Art Ew - National Gallery of Australia

director’s foreword
Director Ron Radford
with Senator the
Hon. George Brandis SC,
Minister for the Arts and Sport,
who opened the successful
George W Lambert exhibition
(closes 16 September 2007)
2 national gallery of australia
Activity around the Gallery this year has been
building up towards the twenty-fifth anniversary on
12, 13 and 14 October. It will culminate in a gala weekend
of celebrations, including the launch of the National
Indigenous Art Triennial and an open day welcoming
people to help recognise a quarter of a century of art and
inspiration. The Gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary year is a
celebration of our magnificent past and more recent
acquisitions, our excellent exhibitions and programs, the
recent refurbishment and radical refocusing of our
collection displays and, of course, the commencement of
our building redevelopment. Stage one has recently begun.
I am pleased to announce four very significant new
acquisitions in celebration of our twenty-fifth anniversary.
La Mort d’un esprit [Death of a spirit] 1916 is an early
work by Giorgio de Chirico, an important Metaphysical
artist who had a profound effect on Surrealism. This is the
Gallery’s first early European modernist painting acquired
in fifteen years. We have been searching for a work of this
kind for some time and it is especially valuable for us to
find one produced in Europe at a crucial period during the
First World War. It is one of only two de Chirico works held
in the country and the only early one. We acknowledge
the financial assistance of Harold and Bevelly Mitchell
and Rupert and Annabel Myer along with the Gallery’s
Foundation for this major acquisition. It is featured on the
cover of this issue of artonview.
The second important acquisition, mentioned briefly
in the last issue of the magazine, is Max Ernst’s Habakuk
1934/1970. The giant black creature presides over the
National Australia Bank Sculpture Gallery, its four-and-ahalf-metre
form appearing to change as you approach it.
The knife-thin head, the eyes on stalks and the flowerpotlike
body seem to rotate in a cylinder. The Gallery holds
Ernst’s private collection of Indigenous art, which was so
influential on Surrealism. Habakuk is a significant example
of his work as a Surrealist artist and by far his largest work.
The National Australia Bank generously helped us purchase
the sculpture for the collection.
The third major acquisition is from India and is the
Gallery’s earliest image of the Buddha. The superb and
imposing early Indian sculpture is a cornerstone for the
Gallery’s ability to introduce visitors to the development of
Buddhist art in India and beyond. The bold red sandstone
seated Buddha from the second century Kushan centre of
Mathura sits marvellously – physically and art historically –
between the aniconic symbolism of our rare Amaravati
marble panel depicting the life of the Buddha and the
recently purchased large Gandharan Head of a bodhisattva
with its strong Hellenic influence. We are enormously
grateful for the generous assistance of Council member
Roslyn Packer in this purchase.
The fourth important acquisition is Clifford Possum
Tjapaltjarri’s Warlugulong 1977, a seminal work by this
pioneer of Papunya Tula painting of Central Australia.
Although the Gallery holds the largest Aboriginal art
collection, we have lacked a significant work by Clifford
Possum. Warlugulong will be on permanent display in our
main Central Desert room of the new Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander wing. A more detailed essay about this work
will appear in the next issue of artonview along with the
announcement of other significant twenty-fifth anniversary
acquisitions.
The new Pacific Arts Gallery is now open to the public
and features a number of spectacular works collected in
the late 1960s and early 1970s alongside some recent
acquisitions. Highlights include an imposing carved house
post figure from the Sawos people, near the Sepik River,
New Guinea, purchased in 1969. Conservation has recently
removed a layer of dirt to reveal an orange, yellow and
black painted face design. All too often the names of the
spirits associated with traditional art from the Pacific were