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Articles on National Gallery of Australia

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Dorrit Black, The Bridge, 1930. Oil on canvas on board, 60.0 x 81.0 cm. Bequest of the artist, 1951, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

How our art museums finally opened their eyes to Australian women artists

Dorrit Black, Grace Cossington Smith and Grace Crowley were some of many talented modernist women artists. But only with the advent of second wave feminism in the 1970s was their work properly acknowledged.
Visitors look at Blue poles (1952) during its trip to London for an abstract expressionism exhibition in 2016. Andy Rains/EPA

Blue poles 45 years on: asset or overvalued drip painting?

The 1973 purchase of Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionist painting – at a record price for the time – was a controversial moment in Australian art. Was it worth it?
Detail of Brook Andrew, Sexy and dangerous 1996. courtesy National Gallery of Victoria

Here’s Looking at: Brook Andrew’s Sexy and dangerous

A 20th-century image of an anonymous ‘Aboriginal Chief’ becomes an investigation of power, colonialism and queer sexuality in the hands of Brook Andrew.
Louis XIV (played by George Blagden) cavorts with a young nymph (Alexia Giordano) in Versailles. Capa Drama

Fornication, fluids and faeces: the intimate life of the French court

TV shows such as Versailles and Reign dwell on sex. But the French royals were preoccupied with life’s intimate moments, from bodily emissions to the crowds that gathered to watch the queen give birth.
Australia’s librarians are a vital component of our research institutions. Shutterstock

A library without librarians is a just a shed full of books

The research libraries attached to Australia’s art galleries are one of the nation’s great cultural assets. But the National Gallery of Australia’s library is losing crucial staff as ‘efficiency dividends’ hit home.
The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles Palace. Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Friday essay: what is it about Versailles?

Donald Trump has a Versailles-inspired apartment. There’s a popular TV series and now, a new exhibition of treasures from the palace. A glittering symbol of aristocratic frivolity, Versailles was, in fact, a place of awesome royal power.
Mike Parr’s performance work ‘Jackson Pollock the female’ is part homage and part sabotage. National Gallery of Australia

Here’s looking at: Mike Parr’s Jackson Pollock the Female

Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles is one of Australia’s most famous cultural acquisitions. When Mike Parr lay supine before it, streaked with his own blood, he offered a new way of looking at the act of painting.
Tom Roberts is an iconic Australian artist. Who does that icon represent? Opening of the first parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 9 May 1901, Tom Roberts, 1903. Courtesy of the NGA.

Tom Roberts anyone? A national survey finds the line in art appreciation

Is the National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition of Tom Roberts’ really ‘for all Australians’? A recent national survey finds a racial divide in Australian art appreciation.
James Turrell, Raemar pink white 1969, Shallow space construction: fluorescent light, 440 x 1070 x 300 cm, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, California. National Gallery of Australia

Experiments with light: James Turrell dazzles at the NGA

James Turrell is a veteran Californian artist who throughout a career spanning almost half a century has employed light as a vehicle through which to manipulate the viewer’s perception of space. The Turrell…

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