Australian Art: Modernism to contemporary - towards a vibrant future'

Dr Deborah Hart, Senior Curator, Australian Paintings and Sculpture post-1920, the National Gallery of Australia

12 November, 2012 at the Australian Embassy Tokyo

The idea of promoting greater understanding across cultures is a central aim of the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Japan-Australia Curator Exchange Program. The idea of encouraging cross-cultural understandings is also an important strategic goal of the National Gallery of Australia, so our shared aims augur well for the future.

National Gallery of Australia, Photograph: John Gollings

I would like to begin by thanking the Agency for Cultural Affairs most sincerely for this special opportunity and extend a warm welcome to Mr Junya Nakano, Director, Office for the International Cultural Exchange, Agency for Cultural Affairs, who has been able to join us tonight. It is also wonderful that Ms Dara Williams, Minister-Counsellor, from the Australian Embassy Tokyo is with us and I am also very grateful to Mr Ciaran Chestnutt, First Secretary & Head, Public Diplomacy Section at the Australian Embassy Tokyo and Allyson Pannier for their generous hospitality in hosting this occasion. I would also like to very warmly thank Mr Hidetsugu Yamano, Chief Curator at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto and Ms Hitomi Toku, Cultural Officer for the Australian Embassy Tokyo, for the great support and kindness they have shown me. I come to Japan with an openness and sense of gratitude to be here and to have the chance to share information about our respective visual arts cultures.

My experience of working in the visual arts in Australia over the past three decades has made me keenly aware of the power of art to transform our lives. I have witnessed ways in which art has the capacity to shift perceptions, to move us profoundly, to inspire imagination and to open up interconnections across cultures.

In a spirit of cross-cultural exchange, I begin with Fiona Hall's installation Leaf litter 2000-2002 in the collection of the National Gallery. Comprising some 200 components it is a work of global significance. In her meticulous depictions of specific plant species on currency from around the world, she seeks to convey pertinent questions relating to history, geography, world economies and journeys across time and place - like this 1938 Japanese banknote that includes the image of Mount Fuji.

Fiona Hall, Leaf litter(detail) 2000–2002,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2003,©Fiona Hall

In a recent speech to the National Press Club our Director Ron Radford outlined our Gallery's Strategic Plan, noting that although Australia is often thought of as a sporting nation, we are a 'deeply visual culture', with a rich Indigenous and non-Indigenous artistic heritage. The National Gallery of Australia is one of the youngest national institutions of its kind in the world. Opened by the Queen in 1982, its early mandate was to collect art from all States and territories in the country – to be truly national. The plan was also to focus on the art of the Asia-Pacific region as well as on European and American art of the twentieth century.

In 2010 a new extension to the National Gallery was opened. This new wing gave the Gallery a much needed new entrance which showcases art on the front lawns as well as Neil Dawson's floating sculpture Diamonds 2002 suspended between the National Gallery and the High Court of Australia. James Turrell's sky-space Within without set in the Australian garden, was also completed for the new building. It is a contemplative space that can be most memorably experienced at dawn and dusk.

James Turrell, Within without 2010,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased with the support of visitors to the Masterpieces
from Paris, exhibition 2010,
©James Turrell, Photograph: John Gollings

The spherical form at the centre of the Turrell is echoed in the new wing, in the space created for the Aboriginal Memorial, commissioned for Australia's Bicentennial in 1988, to remember those Indigenous people who died as a result of colonisation. This is also the aim of the eleven new galleries of Indigenous art. Among the many impressive works are those of Emily Kam Kngwarreye (whose art was shown in Japan). I love this image of the dancer Russell Page in front of one of Emily's paintings around the time that her work was shown at the Venice Biennale.

Ramingining artists, The Aboriginal Memorial 1987-88,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased with the assistance of funds from National Gallery
admission charges and commissioned in 1987,
Photograph: John Gollings

Also included in the new wing are a selected number of works by non-Indigenous artists like Imants Tillers' Terra Incognita 2005 which reveal fresh ways of thinking about our past and re-imagining the future by referencing our diverse cultures. His work in part references Kngwarreye's paintings in the wavy lines and also includes carefully stencilled names of Indigenous groups across the country prior to colonial settlement.

