Sunday, October 23, 2011

Australian Modern Masterpieces

Wednesday, 5 October 2011 -Sunday, 27 November 2011, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Potter Gallery
Admission: Adult $12, Concession $8, Child and Student Free

This exhibition is a unique opportunity to see 60 of the most important 20th century Australian paintings including 40 works from collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It provides a unique insight into the history of Australian modern art from the 1920s to the 1970s, recognizing the extraordinary ability of Australian artists and the pivotal role they played in capturing the lives and moments of Australians in recent times.

It includes prominent pieces by Margaret Olley, Margaret Preston, Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Grace Cossington Smith, William Dobell, Donald Friend and Sidney Nolan, John Olsen and Brett Whiteley among others.

These works have been carefully chosen from the collection of the AGNSW to enable visitors to explore the work of certain artists in depth, while presenting overall a survey of what was happening in Australian art during a critical 75 year period of our country's history.

To complement the works on tour from Sydney are 20 paintings from the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Ballarat and one further work from the Newcastle Region Art Gallery.
The earliest work in the show was painted by a 23 year old Australian art student in 1915, the year of the military disaster at Gallipoli, considered by many to be the true birth of an Australian sense of nationhood.

The exhibition concludes with the work of men and women who were students during or just after the Second World War. Nearly all these artists have passed away within the last 25 years. Jeffrey Smart, Yvonne Audette and John Olsen excluded, the work displayed in this exhibition represents a recently closed chapter in Australian art.

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