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

,. ' The Sunday Mail 20 June 19 82 Knockers. Are they just a 10th Century phenomenon or have they always been around? I wonder if they were in existence when Westminster Abbey was being built, for instance. Or the Palaco or Versailles. Or St Peter'• Builica in Rome. If people were anything like tlicy arc today, they would have been muttering about the ugliness of the edifices the buildcn of the day were producing. They would have been criticising the design and complaining something like Westminster Abbey was a blot on the Jandsape before the Great West Door wu completed. ' So today we have the people who knock anything on sight and before they know anything about it. They're a bit like the rent-a-crowd mob. Rent a knocker and they'll knock anything on cue. They criticised the Qµeensland Art Gallery while it was nothinJ more than a concrete shell. · "Too much concrete," they said. ignor• fog the fact that there were floors to go in ~ nd water malls and lightina and every• hing else needed to tranaform it from a buildina site to a magnificent gallery. . The Queen Street Mall takes the cake. lt is being knocked before it's even possi– ble to tell what it will be like. Of course, it looks a bit of a mess at the moment, with uneven paving and lots of concrete everywhere. But why criticise it? It's all so negative when it's so much easier to be positive. It depends how you look on life. Bris– bane at this very moment can be regarded as the most exciting city in Australia or the biggest disaster area in the world out• · aide Port Stanley and Beirut. The holes in the ground, the unfinished buildings should be a cauae for exci te– ment. We're living in a happening cit). lt'a throbbing with life and potential. Those who can't see that should go and live somewhere else. A great day for Queensland Tomorrow Is one or the days which makes it great to be a Queenslander. There arc lots of things which contrib– \Jlc, of course, like the weather which is so 11lorious, especially during the week, when nobody really cares. Andfhc beaches which are the.envy of evcrytourisl resort in the world which has tried to do somelh ing exotic with a pile of grcyS311d. ,J>I~~ the place itself, with its un1old 'Wealt,h .~d beneath the biggest sky you evup9!. · Tomorrow the impoasible will happen . . Queensland will become even better.The j ~rt Gallery, the fin;( stage of the ~ueens• Sour grapes spoil taste of our ve.ntures. land Cultural Centre will be open for bu~incss. . The Premier, Mr ,Bjel~e-Petenen, will declare it open al 2.30, p.m. and from then on, it belongs to everybody. First there will be 'the fireworks which will burst over the city in ccleSration. Then come the e11hibjtions, five of them, opening over the next couple of weeks. The "Kandinsky" is the first, on loan from the Guggenheim in New York and to be opened on Tuesday by the Chief Justice, Sir Walter Campbell. in his role · as Deputy Governor of Queensland. On Wednesday, the Premier will open the Japanese Idemitsu collection. On Thursday, Professor Michael Jaffe, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum , CambridLc, will open an exhibition of British drawings from Van Dyck to Nash. The Italian Ambassador to Australia, Mr Sergio Angclelli, will open the exhibi– tion of Renaissance bronzes from the Vic– toria and Albert Museum, London, on June 30. Then on July I comes "The World of Edward Hopper" exhibition organised by the Whhney Museum of American Art in 'New York. After that we all will be in need of ; do.~c of rest and recuperation. Unless one is actually in one of the great art centres of the world, it's rare to be able to sec so much in so short a space of time. It's all too much, but at the ~.me time quite wonderful. The gallery is the first. After it comes the inaugural season of the Lyric Opera, which promises to be superb and already has had great success with its subscri - lion sales.Then it's time for the the Com– monwealth Games. Anybody who leaves Qucensla nd over the next few months is mad. There will not be anything to equal it anywhere in the world. What art to find a name The saga or what name to give to the Performing Arts Complex contin~ ues, My suggestion of calling it the Bris– bane Opera House didn't go down all that well because it's supposed to be a Queensland thing. The fear is that the word "Brisbane" might make it too pa– rochial and not broad enough. There arc people who think it sl1ould be called the Melba Centre, after the great soptano of Victorian times. Oth– ers would like it to be called after the great Queensland musical comedy star Oladys Moncrieff. The theatre centre could be called \he Sutherland centre after Dame Joan Sutherland.At least the South Bank seems to have been accepted as a name for the area where the Art Gallery and Performing Arts Compfox arc situated. Now a name has tl\J:>c found for the theatre complex . London's Cov ent Garden opera house was named after a vegetable and nower market. New York's is nothing_ more splendid than the Met or Metro– politan Opera House. Whatever name is chosen has to be simple and needs impact. And what's more. needs to be easily identifiable with the area it's in. Suggestions please.