Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

tlle ,...,,,. ounNt e11t/MIM ......NrlAltllllflllfflllludlJJ d1H1eiwlce11e,.. · The exhibition of 125 baud is display works includes paintings. prin– ts. drawings and sculptures acquired by purchase. gift', bequest •and loan by the trustees of the gallery in the past 12 months. In presenting the exhibition. Mr Justice Con· nolly, president of the h 'blt/o f It t trustees. said 1978 was a 1, n O S f8C8n ' significant year for the Queen· IM Bui/ding, Ann-St, ! sland Art Gallery in several ways. Most importantly. the con· struction of the new gallery as the first stage of the Queens– land Cultural Centre. got un• der way. Change In pollcy The building is expected to be .completed by June. 1981 . and the new gallery fully corn· mis.~ioned, ready for opening. in the first half or I 982. This has led to a re– examination of the acquisi· tions policy. taking into account the special needs or the collection in relation to the new ga llcry. "The policy or acquiring Australian works continues and there is also now an allocation or funds each year for the purchase or imponant works of non-Australian origin." Justice Connolly said. "This will expand a nucleus already in the collection with the aim of providing an educational as well as an aesthetically based collection. The range or aL'ltuisitions ror 1978 illustrates this policy. "In 1978. this policy resulted in a concentration on eighteenth century British painting. The purchase of two fine portraits by Sir Henry Racburn. a Sir Joshua Rcvnolds and an Allan Rarn· say complemented existing holdings in this area. Boucher work "An outstan ing European purchase is a red cha lk drawing by Francois Boucher or Venus wi1h 111·0 A morini. "Major addit ions to the contemporary Australian collection ind udc Brett Whitelcy's Por1:rai1 of A nh11r R/111/x111d. Noel Tunks' pain– ting f_ol'e in ldle11es~ and the sculpt11re Box by the young Australian Jo Steele." Justice C'onnoll} said that the establishment or the Trustees Purcha~e Exhibition. in lie11 or the annual Trustees· Prize. with an allocation in 1978 of SIS.000 will allow wide annual consideration for acquisition or current Australian painting. l.iif'ts to the collection have been substantial and a num– ber of thesc have been made with the new gallery in mind. Lady Trout"s generous gift or nine major works valued at S 134.000 is an important ad· dition to the Australian collec– tion. ·me artist Sidney Nolan personally presented 25 et· chings from his Dusi series. a significant gift. that rcficcts the interest artists arc a~o taking in tbc development or the gallery and its collection. The gift or Leonard French lithographs and drawing.~ in memory of Eleanor Patricia McCord and gifts by Norman Behan. Russell Cuppaidgc. Grace and Nell Davies. the Queensland Art Gallery Society and other benefactors. some anonymous. have great• ly enriched the collection and the trustees arc warmly ap· prcciative or this l'Ontinuing and growingsu1,por1. Gold replica A Sir Jacob Epstein bronze sculpture entitled Kilty. was bought with funds presented by Dr Norman Behan. The major purchase of the year and the major attraction or the exhibition is the' S20.000 Ponra/1 of Rimbaud. by Brett Whiteley. winner or the 1978 Archibald. Sulman and Wynne prizes. Six wooden panels in mixed media of oil. acrylic. collage and gold leaf comprise the portrait or the 19th century French poet. In Charlevllle Arthur Rimbaua was oorn in C'harlcvillc in 1854 and died in Marseilles in 1891 . The son or an army officer. who dcscrll.'d his wife and· family in 1860. he had an unhappy childhood due to his embittered mother"s harsh discipline. This may well explain the fact that his life and work arc characterised by a spirit .or rebellion and a desire. to es– cape. which first came to the surfaa: in 1870 when he was IS. Violently anti-clerical and Justice Connolly said that · anti-Christian. openly repub– thc presentation by Amatil lican in hi political sym– Ltd. of the gold replica