NGV Exhibition Summaries 2008-2009

 

 

The following is a draft copy of the NGV’s 2008-2009 exhibition schedule for planning purposes only. Some details are still being finalised and there are exhibitions yet to be announced. Please contact the NGV for further information and detail confirmation.

 

 

 

 

NGV International
180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne
10am-5pm. Closed Tuesdays

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Federation Square, Melbourne
10am-5pm. Until 9pm Thursdays. Closed Mondays

Exhibitions Currently On Display

Black in Fashion: Mourning to Night
NGV International, St Kilda Road
29 February – 31 August 2008
Free Entry

Black has many resonances within our culture, both in mainstream fashion and sub cultural identities. Black in Fashion will trace the changing significance of black in Western fashion. The garments displayed will begin from the 19th century, exploring the prescriptive codes of etiquette that aligned black with mourning wear, and then trace Black’s use in fashion throughout the 20th century.

The exhibition will consider how Black has been used to signify elegance, urbanity, fetish wear, subversion and sex appeal. Key designers who have used these themes will be presented in this exhibition, including: Yves Saint Laurent, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçon, Madeline Vionnet, Cristobel Balenciaga, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Gianni Versace.

This exhibition will be presenting concurrently at both NGV International on St Kilda Road and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square.

Moon in Reflection: The art of Kim Hoa Tram
11 April – 21 September 2008
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free Entry

Kim Hoa Tram (Shen Jinhe in Chinese) was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1959 to a family originally from Fujian province in China. Kim migrated to Australia in 1984 and is now living in Melbourne. For more than ten years, Kim has immersed himself in Zen (Chan in Chinese) Buddhism. In his art, he draws inspiration from his spirituality in Zen and from his roots in the Chinese tradition, its art and culture, especially Chinese ink painting and calligraphy.

Kim’s paintings and calligraphies are evocative of an aesthetic and spiritual experience. Moon in Reflection is a journey to spiritual enlightenment and artistic discovery. Kim has explored the human condition of birth, old age, sickness and death, the various themes in Zen philosophy: impermanence, delusion and meditation as a way to spiritual awakening (wu in Chinese and satori in Japanese). The paintings and calligraphies in the exhibition show the clarity, simplicity, directness and humour of Zen. The artist draws his inspiration from his own spirituality and immersion in Zen.

Moon in Reflection gathers together works by this artist from the NGV’s permanent Asian collection and will be held in the Asian Temporary Exhibition Gallery during the World Oympics in Beijing, China in 2008.

291: Photographers in the circle of Alfred Stieglitz
2 May – 28 September 2008
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free Entry

Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was a monumental figure in the history of twentieth century photography. In the opening decades of the century Stieglitz championed the cause of artistic photography with the Photo-Secession group, and went on to become an important and influential modernist photographer.

From 1903 to 1917 Stieglitz was the editor of Camera Work, a journal committed to promoting the merits of photography and avant-garde art. During this period he also opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue, New York. Established in 1908, the gallery, which became known simply as 291, was initially a venue showing the work of photographers committed to the ideal of photography as a medium for artistic expression. However, by 1909 Stieglitz began to include the work of painters and sculptors, such as Picasso, Cezanne and Rodin in the schedule of exhibitions.

This exhibition, drawn from the NGV Collection, brings together around 40 works by a number of the photographers who exhibited at 291 and includes the work of photographers Alfred Stiegitz, Edward Steichen, Gertrude Käsebier, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Adolphe De Meyer, Paul Haviland and Paul Strand.

MELBOURNE WINTER MASTERPIECES
Art Deco 1910-1939
Exhibition organised by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
28 June – 5 October 2008
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Admission fees apply

A new blockbuster exhibition, Art Deco 1910 – 1939, will come to the National Gallery of Victoria in 2008 as part of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series.

Art Deco 1910 – 1939 will bring over 300 works across all fields of Art Deco, including painting, jewellery, fashion, film, architecture, photography and furniture.

Some of the highlights of the show will include precious Deco gems from Cartier, exquisite fashion by Chanel, and superb examples of Deco furniture.

The exhibition will come from London’s famed Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A’s own Art Deco exhibition three years ago received over 350,000 visitors making it one of the Museum’s most popular exhibitions.