Imants Tillers, Terra incognita 2005,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Purchased 2006

Years earlier Margaret Preston advocated a local ethos. She was inspired by Aboriginal art and also by Japanese woodblock prints. Modernist artists didn't just look to the landscape. Instead, artists like Grace Cossington Smith and Harold Cazneaux engaged with the modern urban environment, taking as their inspiration the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Cossington Smith witnessed the building of the bridge that came into being after the Great Depression and symbolised a feeling of hope for a more vibrant future.

Margaret Preston,
Flying over the Shoalhaven River 1942,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 1973,
©Margaret Rose Preston Estate

Grace Cossington Smith,
Eastern Road, Turramurra c.1926,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Bequest of Mervyn Horton 1984

Grace Cossington Smith,
The Bridge in building 1929-30,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Gift of Ellen Waugh 2005

In modern times Australia has become identified by many people with the beach. This is the idea behind the stylised painting of figures on a beach by Charles Meere Australian Beach pattern 1940 while Max Dupain's Sunbaker 1937 is an enduring image of man and landscape united as one.

Max Dupain,Sunbaker 1937,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 1976

One of our most iconic Modernist series in Australian art is Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series 1946-47. I have just flown to Japan after taking this series to the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin where they are currently on display. Nolan's modernist, symbolic image of the bushranger Ned Kelly has captured the imaginations of many to this day and was featured in the Sydney Olympic ceremony in 2000. Ned Kelly was a rebel against the authorities of his times and his story has assumed legendary proportions in Australia.

Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly 1946,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Gift of Sunday Reed 1977

Sidney Nolan, Kiata c.1943,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 1973, ©Sidney Nolan Trust

Sidney Nolan, Inland Australia 1950,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 1961,©Sidney Nolan

Sidney Nolan, Glenrowan 1946
, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Gift of Sunday Reed 1977

Australia is a vast country. Nolan's art also includes views of the remote desert interior in contrast with John Brack's amusing painting The car 1955 which illustrates a social phenomenon of the 1950s: making an afternoon trip from the city to the nearby country on Sunday. It was part of the pattern of life of millions. Brack was intensely interested in human behaviour as is apparent in his observations of children like the baby who is totally absorbed in the act of drinking milk or adults in social rituals such as ballroom dancing in Latin American Grand Final which is also a metaphor for the human relationships in the wider world.

John Brack, The baby drinking 1955,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 1993, ©Helen Brack

John Brack,
The girls at school 1959,
Private collection, on long-term loan to
the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
©Helen Brack

John Brack,
Latin American Grand Final 1969,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 1981, ©Helen Brack

One of Brack's closest friends was Fred Williams who became known for his distinctive paintings of the Australian environment including forests and the open landscape. Some of semi-abstract paintings are like haiku poems of a forest. In his large paintings like Lysterfield triptych and Silver and grey 1969-70, Williams understood that less could be more. Within the idea of the spacious expanse, each small sensuous touch of paint counts.

Fred Williams, Lysterfield triptych 1967-68,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 1970 ©Estate of Fred Williams

Fred Williams, Forest 1960-61,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2006 ©Estate of Fred Williams

Rosalie Gascoigne's Plenty capture a sense of the intense warm light and landscape in a non-literal way. She liked found materials that had been worn and weathered by the sun, rain and wind. In Suddenly the lake 1995 she created a poetic evocation of Lake George close to Canberra, while her use of swan feathers found around the lake for Feathered fence also capture a feeling of infinity and a lightness of being.

Rosalie Gascoigne, Plenty 1986,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 1987, ©Rosalie Gascoigne

Rosalie Gascoigne, Feathered fence 1979,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Gift of the artist 1994,©Rosalie Gascoigne

In more recent times artists have commonly used materials in innovative ways. Rosslynd Piggott's sculpture Pillow 2000 was inspired by time she spent in Japan. The detail of the pillow rests on a black lacquered box and is attached to a hand-blown glass sphere suggesting sleep and dreams. This same theme is also apparent in High bed 1998 in which an enormous construction of a bed is draped in soft fabric with tiny slippers below and a mirror above reflecting different viewpoints taking us into a space of the imagination.

