2009 Exhibitions Program - Art Gallery of South Australia - SA.Gov.au

2009 Exhibitions Program
Multiplicity: Prints and Multiples
Until 1 February 2009
Hans Heysen
14 November – 8 February 2009
The Golden Journey: Japanese Art from Australian Collections
6 March – 31 May 2009
Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art
26 June – 6 September 2009
John Brack Retrospective
2 October 2009 – 31 January 2010
Bravura: 21 st Century Australian Craft and Design
6 November 2009 – 31 January 2010
AGSA Travelling Exhibitions 2009 – 2010
Misty Moderns: Australian Tonalists 1915 - 1950
Hans Heysen

Andy Warhol, Hot dog bean, 1969, screenprint, edition 250 of 250, 88.9 x 58.4, Museum of Contemporary Art,
J W Power Bequest, purchased 1987 © Andy Warhol Foundation, /ARS.Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney 2006
MULITPLICITY: PRINTS AND MULTIPLES
Until 1 February 2009
Multiplicity explores the development of prints and multiples in art from the 1960s through to
the current day.
Drawing on the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the
University of Wollongong, the exhibition tracks the history of innovative prints, photographs
and objects, from the studio-made to limited editions and the mass-produced, which have
been at the core of contemporary art practice.
Main themes include the notion of the unique work of art; the incorporation of the vernacular,
the individual and the collective production of works of art, and the role of ‘political' or activist
art. Multiplicity features the work of many Australian and international artists including Andy
Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Joseph Beuys, Redback Graphix, Deborah Kelly, Fiona Hall, Ricky
Swallow and many others.
Touring from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW
Curator > Glenn Barkley, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia > Maria Zagala, Associate Curator, Prints, Drawings and
Photographs, Art Gallery of South Australia
More information at www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/multiplicity
Downloadable images and full captions at
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/MediaCentreMultiplicity/MediaCentreMultiplicity

Hans Heysen, Australia, 1877 – 1968, Guardian of the Brachina Gorge, 1937, watercolour on paper, 48.2 x 62.4 cm.
Felton Bequest 1937. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
HANS HEYSEN
Until 8 February 2009
One of Australia's greatest artists, Hans Heysen (1877-1968), is celebrated with the first major
retrospective of his work in three decades. The Hans Heysen exhibition features more than a
hundred works created over the artist's seventy year career, including many of Heysen's
greatest oil and watercolour paintings, alongside rarely-seen preliminary sketches and
studies.
Born in Germany in 1877, Hans Heysen emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia with his family
at the age of seven. After four years studying in Europe, Heysen embarked on one of the most
successful careers in Australian art, becoming synonymous with the Adelaide Hills town of
Hahndorf, where he worked and lived.
In addition to his iconic ‘gum tree' paintings, the exhibition takes a fresh look at Heysen's
lesser-known themes. Hans Heysen traces the artist's development from early student days
painting in Europe from 1899-1903, including images of Paris and Venice, to the revelation of
barren landscapes and ancient mountain forms in the Flinders Ranges from 1926.
Masterpieces have been borrowed from every major collection in the country for this
magnificent exhibition.
Curator > Rebecca Andrews, Associate Curator, Australian Paintings & Sculpture, Art Gallery
of South Australia
More information at www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/hansheysen
Downloadable images and full captions at
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/MediaCentreHansHeysen/MediaCentreIndexHansHeysen.htm
National Exhibition Tour
23 April - 21 June 2009 | Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
11 July - 2 October 2009 | Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
27 November 2009 - 14 February 2010 | Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
30 April - 4 July 2010 | National Gallery of Australia
31 July 2009 - 24 October 2010 | Queensland Art Gallery
19 November 2010 - 30 January 2011 | Newcastle Region Art Gallery

Japan, Edo Period 1615-1868, Amida Nyorai (Amitabha Buddha), c.1650, Kyoto, wood, lacquer, bronze, semi-precious stones, gold leaf,
101.0 cm high, Elizabeth and Tom Hunter Fund 1997. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
THE GOLDEN JOURNEY:
JAPANESE ART FROM AUSTRALIAN COLLECTIONS
6 March – 31 May 2009
This major exhibition will explore the astonishingly rich heritage of Japanese art,
from prehistoric times until the Meiji period (1868-1912). The Golden Journey provides a
unique opportunity to present to the Australian public, the extensive collection of Japanese art
from the Art Gallery of South Australia, first established just over a century ago, together with
works from other Australian public and private collections.
The exhibition of two hundred and sixty works, in a variety of media including painting,
printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and lacquer ware, celebrates the profound lyricism and
sophisticated eloquence of the Japanese aesthetic through a comprehensive survey of the
historical development of its art.
A fully illustrated catalogue publication will feature essay contributions by twelve leading
Japanese and non-Japanese scholars. This publication, like the exhibition, is certain to be a
major step in promoting greater national and international awareness in appreciating the
significance of Japanese collections held in Australia.
Curator > James Bennett, Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia
Downloadable images and full captions at
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/MediaCentreTheGoldenJourney/MediaCentreIndexTheGoldenJourney.htm

