11 ,11 ••\"\·r 1000 \\'Ork s and a tra,·,•liini! l'Xhihition programme (the lini, ,·r,i 1.,· of Qu,•ensland. incidentally. ha s irnprl'se-i,·e and publicly outgoing :'vlus,•11111,- of .-\nthropology. Antiquities and Gi>olog_, as well J. Tlw nrishane Ci\'k Art Gallery and '.\-luseum is fund ed by the Bris bane City Council and housed in a smartlv refur• bishcd wing of the City Hall. \\'ith an area of about one·quarter the size of the Art Gallery of S .A.. the Bris bane Civic Gnll,•ry !ias its own collection of con• tc111p,1ra1y art hy Urcll \\'hitch.')' . LmHcnce Daws. Keith Looby. and others as wC'll ai- interesting local ceramics. and assorted historical material- - portraits of Mayors, photo• graphs. elc. In addition, the Gallery has spaces for temporary exhibitions (such as a display of the later works of Lloyd Rees in July/August 1982); and an ·artists' gallery' across the City Hall foyer which seems to be available for Performing Arts Complex use by outsiders tdurinl-( ,Julv 1982 it housed a Holoca11st ex hibiti~n bv the .Jewish community). There is a c;1ralor/ director employed full lime to run lhl' Gallery, as well a,- allcndunts. A remarkable civic projecl which sets an example to City Counci ls around Australia . The I nstitule of Modl•rn Art ol'Cupit•s an allracli\'e building of the IHli0s in the bus iness district of Urisbane Iacross the road from the city's larges t glittering skyscraper in Market Strccll. It is a spartan hul nc,·crtheless allractive Gallery. with two wcll•lit floors displaying. for example. a pro• vocative exhibition of photographs h_y C,,nadians. Cami CondC' and Karl llt·,·cridgl' in .July l!l:i:? 111111• nf their WIJrk,; i,- written up in tilt' nrnl-(azine .:\rt .\'1' /tf'llr/1 '.\ o. :, nf 198:L J. The new Qupensland An (j a llen· 111akes the An Gallery of S .A . look downright poky . .-\ rather indifferent building from the outside. the intl'rior pro\'ides an intNesting _iuxtnp,,si tiun 11f the art of architecture and tlw \'isual arts displayed. The Gallcr_v·s runtcm· porary collections look Pxcdlcnt in lhc light. airy setting. With buildings aho11t twice lhe ,.,ize of tht• Art tialJpn· of South Australia . the (lueensla,;d ,\rt Gallery has collections ahout I :l per cent the size of Adelaide 's! Noticeable in the Queensland collections. however. are works by European modern masters, such as Vlaminck. Picasso, Degas, Renoir and others, plus a sprink • ling of old masters - Rubens, Tintoretto and Van Dyck to name several. If the overall standards of works in the Queensland collections doesn't come up Fril'ncls of Lht> Art. Ualll'ry of SA Lo quite the same hil-(h level of Adelaicl1•s. the work s ttn• cC' rtainl_v getting better trnatmcnt in terms of g1inerous display spaces. Anolher nuteworlhy Queensland ini tia tive in the rnllurnl area is a monthly Q11cc11sla11d C11/t11ml Diarv published by the Government Offi~l' ,,f Cultural Activities. This mini maga1.i1w uf 30 pages is posted lo anyone req uC'st · ing it monthly free of charge. It lis ts theatre, ballet, music, arl and crafts. literary events. film screenings, mu seums . historical buildings. fci,ti,·ak arts competitions, workshop,;, sem inars. elc. , as well as including s1wciul artil'11•~ and general notes . Producrd bv a staff of three , the Oiary even ha s t ,;.n Europi•an correspondents! It miiht be thought that all of this acti,·it~· is rPccnl nnd the re?-ult of u newly booming state economy . In rcalil_v most of it rl•presenls a long t•stablishcd process. Till' Qu,•ensland ,\rt Gnllery is the fruit of decades of planning, the 13risham• Civil' Art Gallrry and Museum ha s been t•~tnhlished for years and was simply impm,·C'd back in 197i. whilst the Queen ·land Cultural Diary has ht•l'l1 guing for o,·er n dPcnde . Sirnilarl,· . t h1 · 111st itute of '.\·lode rn :\rt is ll\· 11,; 1111•,trb a rerently established organisation. and the Uni versity of queen~land was the firsl Australian Universitv to collect Australian works of arl. For a city of almost equivalent si1.e lo Adelaide, Brisbane presents a better complexion than might be imagined on close examination. D Library l \ ,