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Brett Whiteley
Etching House is happy to provide the 2018-2019 art exhibition programme
for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the programme to view and enjoy a display of fine art exhibitions each unique for the 2018 season and touching into 2019 with Brett Whitelelys Look at the central place of drawing in Brett Whiteley’s art is a must see, for the love of art Etching House has listed the programme below for your convenience.
In 2018 the Art Gallery of New South Wales starts with
Brett Whiteley art “To draw on the beach with a sharp stick, and let the waves come up and erase it is a wonderful way of learning how to draw economically”
Brett Whiteley, 1981
This exhibition captures the waves, the people and the heat of summer. From Bondi to Byron Bay, the beach formed an ideal location to stage Brett Whiteley’s extraordinary figures, engaging and interacting with each other and the sun and sea. Waves, as their own subject, represent the moods of the sea, which Whiteley conveys in delicate brush-and-ink drawings.
One highlight of this display is Whiteley’s last unfinished work, Unfinished beach polyptych 1992: six imposing panels, now in a private collection, which return to the Brett Whiteley Studio for the first time in five years.
24 Nov 2017 – Mar 2018
Fri–Sun only
10am–4pm
Free admission made possible by J.P. Morgan
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The annual ARTEXPRESS exhibition is one of the most dynamic and popular at the Gallery.
Featuring a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the HSC examination in Visual Arts 2017, ARTEXPRESS 2018 provides insight into students’ creativity and the issues important to them.
The exhibition encompasses a broad range of approaches and expressive forms, including ceramics, collection of works, documented forms, drawing, graphic design, painting, photomedia, printmaking, sculpture, textiles and fibre, and time-based forms.
Inside ARTEXPRESS
All artists and works from previous years, back to 2005. Start exploring
26 Jan – 25 Apr 2018
Free admission
Art Gallery of New South Wales
A rare opportunity to experience the beauty, scale and intricacy of a masterpiece of medieval French art that has captivated viewers across the centuries
Revered as a national treasure in France, and known as the 15th-century ‘Mona Lisa of the Middle Ages’ The lady and the unicorn tapestry cycle will be making its exclusive appearance in Australia at the Art Gallery of NSW through a generous and exceptional loan from the collection of the Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge in Paris.
The six large tapestries each depict a richly costumed lady flanked by that most mysterious animal, the unicorn, with jewel-like millefleur (‘thousand flowers’) backgrounds. The tapestries present a vivid meditation on earthly pleasures and courtly love. They can also be viewed as an allegory of the five senses – sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell – plus a sixth ‘internal’ sense – heart, desire or will – which was widely known at the time.
With an engaging program of events and activities for all ages, and a specially designed digital experience, a visit to The lady and the unicorn will allow a close encounter with one of the world’s greatest treasures.
This exhibition is made possible with the support of the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.
10 Feb – 24 Jun 2018
Location:
Upper Asian gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The rock forms, female figures and animals in this monumental work from the 1970s have been crocheted from natural and synthetic fibres.
Born in Poland, Ewa Pachucka lived and worked in Australia from 1971 until her return to Europe in 2000. Her textile works draw upon a classical discourse through which she expresses her progressive ideologies, integrating notions of collectivism, feminism, environmentalism and the elevation of textile traditions and ‘craft’ into the privileged realm of fine art.
Her multi-part installation Arcadia: landscape and bodies 1972-77 was created within the context of 1970s ‘fibre art’, and first exhibited at the Gallery in 1978.
3 Mar – 29 Apr 2018
Free admission
Location:
20th & 21st c Australian art
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Held every two years, the Biennale of Sydney is a much-anticipated major contemporary art event.
Curated by Mami Kataoka, the 21st edition will examine the quantum mechanical theory of superposition by investigating how it might operate in the world today.
As one of seven venues participating across Sydney, the Art Gallery of NSW will feature exceptional new projects by a diverse field of celebrated international artists.
To commemorate 45 years of the Biennale, the exhibition will additionally reflect on the Biennale’s rich history through a close examination of its archive, drawing on more than four decades of encounters with art from around the world.
16 Mar – 11 Jun 2018
Free admission
Location:
Entrance court
Lower Asian gallery
Lower level 2
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Journey deep inside a Tudor painting to explore the hidden life of a king’s portrait, and the workshop of the artists who created it.
After a detailed technical study and extensive conservation treatment, the Gallery’s 16th-century portrait of Henry VIII will be shown for the first time in decades, returning to star in a ground-breaking virtual-reality display in the heart of our European galleries.
A network of information has been visualised so that you can investigate Henry’s world. Through the wonders of particle accelerators and scanning electron microscopes, virtual objects and elemental maps, the painting’s materials start to reveal the artwork’s social and historical context, allowing unprecedented insights into a work that emerged at the very birth of modern portrait painting.
