Intersections & Translations
New Installations
Wenda Gu
4 October 2001 – 7 April 2002

Intersections and Translations is Wenda Gu's first Australian solo show. The exhibition includes united nations: australia monument, commissioned by the NGA for the exhibition and created from screens of human hair, a new installation of fifteen large carved slate tablets and rubbings on Chinese paper forming forest of stones, and wenda gu: marriages. The works have recently been created in studios in New York and China. Together they introduce the strengths and concerns of an internationally acclaimed artist who has been widely recognized in international biennales and exhibitions for almost two decades.

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detail: Wenda Gu 'Forest of stones' 1993–2001 Collection of the artist

William Robinson
A Retrospective
14 December 2001 – 10 March 2002

This will be the first major retrospective exhibition of work by William Robinson, one of Australia's senior contemporary landscape artists. Like Sidney Nolan, John Olsen and Fred Williams, among others, Robinson's mature paintings and works on paper reveal a passionate engagement with the local environments in which he has lived and worked. The exhibition will trace the important shifts in Robinson's art which have occurred in the last three decades, including: Bonnard-inspired interiors, portraits, seascapes and multi-viewpoint depictions of the lush rainforest environment of southern Queensland. Above all the exhibition will reveal how William Robinson has contributed a highly distinctive response to a sense of place.

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detail: William Robinson 'Springbrook with lifting fog' 1999 The Nerissa Johnson Bequest 1999 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

National Sculpture Prize
& Exhibition 2001
30 November 2001 – 10 March 2002

The inaugural exhibition of finalists of the National Sculpture Prize and Exhibition features recent works by some of Australia’s most inventive and accomplished sculptors, selected by a panel of eminent artists and curators. The National Sculpture Prize and Exhibition was established in 2000 as a partnership between the National Gallery of Australia and Macquarie Bank Limited to promote and support sculpture in Australia and to recognise outstanding works. A prize of $50,000 was awarded for the winning work, making it one of the richest sculpture prizes in this country.

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detail: Ah Xian 'Human Human - Lotus Cloisonné Figure 1' 2000–2001

Rodin
A Magnificent Obsession
Sculpture and Drawings
14 December 2001 – 24 February 2002

Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, Los Angeles Drawings from the Musée Rodin, Paris | This exhibition is organised and made possible by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation

The exhibition features bronze sculptures selected from the Iris and B Gerald Cantor Collection, the world's foremost private collection of Rodin's work. The works explore key themes in Rodin's oeuvre: movement in sculpture, dance, emotive human poses and gestures. Exhibition highlights range from well-known sculptures including The thinker and The kiss to figures and groups drawn from monumental works such as The gates of hell, The burghers of Calais and Monument to Balzac. This exhibition is organised and made possible by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.

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detail: Auguste Rodin 'The kiss' c.1881–82 Iris and B.Gerald Cantor Foundation

Seeing Red
The art and science of infra-red analysis
17 November 2001 – 10 February 2002

Have you ever wanted to look through the layers of a painting to the underdrawing first put down by the artist? The examination of works of art using infra-red light can reveal hidden features such as underdrawing and composition changes, aspects of the creation of a work of art that may not be visible in normal light. This technique is used by conservators to gather information about artists’ materials and techniques. Seeing Red provides a unique opportunity for children to get behind the scenes and envisage art in the making.

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(inset) Infra-red image of detail from Augustus Earle 'A bivouac of travellers in Australia in a cabbage tree forest, daybreak' Rex Nan Kivell collection National Library of Australia

Douglas Annand
The Art of Life
6 October 2001 – 28 January 2002

This exhibition is the first to recognise Douglas Annand's enormous contribution to the development of Australian modernism. An artist and designer of great ability and style, Annand was a contemporary and friend of Sydney Ure-Smith, Gordon Andrews, Max Dupain and Russell Drysdale, and was once described as the most brilliant and versatile eclectic artist in this country. From the early 1930s Annand set new standards for Australian designers with images that were international in their philosophy, yet 'typically Australian' and 'typically Annand'. Douglas Annand The art of Life 96pp full colour illustrations available at the shop.

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detail: Douglas Annand 'The typist' Cover design for the magazine 'The Home' vol.17 no.7 July 1936 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

In search of the native
Photographs by Max Dupain and Eduardo Masferre and their contemporaries
23 June – 4 November 2001

In Search of the native focuses on two important acquisitions made by the Gallery in 2000. The first is a unique portfolio of photographs taken in New Guinea by Australian photographer Max Dupain (1911-1992) during his war service. The second is an equally rare group of 33 vintage exhibition prints (some hand-coloured) from 1935 to 1954 by Philippine photographer Eduardo Masferre (1900-1995).

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detail: Eduardo Masferre 'Woman with her pipe. Butbut, Tinglayan, Kalinga' 1953 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

Kids mapping their world
28 July – 4 November 2001

Children from Australia and around the world share their visions of their environment and culture. Brought to you by Kids Earth Fund (Australia) Inc.

