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

., ,. I Courier-Mail 18 March 1982 ,, •>f• l I . i EDWARD HOPPER'S ''Light at Two Lights", one ot the paintings ft:om the Whitney Ruseum collection to be In the retrospective exhibition at the new Queensland Art Gallery later this year. Brisbane -'coup' hailed MS GAil, LEVIN, curator of the Art Hopper Collection at New York's - ; Whitney Museum of American 15 drawings and 15 prints are valued Art, was enthualastlc. ~J•!iwlir.:o~r~e~~~~~~::-;;::-;;-:;::, 7 s n flew to Brisbane for a daJ "To have two show:lnp from two of the most lmport&nt &rt g&llerles In the world Is quite a coup for Brisbane.'' she said. "I'm trying to Imagine what wlll be left on M&nhattan Isl&nd when they will be In Queensland." Ms Levin waa spe&klng this week while visiting the &!most-completed Queensland Art Gallery In the new cultural compleic to check facilities for the exhibition of Edward Hopper paintings. . They will be among the first show– ings at the gallery. The opening exhibition on June 22 ill be a· combination of five major . nternatlonal collections. There will be the Kandlnskl Collec– lon from New York's Guggenheim useum; "Town, Country, Shore and Sea" from the FltzWllllam (Cam– bridge University) Collection; Renala– sance Bronzes from the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) and Ash– molean Museum <Oxford University), · the Idemitsu Collection from Tokyo, and the Hopper exhibition from the Whitney. Hopper, who died In 1967, Is one of the major contemporary American realists. His work Is popular and receives fa• vorable criticism, so much so that at– tendance records for exhibitions In the last two years were broken ln London, Amsterdam, West Germany, Chicago and San Francisco galleries, Currenlly at the Adelaide Arts Fes– tival, the exhibition Is so popular that the catalogue was reprinted after 10,000 people hnd poured In to see the collection in eight days, Deputy director of the South Aus– trnllan Art Gallery. Mr Ron Apple– yard. said 35,000 people were expected to see t.he collccllon In Its four-week showing. "This is a good attendance figure for I\ fcstiral period." he said. "The num– bers were qu ite unexpected," The 50 oil paintings, 17 watercolora. to survey the new gallery which will house the works for four weeks, spon• &0red by the Philip Morris Arts Grant. She said: "The Queensland Art Gallery Is top-rate, compared with anything rve seen In the world.. "I didn't expect to see galleries like this in Australia, with such pro!es– &lonal staff." naswen oo on Hopper's life and art and Is work– ing on a four-volume work, "Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Ralsonne," to be published next year. The works are the first to come to Australia. from the Whitney ~u~eum, which has nearly 300 Hopper works - the largest In the world. His widow, an actress turned artist. bequeathed them to the museum. The museum was founded In 1930 by wealthy American sculptress Ger– trude Vanderbilt-Whitney, who helped ·build an acceptance or Ameri– can art In Europe b)' patronising American art sales and exhibitions on the Continent. · She also paid for American artists to work or study In Europe, then the art centre of the world. Ms Levin described Hopper's work: "His introspective figures with a quiet mood have a strong appeal to the contemporary mind, with the reflec– tive times we are living In. "He was a keen obser\'er or malnlv city life, and became Increasingly pes·– slmlstlc. He was Influenced by Holly– wood films, with some of his paintings looking like a slice from a film . Ms Levin organised the tour of the collection to the National Gallerv of Victoria and the Art Gallery of N·sw, as well as Queensland and South Aus– tralia. She has lectured widely and wrlltcn many articles on modern American and European art. She was visiting assistant professor at the City University of New York in 1979-1980, - SUSAN CULLINA:'i ..