Page 119 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

BO T ANIC GARDEN AND THE DOM AIN  117

Asian Art
The Asian collections offer one
of the largest pan-Asian
displays of art in the southern
hemisphere, including exquisite
calligraphy, traditional and
modern paintings, textiles,
porcelain and an extraordinary
legacy of Buddhist art. The
galleries occupy two levels;
the lower level displays the
art of East Asia – China, Korea
and Japan; the upper level
displays the art of South
and Southeast Asia and chang- Il Porcellino, the bronze boar in front of Sydney Hospital
ing exhibitions. The upper
gallery is housed within a 0Sydney Hospital the friendship between Italy
white glass pavilion, inspired Macquarie St. Map 1 C4. Tel (02) 9382 and Australia. Like his Florentine
by floating lanterns typically 7111. @ Sydney Explorer, Elizabeth St counterpart, Il Porcellino is
found in Asia. The lower one routes.  Martin Place. Open daily. supposed to bring good luck
includes a fully operational & for tours. 7 8 book in advance. to all those who rub his snout.
Japanese tearoom. Coins tossed in the pool at his
This imposing collection of feet for luck and fortune are
Victorian sandstone buildings collected for the hospital.
stands on the site of what was
once the central section of the
original convict-built Sydney qThe Mint
Hospital. It was known locally as 10 Macquarie St. Map 1 C5. Tel (02) 8239
the Rum Hospital because the 2288. @ Sydney Explorer, Elizabeth St
builders were paid by being routes.  St James, Martin Place. Open
allowed to import rum for 9am–5pm Mon–Fri. Closed Good Fri,
resale. Both the north and south 25 Dec. 7 ground floor only. -
wings of the Rum Hospital ∑ sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/
survive as Parliament House (see the-mint
p113) and the Sydney Mint. The
central wing was demolished in The gold rushes of the mid-19th
1879 and the new hospital, century transformed colonial
Amitabha Buddha, dating from between which is still operational, was Australia (see pp58–9). The
the late 8th and the mid-9th centuries completed in 1894. Sydney Mint opened in 1854
The Classical Revival building in the south wing of the Rum
boasts a Baroque staircase and Hospital in order to turn
Contemporary Art elegant stained-glass windows recently discovered gold into
The Art Gallery of NSW has a in its central hall. bullion and currency.
long-standing history of collec- Florence Nightingale This was the first branch
ting the art of its day. In 1979, it approved the design of of the Royal Mint to be
was the first Australian art the 1867 nurses’ wing. established outside
museum to appoint a curator of In the inner courtyard, London, but it was
contemporary art. This collection there is a brightly closed in 1927 as it was
encompasses works in all media coloured Art Deco no longer competitive
by artists from Australia and fountain (1907), with the mints in
across the globe, including Fiona somewhat out of Melbourne (see p391)
Hall, Bill Henson, Anish Kapoor, place among the and Perth (see p309).
Louise Bourgeois and Ai Weiwei. surrounding heavy The Georgian building
The Gallery holds Australia’s most stonework. then went into decline
comprehensive representation At the front of the Stained glass at after it was converted
of art from the 1960s to the hospital sits a bronze Sydney Hospital into government offices.
present day. From pivotal new boar called Il Porcellino. The Mint’s artifacts are
acquisitions to collection It is a replica of a 17th-century now in the Powerhouse Museum
favourites, the gallery’s rotating fountain in Florence’s Mercato (see pp106–7). The head office
exhibitions have a sense of Nuovo. Donated in 1968 by an of the Historic Houses Trust of
experimentation and energy, Italian woman whose relatives NSW is now located here and
offering visitors fresh perspec- had worked at the hospital, the you can look through the front
tives on the art of our time. statue is an enduring symbol of part of the building.