or 1he pathies. he refused to sta y al Muisca Rafi in The Musco del school and ran away from hi Oro. Bogota. highlights one or home several times. the Gallery's most significa111 All this is rcnectcd in the activities in 1978. the astonishingly mature poems exhibition or W Dorado he wrote at that time. some or Colomhia11 Gold in July and which viciously attack anyone August. in authority. The Benson an<J Hedges This ranges from God. Company spo 1sored the Napoleon Ill and Mme Rim· exhibition. whic'1was seen hy haud 10 customs officers on more than s· .000 at the the nearby Belgian frontier Queensland Ari Gallery. and the local librarians. while ··The stu .:ess of this others dream or a different exhibition here ca n be world or total freedom . measured by the fact that the Quccnsl:1nd Art Gallery at– tained 99.1 per cent or the budgctted attendance for the exhibition and IOI . 7 per cent or the hudgct1cd financial takings," Justice Connolly said. "This adherence to a budget set by the Corporation organising the cxhibi1io11 was an achievement significantly exceeding the perfornrnncc at any other gallery at which £/ Dorado was shown." The complete set uf' 25 et• chlngs from Sidney Nolan's D11~1 series. workl'CI from cop• per plate on mould made parx:r. arc based on drawing, from The Dro11gh1 Beyond Wordfof 1952. First poems In 1871 . in Charlcvillc. he wrote his first prose poems and the f_eures du Voya/11 and sent to the poet Vcrlainc a copy or his poem, Lo &11!011 /Vrt'. Verlainc was enthusiastic and encouraged Rimbaud to go to Paris. Rimbaud served in the ar– myol the Commune and after its l'all went abroad with Verlainc. After one of 11,,:ir quarrels. he wa shot in the wrist by Vcrlaine. who was imprisoned for two years. In his le11res du Voyant Rimbaud had claimed it wa~ the 11oet's dut y to sharpen his perception by submitting him· self to every kind or ex· pericnce and then to transmit what he perceived directly, without any conscious con• trol. He wanted. as he said in Mati11ee d'lvresse, to get rid or the concept of good and evil. He and Verlainc tried to live according to a new moral code, or.rather amoral oode, hoping to cteatc a diffcrcnf world, which was to be ex• pressed through a different kind or poetry with complete freedom or form. In 1873, Rim'baud wrote Une Saison en En[er IA Season in Hclll. which 1s an of– ten obscure. but nevertheless vivid and com1x:lling prose, proclaiming the collapse or his hope or achieving either or his aims. He biucrly conceded that he had spent a season in h~II rather than a season m heaven. It is the imagery in this poem or Rimbaud s. which Bretl Whiteley has included in his portrait of the poet. Lona wanderer At the age or 19. after par– ting from Vcrlainc, Rimbaud ahnndoncd writing altogether and in a sense he a~o aban· doncd life. or at lcust society, and became II solitary wan– derer. He eventually sculed in Abyssinia. where he engaged in exploring. gun-running and trading. He died in hospital in Mar• scillcs at the age or 37. unin· !crested in 1he extraordinary reputation he had acquired ar- 1cr Verlainc had written an c_~say on him in 1884 and published R imbaud's ll/11111/1101io11.1 1886. His innuence is probably responsible in no small measure for the increasing rcadi ,ie.ss or the twentieth ccn• tury to allow the artist to crca1c his own mode of ex– pression. instead or con• forming to an accepted pat– tern. Art on display Some excellent' Hample • of bark painting from the Gunwlnggu tribe, f r om Oenpelll In West Amh•m Land, are now on show at the OuNnsland Art Gallery. Strolllng through the gallery last week I ran Into a number of fas– cinated browsers fnclud– lng Rupert Coehrane, Dr Gertrude Lanier, Roland Nanearrow, Steve Fuaa, Cathy Mewes, Ian Bell, Susan Crowley, Phil Balley, Terri Friend, Qua and LIiy RolllDIOD, June Moffat, Dorian Weeka, Henry Jones, Val Cooke, Julie Smith and Kevin MIies. The exhibition was put together by the Aborlg• lnal Arts Board of the Australian Council nnd will continue until Feb– ruary 28.