12 May – 9 Sep 2018
Free admission
Location:
15th–19th c European art
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Examines the way a camera turns any subject into a performer and any scenario into a theatrical act
Hold still deconstructs the gestures we habitually adopt while looking into a lens and proposes that the instant of capture is itself a performance. Attentive to the way the camera serves as a silent choreographer – dictating our movements – the exhibition presents incisive commentary about the way photography pervades contemporary life.
Drawn from the Gallery’s collection, it features artists who exploit and exaggerate the posture (or imposture) of the portrait sitter, including works by Taryn Simon, Darren Sylvester, Anne Ferran, Cherine Fahd, Max Dupain and Harold Cazneaux alongside those produced by commercial photographers in the late 19th century.
12 May – 29 Jul 2018
Free admission
Location:
20th & 21st c Australian art
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Australia’s most extraordinary art event
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes is an annual exhibition eagerly anticipated by artists and audiences alike.
The Archibald Prize, first awarded in 1921, is Australia’s favourite art award, and one of its most prestigious. Awarded to the best portrait painting, it’s a who’s who of Australian culture – from politicians to celebrities, sporting heroes to artists.
The Wynne Prize is awarded to the best landscape painting of Australian scenery, or figure sculpture, while the Sulman Prize is given to the best subject painting, genre painting or mural project in oil, acrylic, watercolour or mixed media.
Each year, the trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW judge the Archibald and Wynne, and invite an artist to judge the Sulman.
Visit the exhibition to vote for your favourite portrait in the ANZ People’s Choice award before voting closes and see the work of budding artists aged 5-18 on display in the Young Archies.
Explore the prizes
Find out more about the prizes – including entry information – and browse the finalists and winners year by year. Start exploring
12 May – 9 Sep 2018
Charges apply
Tickets available closer to exhibition opening
Location:
Major exhibition gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Dive into the many meanings and feelings of the colour blue.
Celebrating the return to the Gallery of David Hockney’s celebrated poolside painting Portrait of an artist (pool with two figures) 1972 after its recent international showings at Tate, The Met and Centre Pompidou, this display invites you to experience the colour blue in a range of works, from Yves Klein’s electric-blue portrait of Claude Pascal to Guan Wei’s expansive view of ocean and heavens.
Into the blue complements the major exhibition John Russell: Australia’s French impressionist, also on the Gallery, with its brilliant evocations of water, blueness, energy and light.
16 Jun – Nov 2018
Free admission
Location:
Entrance court
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Presents the work of contemporary artists from across Australia
Drawing has been described as an essential aspect of an artist’s life, as it is for all the artists in the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial.
Following Close to home in 2016 and Drawing out in 2014-15, this will be the third in the series, and will include new work made especially for the exhibition.
7 Jul – Oct 2018
Free admission
Location:
Modern gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Experience some of the most immersive and expansive artworks in the Gallery’s collection.
Employing light, sound, fabric, air, spices, sound and balloons, these artworks also use the space of the gallery as a medium to be filled, tested, stretched, altered and above all energised. In the process, they enlist gallery-goers as collaborators, test subjects and ‘space explorers’ in distinctive sensory worlds.
The exhibition includes favourites that haven’t been on display for years, including Ernesto Neto’s Just like drops in time, nothing 2002.
14 Jul – Oct 2018
Free admission
Location:
Contemporary galleries
Art Gallery of New South Wales
A major survey of this extraordinary yet little-known Australian painter
Working in Europe at the end of the 19th century, John Russell (1858–1930) was part of the French avant-garde and the only Australian painter to have been closely associated with some of the most original and influential artists in France.
He was a close friend of Van Gogh and Rodin, dined with Monet and taught impressionist colour theory to Matisse. Yet, despite the efforts of fellow Australian artist Thea Proctor, his cousin, he remains little known.
This major survey presents the breadth of Russell’s art from his studies in London and Paris, through impressionism and experimentation with pure colour, to his later fauve-like luminous watercolours.
Bringing together approximately 100 paintings, drawings and watercolours, this is the first survey of Russell’s work in 40 years. It presents fresh perspectives on this remarkable artist and includes significant works only rediscovered recently and exhibited publicly for the first time.
21 Jul – 11 Nov 2018
Charges apply
Tickets available closer to exhibition opening
Location:
Temporary exhibitions gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The intimate histories of artists who grew up in China during the time of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution.
This exhibition is centred around the ideas and contents of artist Yang Zhichao’s Chinese bible, an installation of almost 3000 notebooks and diaries from between 1949 and 1989. The books, collected by the artist from Beijing markets, reveal a combination of experiences from personal moments like falling in love to standardised notes taken in engineering lectures.
Yang Zhichao Chinese bible is accompanied by Chinese revolutionary woodcuts and posters from the same period as the books, as well as works by other celebrated contemporary Chinese artists including Zhang Xiaogang and Hong Hao.
