14 / 118
12 Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees Annual Report 2013–14
OUTCOMES
Foundation; and the Honourable Michael Kirby,
AC
,
CMG
, jurist,
academic and former Justice of the High Court of Australia.
The long-term involvement of the Gallery’s
Centre for
Contemporary Art Conservation
(CCAC) in the Australian
Research Council Linkage Project ‘The Twentieth Century in
Paint’ concluded this year. The project won the 2013 Australian
Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials award for
Outstanding Research in the Field of Material Conservation.
This award acknowledged the project’s immense contribution
to a better understanding of the conservation of contemporary
paint materials.
Major conservation research was carried out on several
Collection works:
• Infra-red refectography of a work by LWK Wirth revealed
the previously unknown title of
Saltwater lagoon
.
• Transmitted light analysis was used to identify 13
watermarks on watercolours displayed in ‘Transparent:
Watercolour in Queensland 1850s–1980s’, contributing to
the National Archives of Australia Watermark database.
• Partnerships with DuluxGroup Australia and the Museum
of Victoria were established to access historic paint tins,
contributing to ongoing analysis of early emulsion house
paints in the work of Ian Fairweather. Using FTIR (Fourier
Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy), the materials of
Platypus Bay, Fraser Island
1947 by Sidney Nolan were
investigated in relation to
Mrs Fraser
1947, another work in
the Gallery’s Collection; the analysis compared the priming
materials of the works.
• A project documenting and recording stamps on masonite
and hardboards commenced, with the aim of developing
a directory of materials used by artists to assist with the
authentication and dating of works.
Conservation research was also carried out on Fred Williams’s
Echuca landscape
1961, Sam Fullbrook’s
Pike’s farm at Haden
1982–87 and Ah Xian’s
Heavy wounds series
1991.
Artist interviews were conducted with Jemima Wyman,
Christian Capurro, George Poonkhin Khut and Tomás
Saraceno’s studio assistant Knut Liese. Information was
gathered on aspects of the care and conservation of these
artists’ works. All artists contributed material samples to the
Conservation Artist Materials Archive.
Publishing
The Gallery produced a range of scholarly and accessible
publications about the Collection, exhibitions and artists
for a wide readership. Queensland-related titles included
Transparent: Watercolour in Queensland 1850s–1980s
,
drawn from the Gallery’s Collection, and exhibition catalogues
on textile artist Ruth Stoneley, photographer Richard Stringer
and painter Sam Fullbrook.
The richly illustrated
Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth
publication, on the exhibition of the same name, investigated
the artist’s long working relationship with the Gallery and
documented major installations including the Collection work
Heritage
2013. An accompanying children’s publication,
Let’s Create an Exhibition with a Boy Named Cai
was a finalist
in the international REVERE Awards 2014 in the category
Beyond the Classroom.
Harvest: Art, Film + Food
provided a new model for Gallery
exhibition publications, with its inclusion of recipes from
well-known chefs.
Pattern Bandits
:
Blending In and Standing Out
is the first
activity book developed by the Gallery in collaboration with
a solo Australian artist — Jemima Wyman.
Gallery publications are distributed through the Gallery Store
and online, as well as nationally through Thames and Hudson.
For a full list of publications produced by the Gallery,
see pages 54–57.
Public Programs
During the year, 167 public programs were presented to
12 203 visitors, including many for the major exhibitions
‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth’, ‘Trace: Performance
and its Documents’, ‘Transparent: Watercolour in Queensland
1850s–1980s’ and ‘Harvest’. These programs included artist
talks, panel discussions and curatorial tours, all of which
contributed to scholarship and discussion of the Collection.
The Gallery partnered with ABC Radio National to host a
series of three GOMA Talks discussion panels based on the
themes explored in ‘My Country, I Still Call Australia Home’;
12 prominent thinkers were invited to speak on country, life
and history.
Conduct regular reviews of Collection
management and conservation practices
to ensure ongoing best practice.
Collection Management
Enhancements were made to the KE EMu collection
management software to meet the Gallery’s needs.
Photography of Collection artworks continued — 38.6 per cent
of the Collection is now available as direct digital capture, part
of a movement toward online accessibility of the Collection.
The Gallery reviewed the provenance documentation of
selected works in its collection of historical Asian art, and will
continue to undertake further research to provide as much
detailed evidence as possible of its responsible approach to
acquiring works in this collecting area.