Look! New Perspectives on the Contemporary Collection
17 July – 26 October 2008
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Free entry

This exhibition, curated from the NGV’s Permanent Collection by Alex Baker, recently appointed Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, brings together a wide-range of works that suggest new interpretative possibilities through previously unconsidered juxtapositions. Incorporating both recently acquired art from the new century and works from as far back as the 1970s, the exhibition underscores how gallery collections are fluid entities that generate new meaning over time.

Look! examines a wide range of art in a variety of media including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and installation, craft, and video.

Klippel/Klippel: Opus 2008
7 August – 2 November 2008
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Free entry

Klippel/Klippel will present a unique dialogue between Andrew Klippel, the music composer and producer, and his father Robert Klippel (1920-2001), one of Australia’s most significant sculptors of the 20th century.

The exhibition will present a group of Robert Klippel’s small-scale sculptures produced during the 1980s and 1990s- some of which have never been publicly displayed. It will also include the monumental bronze work Opus #709. Robert’s son Andrew Klippel will be composing a companion audio response to his late father’s work. The exhibition will be an immersive and sensory experience where the creative energy of these two extraordinary artists will resonate and rebound.

Making a mark: prints and drawings gifted by Ian Brown
29 August 2008 - 8 February 2009
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free Entry

Making a mark: prints and drawings gifted by Ian Brown will survey the collection highlights of one of the most generous supporters of the NGV - the Reverend Ian Brown.

The exhibition comprises principally of works on paper that range from his first acquisition, a significant George Baldessin drawing, to twentieth-century European and American prints by artists including Jasper Johns and Picasso. It also includes a number of important New Zealand artists, a highlight being the work of Colin McCahon.

Collectors have always formed a key role in the development of museum collections, each reflecting the interests, passions, career, travel, religious or political beliefs of the individual, and for this reason such collections are unique. Ian Brown’s choices and motivations for collecting art are explored within this exhibition, together with the benefits for individuals and institutions of collecting art for enjoyment.

Opening in September 2008

Remaking Fashion
26 September 2008- 12 April 2009
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free Entry

In recent years, contemporary fashion has adopted a new aesthetic, where elements of dressmaking have become components of design. Most recently this aesthetic has appeared in John Galliano’s acclaimed Fall 2005 collection for Christian Dior, where the under structures were visible through the exterior fabric, and in Prada’s Fall 2006 collection where eyelets, trouser fasteners, parts of metal scissors and hooks and eyes were grouped in discreet bunches as luxurious decoration.

This exhibition draws on the NGV’s extensive and rare collection of Pierre Cardin toiles, which were donated by Mrs Price of Lucas & Co to the National Gallery of Victoria in 1980. These toiles were used throughout the 1960s to make licensed Pierre Cardin dresses for the Australian market and form the genesis of this aesthetic. More contemporary examples by designers such as Comme des Garcons, Junya Watanabe for Commes de Garcons, Martin Margiela, Hussein Chalayan, Yohji Yanamoto and John Galliano for Christian Dior provide examples of the emergence of development and continuation of this aesthetic.

Opening in October 2008

Across the desert: Aboriginal Batik from Central Australia
10 October 2008 – 1 February 2009
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Free Entry

The NGV’s Indigenous Art and Fashion and Textiles departments will co-curate the exhibition Across the desert, an exhibition on the evolution of batik in the central and western deserts of Australia.

Across the desert will chart the development from the first ground-breaking art classes held at Ernabella in 1971 and Utopia in 1977, to the assured expertise with the medium in the 1980s and 90s to the exquisite work from present day workshops.

The exhibition will contrast experimental cotton batiks of occasional batik artists Warlpiri and Pintupi with the sophisticated raiki wara (long cloths) from Ernabella and Fregon. Featuring the diverse and exceptional work from Ernabella, Fregon, Utopia, Yuendumu and Kintore, the exhibition will showcase the NGV’s unrivalled collection of Indigenous textiles.

Across the desert will coincide with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Australia’s longest running art centre at Ernabella.

The cricket and the dragon: Animals in Asian Art
17 October 2008- 15 March 2009
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free Entry

Aimed at children of all ages, Animals in Asian Art explores the representations of animals across the Asian Collection. The exhibition covers all media and a wide time period.

