Australian Art to 1970

Ian Fairweather | Scotland/Australia 1891-1974 | Kite flying 1958 | Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard laid down on composition board | 129.4 x 194cm | Purchased 1985 with the assistance of funds raised through a special Queensland Art Gallery Foundation appeal and with a contribution from the Queensland Art Gallery Society | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | © Ian Fairweather, 1958. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney 2004.

Ian Fairweather
Scotland/Australia 1891-1974
Kite flying 1958
Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard laid down on composition board
129.4 x 194cm
Purchased 1985 with the assistance of funds raised through a special Queensland Art Gallery Foundation appeal and with a contribution from the Queensland Art Gallery Society
Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
© Ian Fairweather, 1958. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney 2004.

Sidney Nolan
Australia/England 1917-92
Mrs Fraser 1947
Ripolin enamel on hardboard
66.2 x 107cm
Purchased 1995 with a special allocation from the Queensland Government. Celebrating the Queensland Art Gallery's Centenary 1895-1995
Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
© Courtesy of the Artist's Estate / www.bridgeman.co.uk

Banner image:
Eugene von Guérard | A view from Daylesford towards the Pyrenees (detail) c.1864 | Oil on canvas | Purchased 2008 with funds from Philip Bacon, AM, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Australian Art to 1970

Since the Queensland Art Gallery opened in 1895, a major focus of its role has been to collect art works by Australian artists. The first Australian works to enter the Collection were gifts from Brisbane artists who campaigned for the Gallery’s foundation. In the decades following, traditional landscapes, portraits and watercolours were acquired. After World War Two, the Gallery’s Australian holdings increased rapidly as successive directors built a series of profile collections.

The permanent Australian galleries at the Queensland Art Gallery display its collection of Australian art from European occupation to the 1970s. The galleries are hung chronologically; however, they also reveal the multiple and sometimes contradictory stories that characterise the development of Australian art. Significantly, the presence of Indigenous people in this land is recognised, both in works of art by Indigenous artists, and in the work of non-Indigenous artists with whom they have exchanged visual traditions.

Australian art from the colonial period to the beginning of the twentieth century highlights the influence of European traditions and the emergence of a distinctly Australian vernacular. Eugene von Guérard’s A view from Daylesford towards the Pyrenees c.1864, acquired in 2008, suggests the energy with which many European-trained artists set about portraying the landscape.

From the mid 1880s, a group of artists including Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder set up camps on the outskirts of Melbourne, to paint and discuss art. Their particular interpretation of European impressionist painting became known as the ‘Heidelberg School’, often also known as Australian Impressionism, and they defined a new direction for Australian painting, drawing on the familiar domestic landscape, urban life and even nationalistic sentiment. Arthur Streeton’s Sketch for ‘Still glides the stream and shall forever glide’ 1895 sits at the heart of this significant group.

The Australian collection also boasts major works by Edwardian expatriate artists such as John Russell, Rupert Bunny and E Phillips Fox. Russell’s impressionist seascape La Pointe de Morestil par mer Calme 1901, Bunny’s grand Bathers 1906 and Phillips Fox’s Bathing hour (L’heure de bain) c.1909 all capture some of the bravura and cosmopolitan aspects of Australian painting from this period.

Australian society modernised rapidly in the first half of the twentieth century. Art made during this period varied from the more traditional conceptions of landscape and portraiture to several different and contending forms of modernist art. This burgeoning impact of international modernism on Australian art is well documented in the Australian collection. Highlights include Roland Wakelin’s The bridge under construction 1928, William Dobell’s The Cypriot 1940 and Russell Drysdale’s Man feeding his dogs 1941. The recent acquisition of a bold and rhythmic modernist landscape In the foothills 1942 by Dorrit Black has enriched this selection.

Strong holdings of postwar art include works by prominent artists that have a particular connection to Queensland: Sidney Nolan’s Mrs Fraser 1947 was inspired by the story of Mrs Fraser’s shipwreck on Fraser Island, off the south-east coast of Queensland in 1836; and Charles Blackman’s City lights 1952 is a night-time view from North Quay, directly opposite the present site of the Queensland Art Gallery.

Another renowned artist with a Queensland connection is Ian Fairweather. The Gallery provides the most extensive permanent display of Fairweather’s art in Australia, showcasing works ranging from his early figurative paintings to his renowned abstract paintings, such as Café tables 1957, Kite flying 1958 and Epiphany 1962.

The Australian collection continues to track developments in the modern movement in the 1950s and 1960s. This includes abstraction and art works assembled from found objects. Outstanding examples include John Olsen’s magnificent experimental landscape painting Journey into the you beaut country no. 2 1961, and Robert Klippel’s pivotal abstract sculpture, Opus 247, metal construction 1965–68 1969.

The late 1960s marked a dramatic shift in focus, with abstraction becoming a prevailing force. The seminal 1968 exhibition ‘The Field’, at the National Gallery of Victoria, was a watershed, with artists moving beyond notions of a local vernacular to establish a dialogue with international trends, specifically those emerging from New York. The paintings and sculptures of ‘Field’ artists, many of whom are represented in the collection, deal with ideas of modernity, and symbolise a radical departure from the art of previous decades. The 2007 acquisition of Tony McGillick’s Arbitrator 1968, which was included in ‘The Field’, is an important addition to the holdings of Australian hard-edge abstract painting from this period.

Collection priorities are continually re-evaluated, and the Gallery’s collection of Australian art is constantly evolving, shaping new narratives about our art and cultural history.