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14
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The Gallery was also fortunate to acquire a group of 24
untitled gelatin silver photographs by Nasreen Mohamedi. A
senior Indian artist, Mohamedi’s work is a highly innovative
and individual exploration of the formal aesthetics of
Modernism in India. This group of photographs represents
the entire body of work in this medium produced by
Mohamedi, who died in 1990.
Several significant works from the Pacific region were
acquired during 2004–05, including a set of four self-
portraits by Greg Semu,
Self portrait with pe’a
1995, printed
2004, which address issues of colonialism and the
nineteenth-century photographic archive on Samoa. Another
highlight from the Pacific region included three works by
Ronnie van Hout —
Abduct
,
Hybrid
and
‘after Peryer’
, all
1999, printed 2004. The three portfolios of prints irreverently
and satirically engage with New Zealand culture, addressing
language, violence and the intersection of high art and
popular culture.
An important addition to the international art collection was
the painting attributed to the Circle of Joos de Momper,
Jesus healing the blind
c.1600–20. De Momper is regarded
as one of the leading Flemish landscape painters of his time.
The acquisition of this beautiful work complements and
enhances the collection of mid sixteenth- to mid
seventeenth-century art works held by the Gallery, including
works by Jan Brueghel, Tintoretto, Giambologna and
Rubens.
The Gallery also received a significant gift of an early Richard
Hamilton painting,
Carapace
1954, for the contemporary
international art collection. Richard Hamilton is one of the
most important figures in postwar British art and is best
known as a founding member of the Independent Group.
Carapace
foreshadows Hamilton’s later pop art concerns
and examines the effects of technology on perception. The
painting is a significant addition to the Gallery’s holdings of
contemporary British art.
Another important acquisition for the international art
collection was Jana Sterbak’s
From here to there
2003, a
six-channel video installation filmed in a wintry Quebec
landscape, from the perspective of a Jack Russell Terrier
fitted with the latest in lightweight medical camera
equipment. Sterbak’s work is informed by an ongoing
engagement with science, society, literature and music, and
the artist uses various media to explore perceptions of
desire, constraint, the body, technology and artistic creation.
The Gallery continued to highlight the scope and depth of its Collection through
focused displays held throughout the year.
The ‘Blak Insights: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the Queensland Art Gallery
Collection’ exhibition presented more than 140 works displayed over 7 gallery
spaces. ‘Blak Insights’ allowed viewers to experience the rich variety of the
Gallery’s contemporary Indigenous collection acquired over the past 20 years. The
display showcased some of the finest contemporary work by artists such as
Tracey Moffatt, Destiny Deacon, Gordon Bennett, Richard Bell, Anmanari Brown,
Djambawa Marawili, Minnie Pwerle and Ken Thaiday Sr.
‘Ten Thoughts about Frames’ examined the art, history and techniques of framing
— from the gilded decorative frames of the Middle Ages to the sophisticated use
of framing techniques in modern cinema. The exhibition featured works
representing various styles, media and periods from the Gallery’s Collection, and
won the set/display design category of the 2005 Queensland Design Awards.
‘The Look of Faith’ explored artists’ poetic responses to ideas and expressions of
religious and spiritual faith. The display featured a series of images of Christ, saints
and martyrs dating from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, including
Albrecht Dürer’s series ‘The Large Passion’ and ‘The Apocalypse’. Addressing a
more mythical and secular dimension of faith and poetry of spirit were
contemporary works by Australian and international artists Judith Wright, Bea
Maddock, William Robinson, Michael Riley, Joseph Jurra Tjapaltjarri, Colin
McCahon and Santiago Bose.
A rich and varied picture of art-making in the early decades of the twentieth
century in Australia was presented in ‘Essentially Modern: Australian Prints from
the Collection’. The display highlighted the work of artists who challenged the
academic tradition of landscape painting, adopting innovative techniques in order
to capture the excitement of a rapidly changing world, and featured printmakers
Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor and Dorrit Black.
Shades of white and nuances of light were explored in ‘White/Light’, which
featured works by Judith Wright, Tim Johnson, Bea Maddock and NN Rimzon.
Contemporary minimalist works by Robert Hunter, Howard Taylor and Dorothea
Rockburne also featured, together with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s
Narcissus
garden
1966/2002, which was exhibited in the Gallery’s Watermall for the first time
since the Asia–Pacific Triennial in 2002.
