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

World art at opening (See previous page) QUEENSLAND Art Gallery is conclud– ing negotiations for a major series of exhibitions for the opening of the n~w Art Gallery next March and for the period of the Commonwealth Games in October next year. Gallery director Mr Raoul Mellish said the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation would loan five great tapestries by the famous French artist Jean Lurcat. These are some of the tapestries displayed in St John's Cathedral in the early Seventies when the Queensland Art Gallery was closed. The Stuyvesant Foundation would • lso sponsor a major exhibition by Knndinsky, one of the great abstract painters, from the Guggenheim Collection in New York. Another exhibition would be of Renaissance .bronze sculptures together with related drawings and engravings from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Ashmolcan Museum in Oxford. Another would be an exhibition, "Town, Country, Shore and Sea", tracing development of English watcrcolor painting from Sir Anthony Van Dyck up to contemporary times from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Mr Mellish said that one of the most important exhibitions for the opening would be the Tokugawa Exhibition of Japanese art from one of the greatest private collections in Japan, belonging to the Tokugawa family. It will be sponsored by MIM and CRA. He said that during the Commonwealth Games the aim would be to display some of the best Australian art and craftsmanship. The Australian Gallery Directors Council will present Aboriginal Australia, a major exhibition of Aboriginal paintings, anifacts and totemic carvings. The Queensland Art Gallery, assisted by the Crafts Board of ·the Australia Council, is conducting a survey of contemporary craft for. a display during the Games. Mr Mellish said: "We arc also trying to organise other special exhibitions for the Games, including an exhibition of tapestries from the Victorian Tapestries Workshop. "There may nlso be important exhibitions in conjunction with the International Cultural Corporation."