Page 114 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sydney

112  SY DNEY AREA B Y AREA

Exploring the
Art Gallery’s Collection

Although local works had been collected since 1875, the
gallery did not seriously begin seeking Australian and
non-British art until the 1920s, and not until the 1940s
did it begin acquiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
paintings. These contrasting collections are now its great
strength. Major temporary exhibitions are also regularly
staged, with the annual Archibald, Wynne and Sulman
prizes being most controversial and highly entertaining.

myths of early Australian history, Chaucer at the Court of Edward III (1847–51),
Australian Art and range from Boy in Township by Ford Madox Brown
Among the most important (1943) to Burke (c.1962). There
Colonial works is John Glover’s are fine holdings by Thea Edward III (1847–51) is the
Natives on the Ouse River, Proctor, William Dobell and most commanding work in
Van Diemen’s Land (1838), Russell Drysdale, as well as the Pre-Raphaelite collection.
an idealised image of Aboriginal important works of Arthur Boyd, The Impressionists and Post-
people in a landscape unsullied Fred Williams, Robert Klippel, Impressionists are represented by
by European contact. Ian Fairweather and Brett late 1880s Pissarro and Monet,
The old wing holds paintings Whiteley (see p132). Kandinsky, Braque and many
from the Heidelberg School of other well-known European
Australian Impressionism. Charles artists. Mother and Daughter
Conder’s Departure of the Orient – European Art (1946) by Max Beckmann and
Circular Quay (1888) and Tom The scope of the scattered Three Bathers (1913) by Ernst
Robert’s The Golden Fleece – European collection ranges Ludwig Kirchner are examples
Shearing at Newstead (1894) from Medieval to mod ern art. of German Expressionism. The
hang along side fine works British art from the late 19th to gallery’s first Picasso, Nude in a
by Frederick McCubbin and the early 20th centuries forms Rocking Chair (1956), was pur-
Arthur Streeton. Rupert Bunny’s an outstanding component. chased in 1981. Among the dis-
sensuous Summer Time (c.1907) Among the Old Masters are tinguished sculptures on show
and A Summer Morning (c.1908), some significant Italian works that is Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure:
and George Lambert’s heroic reflect Caravaggio’s influence. Angles (1980), which is displayed
Across the Black Soil Plains (1899), There are also several notable by the side of the entrance.
impress with their huge size works from the Renaissance in
and complex compositions. Sienese and Florentine styles. Photography
There is also a significant Hogarth, Turner and Joshua
collection of Australian Modernist Reynolds are represented, as Australian photography,
works, including the iconic are Neo-Classical works. The represented in all its various
Implement Blue (1927) by Visit of the Queen of Sheba to forms, is a major part of the
Margaret Preston and The Curve King Solomon (1884–90) by collection. There are over 5,000
of the Bridge (1928–9) by Grace Edward Poynter has been on prints, from 19th-century works
Cossington Smith. The Gallery’s display since 1892. Ford Madox by the likes of Charles Kerry and
paintings by Sidney Nolan exploit Brown’s Chaucer at the Court of Charles Bayliss to fine examples
of 20th-century Pictorialism by
Harold Cazneaux, Norman C Deck
and many others. The collection
further traces the development
of Modernist photography
through the works of Olive
Cotton, Max Dupain and their
peers, while also showcasing
the innovative approaches to
the medium of contemporary
practitioners like Tracey Moffatt,
Anne Ferran, Rosemary Laing
and Pat Brassington. Major
international figures such as
Eadweard Muybridge, Robert
Brett Whiteley’s vivid The balcony 2 from 1975 Mapplethorpe, Dorothea Lange,

112-113_EW_Sydney.indd 112 29/05/17 12:16 pm