‘Families and Fictions: Contemporary Photography from the Collection’ focused
on works drawing on established photographic traditions, particularly the family
snapshot. The display was curated around a number of new acquisitions —
including a major portfolio of 30 photographs by the Australian-Chinese artist
William Yang entitled
About my mother
2003, which explored the artist’s Chinese
family history — and featured artists who drew on personal histories and family
archives.
‘Pastels in Focus’ presented the beautiful, and sometimes daring, work produced
in the medium by Australian women artists during the early twentieth century,
while the display ‘North by North-west: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the
Queensland Art Gallery Collection’ featured art from Queensland’s Cape York
Peninsula to the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
‘Smoke and Mirrors’ featured artists who explore the ambiguous territory between
reality and disguise in self-portraits, using theatrical personas or through
challenging stereotypes. The display included the work of Australian and
international artists Fiona Foley, Tracey Moffatt, Luke Roberts, Greg Semu,
Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman.
The Registration section maintained its role in contributing to the physical and
legal management of the Gallery’s Collection, as well as those objects under the
Gallery’s temporary care as loans, acquisitions and exhibitions from other sources.
Interest in the Collection from external institutions was demonstrated by 41
objects being lent to exhibitions organised by regional, interstate and international
galleries. These included the loans of Edgar Degas’s
Trois danseuses à la classe
de danse (Three dancers at a dancing class)
c.1888–90 to the ‘Degas: Classico e
moderno’ exhibition at the Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome (October 2004 –
February 2005); and Bridget Riley’s
Big Blue
1981–82 to the ‘Bridget Riley:
Paintings 1961–2004’ exhibition, organised by the British Council, in Sydney and
Wellington (December 2004 – June 2005). A total of 223 objects were on loan to
Queensland Government offices as at 30 June 2005.
Some 300 objects were received on loan for exhibition purposes from Belgium,
England, the Czech Republic, Finland and Germany, including items for display in
‘The Nature Machine: Contemporary Art, Nature and Technology’ exhibition. Over
400 objects were received for consideration for acquisition and included
shipments from Canada, China, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Hong Kong,
Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan and the United States. Preparations commenced
for ‘APT 2006: Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’.
The Provenance Research Project — initiated in December 2001 to confirm the
Gallery’s good title to works of European origin that may have been confiscated
during the period of Nazi rule (1933–45) — entered its final phase. The
Deaccessioning Policy (endorsed by the Board of Trustees in November 2000)
was revised, and a staged, three-year-cycle stocktake of the Collection was
initiated.
Work continued on the implementation of an upgraded Collection Management
System, and assistance was provided to the Public Art Agency in the formulation
of standards for a public art cataloguing project.
The Conservation section continued to undertake preventive
conservation, treatment and research relating to the care of
works in the Gallery’s Collection. Preventive projects were
also prioritised for those works moving to storage facilities in
the Gallery of Modern Art.
Major treatments undertaken included the cleaning, coating
and relocation of Lee Ufan’s
Relatum
2002; the paint
consolidation and reframing of Ian Fairweather’s
Café tables
1957, and the restoration and reframing of Edgar Degas’s
Trois danseuses à la classe de danse (Three dancers at a
dancing class)
c.1888–90 prior to its loan to Italy. Work
began on the conservation cleaning of
The Café Balzac
mural
1962, a triptych by Colin Lanceley, Ross Crothall and
Mike Brown. Most Conservation staff have been involved in
this collaborative project to document, test and treat the
work. Cleaning has since been completed on the triptych’s
first panel.
Treatment and reframing of works by Arthur Streeton was
undertaken in preparation for the ‘Streeton: Works from the
Queensland Art Gallery Collection’ regional travelling
exhibition. In particular,
Sunny cove
1893 and
Sketch for
‘Still glides the stream and shall forever glide’
1895 received
new oak frames, while
June evening, Box Hill
1887
underwent a major cleaning with the removal of old
restorations.
Gallery conservators also continued work on the Old Master
Project, which involves the analysis and restoration of
historical paintings from diverse Queensland collections.
Staff completed treatment on
Jesus healing the blind
c.1600–20, attributed to the Circle of Joos de Momper, and
began treatment on
The adoration of the Magi
by
Scarcellino. A major treatment on Gerard Soest’s
Portrait of
a lady
c.1660s was also undertaken.
INTERNATIONAL ART
CONSERVING THE COLLECTION
DOCUMENTING AND MANAGING THE COLLECTION
DISPLAYING THE COLLECTION