Читать книгу A Companion to Australian Art - Группа авторов - Страница 42

1 1 Before the creation of the Australian federation in 1901 each state was a self-governing colony with its own parliament and therefore its own educational and cultural policies, and this remains the case today in terms of the responsibilities of each state and territory.

2 2 See Bernard Smith, Documents on Art and Taste in Australia, Melbourne: OUP, 1975, pp. 64–69, p. 68.

3 2 Smith, op. cit., pp. 148–161.

4 4 Ann Galbally, Alison Inglis et al., The first collections: the Public Library and the National Gallery of Victoria in the 1850s and 1860s: University Gallery, the University of Melbourne Museum of Art 14 May – 15 July 1992, pp. 9–10.

5 5 See Catalogue of Works of Art, exhibited in the Lauceston Mechanics’ Institute building, on the occasion of its opening, April 9 1860.

6 6 Catalogue of the Art-Treasures Exhibition held in the Legislative Council Chamber, Hobart Town, Tasmania, in the year MDCCCLVIII.

7 7 Catalogue of the Art Treasures Exhibition held in the New Museum Building of the Royal Society of Tasmania, in the year 1862–1863. Hobart, 1862.

8 8 On Barry, see esp. Ann Galbally, Redmond Barry: An Anglo-Irish Australian, Melbourne, MUP, 1995.

9 9 On the history and growth of the National Gallery of Victoria, see especially Leonard Cox, The National Gallery of Victoria 1861–1968: a search for a collection, Melbourne, 1968; Ann Galbally, The Collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne: MUP, 1979; Ann Galbally, Alison Inglis et al., The First Collections op. cit.; and Phip Murray, The NGV Story: a Celebration of One Hundred and Fifty Years, Melbourne, 2011.

10 10 Meaning, of course, produced in the colony. Chevalier was born in St. Petersburg of Swiss parents, studied and worked in Lausanne, Munich, London and Rome, and resided in Victoria from late 1854 to 1869, when he was taken up by Queen Victoria’s son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, then visiting Australia, returning with him to London, where he received numerous court commissions of substance.

11 11 Catalogue of the Works of Art, Ornamental and Decorative Art Exhibited by the Trustees of the Public Library and Museum in March, April, May and June 1869, Melbourne, 1869.

12 12 See A. Galbally, The First Collections, op. cit., pp. 18–19.

13 13 There are many publications on, or referring to, the Felton Bequest; the definitive history (and bibliography) is contained in John Poynton, Mr. Felton’s Bequests, Melbourne, MUP, 2003.

14 14 This system, which involved many leading figures in the British art and museums world (including Robert Ross, Sidney Colvin and Kenneth Clark) lasted from 1905 to 1999, when the last UK-based consultant, Gerard Vaughan, returned to Melbourne to become director of the NGV. Since the early 1980s the role had changed fundamentally, with new methods of rapid communication and air travel meaning that much of the previous workload could be undertaken by NGV staff in Melbourne. There has been no London advisor/consultant since 1999.

15 15 Poynton’s history of the Felton Bequest documents many of their debates in considerable detail.

16 16 For a helpful representation and assessment of this phenomenon, see esp. Modern Britain 1900–1960: Masterworks from Australian and New Zealand Collections; exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007.

17 17 Daniel Thomas has observed that his was the first curatorial appointment under the director and deputy director when he joined the AGNSW in 1958.

18 18 On these touring exhibitions see esp. G. Vaughan, “Modern Britain in Australia”, in Modern Britain, exhibition catalogue, op. cit., pp. 14–23.

19 19 One of Australia’s leading journalists and newspaper proprietors, Chairman of the NGV Council of Trustees 1941–1952, and father of the global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

20 20 On the history of the exhibition and its reception see esp. Eileen Chanin, Steven Miller and Judith Pugh, Degenerates and Perverts: The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art, MUP, 2005.

21 21 The major exhibitions of 1939 (see above) and 1953 (French Painting Today), which attracted hundreds of thousands in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) could not compare in terms of size and quality.

22 22 Founded in 1975, and wound up in 1981, the AGDC represented 53 state and regional galleries.

23 23 It is estimated that up to 25 million Australians visited these ticketed exhibitions in the period 1975–2007. For a general overview, see esp. Caroline Turner, “International Exhibitions”, in Understanding Museums and Museology, National Museum of Australia, 2011 (available online). More generally, a definitive study and listing of all major art exhibitions presented in Australia can be found in Joanna Mendelssohn, Catherine de Lorenzo, Alison Inglis and Catherine Speck, Australian Art Exhibitions: Opening our Eyes, T&H: Port Melbourne, 2018.

24 24 John Power was a modernist painter, born in Sydney to a wealthy family, who pursued in London and Paris what to conservative Australian taste in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s would have seemed a radical, post-Cubist/Formalist/Futurist style, and who left a large bequest to the University of Sydney to “make available to the people of Australia the latest ideas and theories in plastic arts by means of lectures and teaching and by the purchase of the most recent contemporary art of the world…”.

25 25 There is a vast literature on the Reeds, the Heide circle, and the individual artists they supported. Richard Haese’s Rebels and Precursors: The Revolutionary Years of Australian Art, Melbourne, 1981, remains a key general introduction; Christopher Heathcote’s recent Inside the Art Market, Australia’s Galleries, a History: 1956–1976, Melbourne, T&H, 2016, offers important insights into the relationship between artists, dealers and collectors.

26 26 Known as The Lindsay Report, the advisory committee was chaired by former NGV director Sir Daryl Lindsay. Its recommendations were accepted in full by government; the document itself is notable for its clarity, vision and conciseness.

27 27 On this see esp. Gerard Vaughan “The Cross-Cultural Art Museum in Australia,” in Jaynie Anderson (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Australian Art, Melbourne: CUP, 2011, pp. 261–289; and Howard Morphy, ibid., pp. 153–167.

28 28 For the early history of these exhibitions and tours, see Vaughan, op. cit.

29 29 On this, see esp. Don Edgar, Art for the Country. The Story of Victoria’s Regional Galleries, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2019.