Rosslynd Piggott, High bed 1998,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2000

While on the subject of spatial installations I couldn't resist showing you the work of Ken and Julia Yonetani Still life: food bowl 2011 constructed out of Murray river salt. A similarly inventive application of materials recurs in Kathy Temin's works covered in white synthetic fur that relate to the idea of Memorial gardens. In Tombstone garden 2012, covered in soft white synthetic fur, we find a memorial to loss during the Holocaust. Along with the idea of loss she introduces a sense of childhood play into these soft materials, reminding us that the future resides in our hands. Judith Wright is also interested in images relating to childhood and dreams in A continuing fable 2008 and her recent dramatic installation A journey 2012 shown in the Sydney Biennale at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Kathy Temin, Tombstone garden 2012

Judith Wright, A continuing fable 2008,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2012

A sense of play and of imagined futures infuses the art of Patricia Piccinini, whether it be in her photograph Psychotourism 1996 or Sub-set red portrait and Subset – green landscape. In Piccinini's Stags she takes the idea of the Italian Vespa (or motor scooter) of the 1960s which become transformed into two stags facing one another with reflective mirrors for antlers.Similarly Heather Swann's Hook (Troublemaker) morphs a cluster of hanging monkeys – with the shape of a hook that in turn forms a large question mark. This work is currently on display at the National Gallery and is proving to be hugely popular with school groups; much like Piccinini's Stags when it was shown earlier in the year.

Patricia Piccinini, Psychotourism 1996,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased with Funds from
the Moet & Chandon Australian Art Foundation,
©Patricia Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini, Subset - red portrait 1997,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased with Funds from
the Moet & Chandon Australian Art Foundation,
©Patricia Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini, Subset - green landscape 1997,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Gift of Pat Corrigan AM
Donated through the Australian Government
Cultural Gifts Program 2010,
©Patricia Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini, The stags 2009,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Photograph courtesy of Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne,
©Patricia Piccinini

Heather Swann, Hook 2009,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2009

Daniel Crooks, Pan No. 9 (dopplegdnger) 2012,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Purchased 2012

The idea of fluid, open-ended possibilities is apparent in two major recent video works by Daniel Crooks; the one looking at boxing and the other an elderly man doing Tai chi'. They are both intensely mesmerising – giving a sense of the passing of time. I started this lecture looking at Fiona Hall's Leaf litter and it is intriguing to see her installation Give a dog a bone capturing images relating to time and ageing. Here a photograph of her father wearing a cloak that she had made for him out of finely woven metal appears in the middle of carboard boxes of items of daily life all carved out of soap.

Fiona Hall, Leaf litter 2000 – 2002, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2003, ©Fiona Hall

The idea of journeys across time and place is encapsulated in the work of Guan Wei Dow Island which symbolises migrations of peoples across the globe. The artist made the cross-cultural work when he was living in Australia and he now lives some of the time in China. In this striking photographic work by the indigenous artist Michael Cook, Broken dreams 2010 he reflects the impact of British colonisation in Australia and the struggles that Indigenous people have endured. At the same time the work is about re-imagining and reclaiming stories in the present towards a different future.

Guan Wei, Dow: Island 2002,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2003

Michael Cook, Broken dreams 2010,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2011

I would like to conclude with the photographic work of Christian Thompson. This portrait of himself as Andy Warhol, was included in an exhibition I curated for the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, USA. Like Warhol, Thompson enjoys exploring multiple identities and representations of self. In his Australian graffitti series he plays with ideas of Indigeneity through Australian flora applied as a mask, wreath and elaborate headdress. The work relates to popular culture (including the music of David Bowie) and also references his own Indigenous cultural history. It struck me that there may be affinities for a Japanese audience in relation to a love of nature and arrangement, and a flair for dressing up among young people as a means of self-expression.

Christian Thompson, Andy Warhol 2004,
from the series Gates of Tambo,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2007

Christian Thompson, Australian Graffiti series 2008,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
Purchased 2009

The National Gallery of Australia aims to share our cultural heritage with a wide audience nationally and internationally. There are tremendous opportunities for cultural exchanges between Japan and Australia – opportunities for us to work together on exhibitions, conferences, websites and ongoing meetings in our countries. I again sincerely thank the Agency for Cultural Affairs and all those who have continued to support the Japan-Australia Curator Exchange Program and very much look forward to working with museum professionals and others on imaginative, thought-provoking and stimulating visual arts exhibitions and projects in the future.

Deborah Hart 2012