International prints, drawings
multiples and illustrated books
Introduction
Josef Albers White line square XI from White line squares 1966, planographic, Collection of the National Gallery of Australia © Josef Albers. Licensed by Bild-Kunst & VISCOPY, Australia more detail
The Collection of International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books encompasses the history of the major exponents, schools and movements in Western Art from the late 18th century to the present day.
International prints embrace the dominant cultures from Europe and America. Where printmaking has been a powerful influence or has developed significant forms elsewhere, the interrelationship is also represented in the collection. Overall, the collection has developed as a stand alone entity, as well as a complement and supplement to other International and Asian Collections of painting, sculpture and the decorative arts, and to provide a context to some aspects of Australian art.
The International Print collection was founded in 1972 with the purchase of the Felix Man Collection of lithographs acquired by the German photographer, collector and art historian, Felix Man. The turn of the century date for collecting also coincides with the birth of lithography.
In 1973 a major collection of over 600 prints and multiples from Gemini GEL was acquired from printer-publisher Kenneth Tyler. This formed the basis of a major post-war collection of works by significant artists working in the United States of America from the mid-1960s, including Josef Albers, Jasper Johns, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and others.
These two major acquisitions formed the basis of what is now a major collection of modern prints, drawings and illustrated books.
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Related exhibitions
After image:screenprints of Andy Warhol
Against the grain: Helen Frankenthaler woodcuts
An artist abroad: the prints of James McNeill Whistler
Dance hall days: French posters from Chéret to Toulouse-Lautrec
First impressions the early history of lithography – a comparative survey
Matisse: the art of drawing
Monet & Japan
Picasso & The Vollard Suite
Printed light: photographic vision and the modern print
Robert Rauschenberg 1967–1978
Read my lips: Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman
Rough cuts: European figurative prints from Gauguin to Paladino
Rosenquist: Welcome to the water planet
Sean Scully: body of light
Secession: modern art and design in Austria & Germany 1890s–1920s
Sol LeWitt: drawings, prints and books 1968-1988
Stella & Tyler: masterworks in print
The big Americans: the art of collaboration
The Book of Kells & the art of illumination
The universal soldier: John Walker's Passing Bells
War: The prints of Otto Dix
Recent publications
all works are National Gallery of Australia publications unless otherwise stated
An artist abroad: the prints of James McNeill Whistler Jane Kinsman, 2005
Building the collection Pauline Green, editor, 2003
Douglas Annand: the art of life Anne McDonald, 2001
Monet and Japan, 2001
Sean Scully: body of light, 2004
Secession: modern art and design in Austria and Germany 1890s–1920s, Christine Dixon, 2000
The big Americans: the art of collaboration, Jane Kinsman, 2002
for more National Gallery of Australia publications visit the library catalogue online
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