Federation
Australian Art & Society
8 December 2000 – 11 February 2001

Federation juxtaposed familiar icons of Australian art alongside unusual and little-known works to chart the growth of a distinctively Australian culture. It featured landscapes and people, wars and celebrations, natural disasters and favourite pastimes.

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Lost in Space
12 August 2000 – 25 March 2001





The children's exhibition Lost in Space is a world of cosmic shapes, flying cars, martians, twinkling stars, astronauts, space monsters, sparkling comets, lunar landscapes and the infinite blackness of space. Artists take up their paint, pencils, paper, prints, film, camera, metal and clay to give shape to their vision of space. Visit the interactive Lost in Space subsite and links to other related sites. Meet the challenge of the children's trail and enjoy the wonder of Space.

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detail: Greg Bell 'Every man Searching' 1985 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

Painting Forever
Tony Tuckson
4 November 2000 – 4 February 2001

The first major survey of Tony Tuckson's work since 1976, Painting Forever charts the progression of Tuckson as an artist from prominent student of naturalist watercolours and post-war murals to pre-eminent abstract expressionist. Painting Forever is weighted towards the latter half of the artist's 30-year career and includes paintings, drawings, sketchbooks and photographic ephemera, balancing the most radical, extreme and beautiful late paintings and drawings with his earlier works.

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detail: Tony Tuckson 'White over red on blue' c.1971 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

Going to Extremes
George Silk, photojournalist
12 August – 12 November 2000

For the 2000 Olympics, the National Gallery will honour the New Zealand-born photojournalist George Silk (b.1916) now retired and living in Connecticut, USA. This retrospective will show works throughout his career from the 1930s to the 1970s. During WW11 Silk served as a combat photographer for the Australian Forces and then for Life magazine. After the war Silk remained with Life and by the 1960s had gained international recognition as one of the most innovative and daring sports and action photographers of his time. Time Inc. is a major sponsor of the Silk exhibition.

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detail: George Silk 'Gretel and Weatherly, off Newport, America's Cup trials' 1962 © George Silk

Aboriginal Art in Modern worlds
8 September – 8 November 2000

The return of the National Gallery of Australia's major exhibition of Aboriginal Art after its tour to major galleries in Switzerland, Germany and Russia. The exhibition features a selection of work by important individual artists of the modern era and two collaborative works, including the Aboriginal Memorial. The artists featured are at the very frontier of the interaction between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures, and include Rover Thomas, Emily Kam Kngwarray, John Mawurndjul, Nym Bandak, Tracey Moffatt and Fiona Foley. This will be the Gallery's major exhibition during the Olympics.

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Tracey Moffatt 'Something more' 1989 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

Uncommon World
Aspects of Contemporary Australian Art
15 July – 22 October 2000

An eclectic and challenging selection of recent Australian art reflects the pluralism of the contemporary field. The exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, prints, photographs, decorative arts and installations drawn from the National Gallery's collection supplemented with important loans from artists and other public and private collections. Uncommon World provides the visitor with a point of departure from which to explore and navigate a fascinating path across the topography of contemporary Australian art.

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detail: Peter Atkins 'Journal 1999, (Sydney, Auckland, Melbourne, Mexico City)' 1999

Armidale '42
Memory and Imagination
4 August – 1 October 2000

When, on 1 December 1942, HMAS Armidale succumbed to air attack and sank into the depths of the Timor Trench, no-one was immediately aware of the sudden loss of 100 lives and the dire plight of the survivors who were cast into the Arafura Sea. Obscured for many years, details of the story have entered the public annals of naval history only relatively recently. Armidale ’42: Memory and Imagination commemorates this story of bravery and endurance. Jan Senbergs, who has frequently interpreted Australian history through series of works, has created the Armidale ‘42 series in collaboration with one of the survivors, the architect Col Madigan (whose firm Edwards, Madigan, Torzillo & Briggs Pty Ltd, designed the National Gallery of Australia and the High Court of Australia buildings).

detail:Jan Senbergs 'The Attack' 1998 Collection of the artist

Re-take
Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Photography






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image: Brook Andrew 'I split your gaze' 1998 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

The Europeans
Emigré Artists in Australia 1930–1960

The Europeans exhibition recognises the contribution made to the visual arts in Australia by the European émigrés who settled here during the period 1930 to 1960. They brought with them different traditions, values and experiences that, together with the work they produced and the works of art they brought with them, were to have a profound effect on Australian practice, and culture in general.

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detail: Wolfgang Seivers Designer 'Gerhard Herbst holding his 'Prestige' material, red Bluff' 1950 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

Inside Out
New Chinese Art
3 June – 13 August 2000

The exhibition explores the many ways in which the challenges of recent social, economic and cultural changes have confronted artists in mainland China and the Chinese diaspora - Hong Kong, Taiwan, and those who have emigrated to the West since the late 1980s. Inside Out presents an astonishing body of art - confronting, clever, mysterious, elegant and always thought-provoking – across the widest range of artistic media.

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detail: Zhang Huan 'To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond' Performance at Nanmofang fishpond Beijing August 15 1997

Secession
Modern art and design in Austria & Germany 1890s–1920s
6 May – 6 August 2000

The revolution in art and design that occurred in Austria and Germany at the end of the 19th century is shown in a collection of posters, prints, drawings, books, glass, ceramics, objects and textiles created between 1890 and 1920.

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detail: Berthold Löffler 'Festival of homage to the Emperor' 1908

Eye Spy
14 April – 30 July 2000

Eye spy is an exhibition that challenges children to seek out the wonders contained in works of art. There will be hundreds of works displayed in a visual menagerie to be explored by children as they attempt to find the clues.

Keeping Culture
25 March – 27 July 2000

Keeping Culture combines an exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal Art, which will travel to regional Aboriginal keeping places and cultural centres, with an internship program for regional indigenous curators. Keeping Culture showcases some of the exemplary art and craft of Aboriginal people.The Aboriginal community is the key audience, one that is rarely targeted by public institutions.

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detail: Ellen Trevorrow 1955 Ngarrindjeri people 'Sister Basket' 1999

The Book of Kells
& The Art of Illumination
25 February – 7 May 2000

Ireland's greatest national treasure, produced by Irish monks in about 800AD, is one of the most splendid illuminated manuscripts in European art. The Gospel books are interspersed with large illuminated pages, and through the text pages runs the constant coloured arabesque of animated initials and representations of fantastic elongated beasts.

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detail: 'Book of Kells, St Marks Gospel' fol. 129v Trinity College Library Dublin © The Board of Trinity College Dublin

Revealing the Holy Land
The Photographic Exploration of Palestine
25 February – 7 May 2000

Revealing the Holy Land marks the second millennium of Christianity and will complement The Book of Kells exhibition with images taken in Palestine during the period between 1850 and 1880, often described as the golden age of travel and expedition photography.

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detail: Sergeant James McDonald 'Archway on the Ascent to Jebel Músá at Which Pilgrims Were Formerly Confessed' 1868-1869

The Universal Soldier
John Walker's Passing Bells
22 Jan – 30 Apr 2000

The exhibition concentrates on a single recently acquired print portfolio. The prints have a profound effect on the viewer, in their portrayal of the horrors of the First World War. In so doing, they convey a message about all wars.

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detail: John Walker 'Passing Bells' Page 8 1998 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia Gift of Orde Poynton Esq. CMG 1999