Claude Lorrain, Fance/Italy, 1604/05?-1682, Capriccio with ruins of the Roman Forum, c.1634, Rome, oil on canvas, 79.7 x 118.8 cm. Gift of the Art
Gallery of South Australia Foundation assisted by the State Bank of South Australia on the occasion of the 150 th Anniversary of South Australia
1985. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
MAKING NATURE: MASTERS OF EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE ART
26 June – 6 September 2009
Making Nature explores the way in which European artists since the Renaissance have
represented the landscape according to different ideologies: the ideal, the sublime, the
picturesque, the romantic and the realistic. Through superb oil paintings, watercolours, prints
and drawings from the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, visitors to this exhibition
experience the emotive powers, serenity and poetry of nature.
Artists include Titian, Claude Lorrain, Rembrandt, Joseph Wright of Derby, J.M.W. Turner,
James McNeill Whistler, Eugène Boudin, Vanessa Bell, Lucien Pissarro, Gerard Richter,
Nikolaus Lang and Andy Goldsworthy.
At a time when environmental issues are being so fiercely debated around the world, there is
perhaps no better time to review how man has imagined or evaluated his relationship with
nature through the ages.
Curator > Jane Messenger, Curator European Art, Art Gallery of South Australia

John Brack, Australia, 1920 – 1999, Fred Williams, 1958, Melbourne, oil on canvas, 112.7 x 90.8 cm,
A.M. Ragless Bequest Fund 1963. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. © Art Gallery of South AustraliA
JOHN BRACK RETROSPECTIVE
2 October 2009 – 31 January 2010
More than any other artist of his generation, John Brack (1920-99) was a painter of modern
Australian life. Unlike his contemporaries, Brack painted neither myth nor history and when he
focused on the landscape, it was the sprawl of suburbia that caught his attention rather than
the ubiquitous Australian bush.
Brack has long been considered the quintessential Melbourne artist, a reputation which rests
in no small part on the renown of his painting, Collins St, 5pm 1955. Today it seems more
appropriate to view him as a distinctively Australian artist who, with a penetrating gaze and
keen sense of irony, documented aspects of contemporary life in what have become some of
the most iconic images of 20 th century Australian art. More than depictions of familiar subjects
however, Brack’s paintings are cerebral exercises which slowly reveal references to sources
as diverse as the history of art and literature within complex layers of meaning.
This major retrospective, the first in more than twenty years, will survey John Brack’s
complete œuvre, incorporating paintings and works on paper from all of his major series.
Touring from National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Curator > Kirsty Grant, Senior Curator, Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Coordinating Curator, Adelaide > Tracey Lock-Weir, Curator Australian Paintings and
Sculpture, Art Gallery of South Australia

Ah Xian, China/Australia, 1960, JINGDONG CLOISONNE FACTORY, manufacturer, China, Dachang County, Heibei Province, China, Human
human – cloisonné bust 3, 2001, Dachang County, Heibei Province, cloisonné enamel on copper, 45.0 x 42.5 x 25.5 cm. Gift of ETSA Utilities and
the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2006. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
BRAVURA: 21 ST CENTURY AUSTRALIAN CRAFT AND DESIGN
Incorporating the Maude Vizard-Wholohan Art Prize Purchase Awards 2009
6 November 2009 – 31 January 2010
Bravura examines Australian contemporary decorative arts in the twenty-first century from the
permanent collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, including acquisitions from the
Maude Vizard-Wholohan Art Prize Purchase Awards 2009. The exhibition encompasses the
practices of textiles, ceramics, glass, furniture, metalware and jewellery by Indigenous and
non-Indigenous practitioners working in Australia, and will be accompanied by a catalogue.
Curator > Robert Reason, Curator European and Australian Decorative Arts, Art Gallery of
South Australia

Clarice Beckett, Australia, 1887 – 1935, Morning shadows, c.1932, Beaumaris, Melbourne, oil on canvas board, 49.5 x 60.0 cm, South Australian
Government Grant 1980. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
MISTY MODERNS: AUSTRALIAN TONALISTS 1915 – 1950
Touring Nationally in 2009 and 2010
Developed by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Misty Moderns is the first major exhibition to
tell the story of Australian Tonalism; a movement championed by the influential and often
controversial painter Max Meldrum, which reached its peak during the inter-war period.
Around 80 works by Meldrum and his followers have been brought together from collections
around Australia. Included in the exhibition are paintings by Meldrum's best-known pupils
Clarice Beckett, Percy Leason and Colin Colahan, as well as formative works by Australian
Modernists Roy de Maistre, Roland Wakelin, Lloyd Rees, Arnold Shore and William Frater.
This unprecedented display provides a long-awaited look at Meldrum's influence on the wider
development of Australian modernism, and on successive generations of Australian painters.
Curator > Tracey Lock-Weir, Curator Australian Paintings and Sculpture, Art Gallery of South
Australia
More information at www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/mistymoderns
Downloadable images and full captions at
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/MediaCentreMistyModerns/MediaCentreIndexMistyModerns.htm
National Exhibition Tour
15 August - 19 October 2008 | Art Gallery of South Australia
16 November 2008 - 1 February 2009 | McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, VIC
20 February - 26 April 2009 | National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
9 May - 21 June 2009 | Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea, NSW
17 July - 13 September 2009 | University of Queensland Art Museum
9 October - 29 November 2009 | Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, NSW

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Note > all information and dates correct as at November 2008.