AGNSW_AnnRep_00 full.pdf - Parliament of New South Wales ...

YEAR IN REVIEW
Art works worth more than $5.2 million were purchased and given to the Art
Gallery this year. Two of the major acquisitions are My Garden by Fred Williams
and The Plain of Musashi, Japanese screens by an unknown artist. Generous
contributions by individuals, the Art Gallery Foundation and the Art Gallery Society
helped boost the acquisitions fund which has reached a total of $75.6 million
over the past nine years.
COLLECTIONS
The Australian Collection Focus series has given a
high profile to important works in the collection,
provided a popular attraction and demonstrated the skills
of conservation staff through their involvement with the
scientific examination and analysis of material. For the
second year running an Art Gallery officer was named
national conservator of the year.
Australian Art
Acquisitions this year have addressed historical
aspects of the collection, especially early to mid 20th
century painting. Fred Williams’ My Garden 1965-67 is a
work painted in direct response to Tom Roberts’ Bailed Up,
underlining Williams’ strong allegiance to the traditions of
Australian art. It brings to the Art Gallery one of the artist’s
greatest works from a period previously unrepresented.
John Olsen’s Five Bells 1963 is another highlight,
allowing the Art Gallery to represent Olsen’s passion for
Sydney Harbour in a magnificent outpouring of exuberance.
Based on the subject of Kenneth Slessor’s poem Five Bells,
this painting is a precursor to Olsen’s huge mural, Salute
to Five Bells, painted for the Sydney Opera House a
decade later.
The third major purchase, Ian Fairweather’s The Pool
8
1959, is of singular importance for its indebtedness to
Cézanne: there is nothing in the collection which
compares with its cool, dark, tropical mood. A rare
painting from Brett Whiteley’s 1963-64 bathroom series
was bought from the Mertz collection.
Significant purchases of works on paper included a
suite of 40 etchings entitled Forty Pages from Antartica
1988 by Bea Maddocks, a pioneer in photo-etching in
Australia, and John Olsen’s drawing Flathead and Fish
1999.
Amongst numerous gifts were Fred Williams’ The
River, Werribee Gorge 1977, given by Lyn Williams, and
Metropolis 1999, a masterwork of Rosalie Gascoigne’s
retro-reflective assemblages, given by the artist just before
her sudden death. The Australian sculpture collection
benefited substantially from gifts, in particular Rayner
Hoff’s Aboriginal Head 1925, given by Sam and Heather
Ure-Smith and Rosemary Madigan’s Group of Three
Figures, given by Peta Phillips.
Salvatore Zofrea gave 100 woodcuts comprising his
Appassionata suite, along with the drawings used to
prepare them. Gwen Frolich gave an important early
‘schoolgirl’ drawing by Charles Blackman; Alan and
Jancis Rees gave a number of early etchings by Lloyd Rees
from the Memories of Europe series, 1975.