HSS International
The Art Gallery of NSW is the perfect place to go to if you want make yourself appear a tad cultured. It has a varied array of decent artworks on display that will please both the lay-person who just wants to have a quick look around, as well as genuine art-lovers.
Located opposite the Domain just a short walk from the Botanic Gardens, the Art Gallery of NSW is conveniently located with a beautiful outlook over part of Sydney Harbour .
General Admission to the gallery is free, allowing access to most of the galleries housed within the building’s three floors. These include a fabulous Asian Gallery which contains wall scrolls, clothing, furniture and funerary ornaments from 1800s Japan and China , a collection second only to that possessed by the National Gallery in Canberra and the Victorian Art Gallery . There is also an entire floor of Aboriginal artworks ranging from dot paintings to extraordinary sculptures detailing Aboriginal customs, stories and contact with White Settlers.
For lovers of Australian art, the galleries closest to the entrance foyer include works by many famous Australian painters, including Margaret Ollie and Sidney Nolan. Among the pieces represented are notorious and amazingly crafted Archibald Prize winners of decades gone by and several works from Nolan’s revered Ned Kelly series.
For those whose tastes swing more towards 19th Century European art the gallery also has several halls of paintings and busts by well-known
European and British artists. Many of the works on display there venture towards the grandiose, with some paintings spanning meters across and covering themes and subjects ranging from Helen of Troy and Cleopatra to the crucifixion of Jesus and the royal visit of the Queen of Sheba. I must admit to a special soft-spot for this section of the gallery.
Other sections of the gallery contain special exhibitions which unfortunately usually have an entry fee. Student concessions are available (allowing a saving of up to half price) for most of these which means there is no financial reason not to go along to one or more!
The special exhibitions at the gallery change every few months, but those currently on include a Lewis Morley photography exhibition with examples of his theatre and portrait photography (closes 10 September) and the Zen Mind Zen Brush exhibition with works by the greatest Zen masters of the last three centuries (closes 13 August).
Worth special mention is the 15th Annual Biennale of Sydney, the acclaimed bi-annual exhibition which showcases the best in contemporary
art from around the world. Titled ‘Zones of Contact’, the 2006 Biennale is spread throughout 16 venues across Sydney , of which the two main venues are the NSW Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) at Circular Quay.
I highly recommend this truly vibrant collection of artworks, which includes several moving pieces conceived around contemporary themes of political violence in the Middle East – artworks which are inevitably imbibed with even more meaning given the recent events in Lebanon . There are also more than a few quirky and charming works, with one remarkable artwork even providing moving boxes covered in black cloth and a conveniently placed eye slit for patrons to climb inside to view photographs of bare men and women on the walls.
The Biennale has free entry, but you’ll have to be quick as it ends on August 27.
Exhibitions coming later in the year (which I’m sure you’ll all be awaiting with baited breath) include: the sculptures, prints and drawings of the renowned Alberto Giacometti (opens 18 August); the Dobell Prize for Drawing, Australia’s most important drawing competition (opens 29 September); Goddess – Divine Energy, an exploration of divine female power through Indian and Himalayan works (opens 13 October); and finally the Anne Landa Award exhibition which will feature new media works from some of Australia’s brightest artists (opens 17 November).
The gallery is open daily from 10am-5pm (excluding Good Friday and Christmas Day). For more detailed information on how to get there and exhibition fees see the gallery website at www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au.
So be sure to hop across to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, even if you only spend 15 minutes inside you’re sure to feel just that little bit more cultured and special.
By Alan McGuinness.
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments