After enjoying a tour and lunch at the Sydney Opera House, I visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Both the main building and the new building are so large that it would take a whole day to visit them all, but with the exception of a few special exhibits, admission is free.
Main building with a sense of Australian and indigenous history
The main building has a temple-like exterior and a solemn atmosphere inside. Once inside, visitors are greeted by artwork created by Aboriginal people.
The gallery was founded in 1871 as an art academy. In December 2022, a new wing will open on the north side of the main building. In December 2022, a new wing will open on the north side of the main building, and the main building will also undergo an exhibition change, marking the beginning of a new era. The museum’s attractive curatorial style is a contrast between the historical collection and the contemporary and indigenous artworks.
Impressionism was born in Europe, but the influence of Impressionism spread to Australia as Australian artists traveled to England to study and British painters began to take root in Australia. Influenced by this, artists gathered in Heidelberg, a suburb of Melbourne, and became the “Heidelberg School.
Charles Conder and the “9 by 5 Impression Exhibition” are probably the two most indispensable figures in the Heidelberg School. Charles Conder visited Heidelberg and joined the Heidelberg School after his painting “The Departure of the Orient, Circular Quay,” which depicts a ship leaving Circular Quay, which is still the sea gateway to Sydney today, was included in the art exhibition. The painting depicts rainfall, an expression that is rare in Western painting and can be interpreted as Japonism. In addition to the representation of rain, the composition was bold and reminiscent of the photographic techniques that were emerging at the time, and was acclaimed as new.
A little further into the exhibition room, a group of smaller paintings are displayed. The Heidelberg School’s “9 by 5 Impression Exhibition” was the most commercially successful exhibition of its kind ever held in Australia. Originally, small paintings of 9 by 5 inches were often painted as preparatory sketches for larger paintings. However, the Heidelberg School believed that it was precisely because they were small that they were able to fully depict the light and shadow of the moment, and that this was the essence of impressionism, so they exhibited a variety of 9 x 5 inch paintings. These were the same size as a box of cigars, and being small, they were reasonably priced. All of the paintings exhibited at the exhibition were sold.
The gallery also shows how Australia has influenced Japanese artists. The kangaroo motif by metal-cast craftsman Seijo Izumi is said to have been inspired by the Sydney Expo, during which he exhibited at various expositions, including the Paris Expo.
In the contemporary art of Australian figurative artist Yvonne Courmatrie, we can find the aesthetic sensibility that Courmatrie senses in the culture and history of Australia’s indigenous people. Aiming at “History into Art,” in which practical objects handed down from ancestors are transformed into art, Courmatry turned her attention to the eels traps used by Aboriginal people to catch eels.
There is also a curated exhibition room on Australia’s natural and environmental destruction. The gold rush is also a significant event in Australian history. The exhibition room featured a number of artworks inspired by the gold rush.
The art is reminiscent of the actual “Fort Eureka Rebellion” that took place at a time when people came from all over the world to seek gold. The incident, in which the body of a miner was found at a time of growing discontent among workers and a riot broke out to protest the innocence of fellow miners who had been arrested, was an important episode that triggered the growing power of workers and unions in Australia. The riot was not overlooked, and the incident caused a huge wave of publicity, including the arrival of officials from the United Kingdom, from which the working environment improved and unions were recognized. In the painting, a white union flag is displayed, and it is clear that historical meaning is incorporated into the lovely atmosphere of the work, which looks like a collection of miniatures.
One other work depicting the gold rush is on display, depicting a single miner. This work by Julian Ashton evokes a sense of nostalgia for the days when gold was being taken out of the earth. A sketchbook of this work was sketched by Kubota Yonsen of Japan, who was sent to the Chicago World’s Fair as an artistic correspondent.
The works that conveyed the feelings of the indigenous Australians toward the people who came from England were also eye-catching. Daniel Boyd is a contemporary Aboriginal artist, and his homage to the portrait of Joseph Banks by a portrait artist was one of the most striking works in the gallery.
Joseph Banks was a naturalist and botanist from England who accompanied James Cook on his first voyage and is known to have brought back many botanical specimens and sketch drawings. In the eyes of the native Australians, on the other hand, he must have appeared as a sudden invader. One of the native warriors who stood up to the gradual British colonization was eventually killed from behind, despite his strength to fight a hard-fought battle against the British. The British soldiers delivered his head to Banks, who took it back to England.
The head that Banks holds in Boyd’s work belongs to Boyd himself, an Aboriginal, and you can see that it carries a great deal of meaning. Incidentally, the title “Sir No Beard” means something like “commander without a beard,” which conveys the rebellious feelings of the indigenous people.
© Source travel watch
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