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Detail: Happy Birthday Earth, Jasmine Grahame age 11 Australia 'untitled'

Joy Hester & Friends
1 September – 28 October 2001

Hester's art will be shown in relation to works by other artists who were in close contact with her in the 1940s and 1950s including Albert Tucker, Danila Vassilieff, Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Gray Smith, Fred Williams, Mirka Mora and Charles Blackman. The show will also include photographs and other documentary material to reveal her friendships with John and Sunday Reed, Barbara Blackman, Barrett Reid and others. In this way the exhibition will place Joy Hester's work in the context of the times in which she was working, to reveal the inter-connections as well as the idiosyncrasies of her extraordinary artistic output.

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detail: Joy Hester from 'Lovers series' c.1956 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia © Joy Hester c.1956/Licensed by VISCOPY Sydney 2001

Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera & Mexican Modernism
The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection
13 July – 28 October 2001

An outstanding selection of paintings by both Kahlo and Rivera forms the centrepiece of the Jacques and Natasha Gelman collection, widely regarded as the most significant private holding of 20th century Mexican art. Jacques Gelman, the Russian emigre film producer, and his wife Natasha built up the collection over many years of acquaintance and collaboration with Mexico's greatest creative artists. Including work by other famous painters such as José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo, this exhibition will showcase Kahlo's and Rivera's work and present them in the context of a broader history of Mexican modernism.

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detail: Frida Kahlo 'Self portrait with monkeys' 1943 Vergel Foundation New York Reproduced courtesy INBA and Banco de Mexico

Anne Dangar at Moly-Sabata
Tradition and innovation
13 July – 28 October 2001

A trip to France in 1926 with the Sydney painter Grace Crowley led to Dangar moving to France in 1930 to take up residence with the artists’ community led by Albert Gleizes at Sablons, situated on the River Rhône. She immersed herself in the subsistence lifestyle characteristic of traditional peasant existence, learning to produce glazed terracotta ware in the Gallo-Roman manner. In drawing upon these ancient vernacular ceramic traditions, Dangar produced an innovative model of domestic ware that married these forms with her own experiments in Cubist inspired decoration during the 1930s – 40s.

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detail: Anne Dangar 'Jug' c.1935 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

Modern Australian Women
Paintings and prints 1925–1945

13 July – 26 August 2001
An Art Gallery of South Australia Travelling Exhibition

Modern Australian Women focuses on the outstanding work by Australia's great women artists of the modernist period. These superlative works, exploring form and colour in ways previously not attempted, reflect the challenging thinking of the time and leadership demonstrated by painters such as Clarice Beckett, Dorrit Black, Lina Bryans, Grace Crowley, Joy Hester, Kathleen O'Connor, Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor and Grace Cossington Smith. In their works, many of these women conveyed a modernist aesthetic link to the Australian landscape, its cities and people.

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detail: Thea Proctor 'The rose' c.1928 Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia South Australian Grant

Childhoods Past
Children's art of the twentieth century
7 Apr – 15 July 2001

Childhoods Past features approximately 80 children’s drawings and paintings collected by Frances Derham (1894 –1987), artist and educational pioneer. The images portray personal and cultural identity, family and school life, social and political events by children from indigenous Australian communities, urban and regional Australia, Europe and former Australian territories New Britain and Papua New Guinea.

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detail: Unknown 'Animal, person, house' Vienna Frances Derham Collection National Gallery of Australia

Monet & Japan
9 Mar – 11 June 2001

Thirty-nine of Monet's best paintings from the world's greatest collections will be shown in the company of an extensive selection of Japanese prints and paintings. The exhibition explores the multiple aspects of Monet's intimate relationship with Japanese art as it unfolded throughout his long career, spanning over 60 years. The connections made between Monet's paintings and the prints on display vividly demonstrate this relationship.

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detail: Claude Monet 'Waterlilies [Nymphéas]' 1908 Collection of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum

Islands in the sun
17 February – 27 May 2001

The indigenous peoples of Australia and the Australasian region share the same recent history. Colonised by Europeans, they have all struggled to maintain their individual cultural identities. In these societies the arts flourish and are characterised by a renewed interest in traditional images, designs and narratives. Islands in the Sun presents contemporary woodcuts, screenprints and lithographs by the indigenous peoples of Aboriginal Australia (works from the Tiwi Islands and Arnhem Land), the Torres Strait, Bathurst Island, Papua New Guinea (Niugini), Aotearoa New Zealand, Niue, Samoa and the Solomon Islands.

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detail: Banduk Marika 'Banumbirr (The Morning Star)' from 'The Yalangbara Suite' Collection of the National Gallery of Australia © Banduk Marika 2000 Licensed by VISCOPY Sydney