2007-08 Report

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HIGHLIGHTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 2007–08 7
FEBRUARY
The $75 000 Premier of
Queensland's National
New Media Art Award and
$25 000 Premier of
Queensland's New Media
Scholarship are announced.
The award will be held for
the first time in November
2008 and will be hosted
biennially by the
Queensland Art Gallery.
Wayne Goss retires at the
end of his third term as
Chair of the Board of
Trustees. Professor John
Hay, AC, former University
of Queensland Vice-
Chancellor, is appointed.
The Honourable Anna Bligh,
MP, Premier of Queensland,
announces in Parliament
that the first exhibition of
Picasso's personal art
collection outside Europe
will open at GoMA in June.
Tim Fairfax, AM, and Gina
Fairfax give generously to
the Gallery during the year,
including a major donation
towards the acquisition of
international contemporary
art.
MARch
'Mountains and Streams:
Chinese Paintings from
the NGV Asian Collection'
opens at the Queensland
Art Gallery. A National
Gallery of Victoria Touring
Exhibition, it explores
Chinese landscape
paintings from the
fourteenth to the twenty-
first century.
The annual 'Creative
Generation Excellence
Awards in Visual Art and
Design' presents 50 works
by art students from both
state and non-state
secondary schools
throughout Queensland
at GoMA.
The first Australian
exhibition of renowned
French artist Pierre Bismuth
opens in the Media Gallery
at GoMA.
APRIL
Membership to Friends of
the Queensland Art Gallery
grows by more than 400
per cent during the 'Andy
Warhol' exhibition.
MAY
New York-based Taiwanese
artist Lee Mingwei
participates in a special
blessing ceremony as part
of his Bodhi Tree Project at
the Queensland Cultural
Centre. The project is a
public art initiative linked
to the Queensland
Government's Cultural
Centre redevelopment.
The project's centrepiece, a
young Bodhi tree, is planted
near the entrance to GoMA
and blessed by members of
the Chung Tian Temple in
Brisbane. While in Brisbane,
Lee Mingwei re-creates his
work Gernika in sand, a
sand painting inspired by
Pablo Picasso's famous oil
painting Guernica1937.
A comprehensive
retrospective of Gordon
Bennett, one of Australia's
foremost artists, opens at
GoMA. This National Gallery
of Victoria Touring Exhibition
presents almost two decades
of work by the internationally
acclaimed Queensland-
based artist.
A generous donation by
Brisbane gallery director
Philip Bacon, AM, allows the
acquisition of Eugene von
Guérard's A view from
Daylesford towards the
Pyreneesc.1864, the first
painting by von Guérard to
enter the Collection.
Among the 287 works acquired
during the year through the
Gallery's Foundation, 14 are
contemporary Chinese works
generously gifted from the
collection of Professor
Nicholas Jose and Dr Claire
Roberts.
A repeat screening is required
after more than 300 people
turn out for Heima, a film by
the band Sigur Rós, presented
as part of the Icelandic Waves
program. The audience
response underlines the
dedicated following enjoyed
by the Australian
Cinémathèque. Over 26 000
people attend film programs
during the year.
JUNE
'Sidney Nolan: A New
Retrospective' opens at the
Queensland Art Gallery on
6 June. Organised by the Art
Gallery of New South Wales,
this exhibition is the first
major retrospective since
Nolan's death in 1992.
'Picasso & his collection'
opens at GoMA on 9 June,
showing more than 100 key
works from Pablo Picasso's
collection and more than 80
works by the artist himself.
The exhibition is exclusive
to Brisbane and it is the first
time Picasso's extraordinary
personal collection has
been shown outside Europe.
The exhibition is organised
by the musée national
Picasso, Paris, in association
with the Queensland Art
Gallery and Art Exhibitions
Australia. By the end of
June, the exhibition has
already attracted 69 704
visitors.
Centres in regional
Queensland participate in a
regional lecture tour, which
is organised to complement
'Picasso & his collection'.
'Myth to Modern', an
exhibition of figurative
bronze sculpture from the
Gallery's Collection,
continues its tour of
regional Queensland,
visiting five venues during
the year. A further seven
venues are scheduled to
complete the tour by mid
2009. Some 60 026 people
attend Queensland Art
Gallery travelling
exhibitions during
2007–08.
Michael Parekowhai's
large-scale sculpture
The Horn of Africa2006 is
dedicated to Wayne Goss
in recognition of his
contribution as Chair of the
Gallery's Board of Trustees
from 1999 to 2008.
HIGHLIGHTS AND
ACHIEVEMENTS