28 Jul 2018 – 2019
Free admission
Location:
Upper Asian gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales
A display of the Gallery’s major new acquisitions from this much-admired Australian modernist painter and potter
Anne Dangar (1885–1951) is best known for her innovative pottery designs that fuse traditional techniques with modernist motifs. An early exponent of cubism in Australia, she was closely involved with local modernists Dorrit Black, Rah Fizelle and Grace Crowley. She moved permanently to France in 1930, becoming the central figure in an artists commune, Moly-Sabata, established by French cubist painter Albert Gleizes.
The Gallery has acquired a significant group of Dangar’s ceramics which were in the private collection of Gleizes and Juliette Roche. Many of these works recently featured in an Anne Dangar survey exhibition in France – at the Musée de Valence – where she is highly regarded. These new acquisitions will be exhibited for the first time in Australia, alongside other Dangar works from the Gallery’s holdings.
Aug – Oct 2018
Free admission
Location:
20th & 21st c Australian art
Art Gallery of New South Wales
One of the most powerful voices in art today
William Kentridge is best known for evocative stop-motion videos of charcoal drawings. His art is inextricably linked to the specific social conditions (both past and present) of his home of South Africa while also speaking to broader themes such as colonialism, creativity and the transient nature of identity.
This exhibition will feature I am not me, the horse is not mine 2008, a major new addition to the Gallery’s collection. Developed out of research for his production of Dimitri Shostakovich’s 1928 opera The nose, the work is among Kentridge’s most ambitious and celebrated video installations. It will be exhibited alongside a selection of related works.
Sep 2018 – 2019
Free admission
Location:
Contemporary galleries
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Nonggirrnga Marawili is inspired by the atmospheric effects that are created as country is brought to life through the movement of wind, water or unseen forces.
Based in Yirrkala in the Northern Territory, Marawili began her career as a printmaker, but in recent years has further refined her skills in painting to become one of the most distinctive Aboriginal artists working today.
Marawili does not simply document sites in country, she captures the dynamism of a living landscape, radically transformed and re-imagined to realise a very personal artistic vision.
This exhibition will reflect the span of Marawili’s career, with a focus on the last five years.
Nov 2018 – Feb 2019
Free admission
Location:
Modern gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Paintings, prints and drawings from one of Australia’s most significant artists
The whisperings of the past are central to the work of Aboriginal artist Judy Watson, who is interested in the indelible stain left on country by past events. Watson poignantly unveils hidden histories while tracing her matrilineal connection to country, the Waanyi lands of north-east Queensland.
Her works play a significant role in remembering and illuminating aspects of our past that we often fail or refuse to see.
This display presents works from her diverse practice including many from the Gallery’s own collection.
Nov 2018 – 2019
Free admission
Location:
Entrance court
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Significant works of art from the Gallery’s Pacific collection are on display, some for the first time in four decades.
The first works of Pacific art entered the Gallery’s collection in 1962, at the instigation of the Gallery’s deputy director Tony Tuckson. Four years later the ground-breaking exhibition Melanesian art, curated by Tuckson, opened at the Gallery, with over 370 works from public and private collections. One of the most comprehensive exhibitions of Pacific art held in an Australian gallery, it featured work from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Western New Guinea.
To celebrate Tuckson’s achievement, a selection of works he acquired for the Pacific collection is on display, coinciding with a major exhibition of his own artworks, Tony Tuckson: the abstract sublime.
Nov 2018 – Feb 2019
Free admission
Location:
Lower level 2
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Explores the work and legacy of one of the Australia’s earliest and most influential abstract expressionist artists
In the 1960s and 70s, Tony Tuckson (1921–73) was better known as an arts administrator with a passionate interest in Aboriginal and Melanesian art and culture. He worked as a curator and also served as deputy director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Today, he is renowned as the country’s pre-eminent abstract expressionist painter.
Including over 80 paintings and works on paper, ranging from the late 1950s to early 1970s, this exhibition will explore the spectacular development and diversity of Tuckson’s art, from his early calligraphic style of mark-making to the sensuous and sweeping veils of paint of his late works that one critic referred to as Tuckson’s own formula for the sublime. It will also highlight his extraordinary contribution to abstraction in Australia.
Nov 2018 – Feb 2019
Free admission
Location:
Contemporary galleries
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Looks at the central place of drawing in Brett Whiteley’s art
A precocious talent for drawing set Whiteley on the path of an extraordinary career as one of Australia’s best-known painters. At the heart of everything he did, drawing was fundamental to Whiteley’s imagination and creative process.
Drawn primarily from the Art Gallery of NSW and the Brett Whiteley Studio collections, the works on display range from his early drawings of Sydney and France, to the European abstract landscapes and nudes that established him as an artist of note in the 1960s, to the lyrical landscapes, interiors and nudes of later years.
Dec 2018 – 2019
Charges apply
Tickets available closer to exhibition opening
Location:
Temporary exhibitions gallery
Please Note exhibition programme, times, prices may change without notice.