Elephants, insects, cats, buffalo; animals are a favourite subject matter in all forms of Asian Art. The exhibition represents works from South East Asia, China, India, Persia and Japan and explores the symbolic and mythological meanings of animals in Asian Art.

Animals in Asian Art is a fun and colourful exploration of stories and traditions and provides an insight into the rich history of the many and varied artistic interpretations of the form of the animal.

Order and Disorder: Archives in photography
18 October 2008 – 19 April 2009
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free Entry

In a letter from 1920, the French photographer Eugène Atget wrote that, “this assemblage, artistic and documentary in character, is now complete. I can say I possess all of Old Paris.”

Atget was referring to the culmination of his slow and systematic documentation, over many years, of the streets, shop fronts and buildings of the city. Atget had created a veritable archive of Paris, a photographically exact transcription of his surroundings that went beyond mere documentation.

Atget’s idea of possession through visual records relates to the concept of the archive, as both a collection of data and also as a repository of this information. Photography has long been used to both record and collect visual images of the world, connected to a sense of cultural memory. As a form of cataloguing, photography has the ability to document life, objects and architecture as a type of archive - and by collecting and grouping images together, artists and historians have been able to make sense of photographs by formulating patterns and creating patterns of logic of the world around them.

This exhibition brings together artists from the permanent collection of the NGV drawn from different historical periods that are joined in their exploration of the ‘possessive’ and archival capacity of photography, and the ways in which knowledge and memory can be shaped by these archives.

Artists include: Candida Höfer, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Eugène Atget, Patrick Pound, Les Levine, Christine Cornish, Albert Renger-Patsch, Andrew Hurle.

No standing only dancing: Photographs by Rennie Ellis
31 October 2008 – 22 February 2009
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Free Entry

Photographer Rennie Ellis was renowned for his candid documentary images of contemporary Australian society. He was best known for his photographs of social events, music festivals, fashion parades or nightclubs. But his oeuvre also encompassed the grittier side of life. During his career he photographed life on the streets, sometimes showing the darker aspects of society. Ultimately, Ellis’ vision of the world was celebratory; his photographs document the richness and diversity of contemporary life.

The works in Rennie Ellis represent a range of his images from the 1970s and 1980s, including street photography and images of urban landscapes.

Opening in November 2008

Andreas Gursky
21 November 2008 – 22 February 2009
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Admission Fees Apply

German photographer, Andreas Gursky is one of the worlds leading contemporary international artists working in any media. Gursky has taken the principles of objectivity and, through digital imaging and the scale and sophistication of his work, has pushed photography to extreme lengths. In essence, his work is concerned with the quintessentially modern experience of life in a globalised world.

Through a combination of enormous scale and the most precise pin-sharp detail, he systematically represents the individual’s place within our complex, fast paced consumerist society.

Organised by the Haus der Kunst, Germany, this is the first large-scale exhibition of Gursky’s work to tour Australia and will present all the major works for which he is justly acclaimed.

Opening in December 2008

Rosalie Gascoigne
19 December 2008 – 15 March 2009
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Free entry

After first exhibiting her work at the age of 57, Rosalie Gascoigne rapidly established a reputation as one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists. Following her first exhibition in 1974, Gascoigne subsequently developed an impressive exhibition history. She was also the first female artist to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale.

This major exhibition of Rosalie Gascoigne’s work will range from the box-like assemblages of her early career, through to large scale installations and her creation of works constructed from Schweppes soft-drink crates and retro-reflective road signs. Rosalie Gascoigne will investigate the artist’s ability to draw creative inspiration from the discarded; her intrinsic response to her chosen materials; and her unique ability to evocatively capture and convey the essence of nature and the captivating effects of light, air and space.

Rosalie Gascoigne will be the first major survey exhibition of Gascoigne’s work to be seen in Melbourne and will be accompanied by a comprehensive exhibition catalogue.

Opening in February 2009

Bugatti: Carlo Rembrandt Ettore Jean
6 February – 26 April 2009
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free entry

The work of the Bugatti family - four generations of craftsmen, artists and designers - is as diverse as it is original. The furniture, silver, sculpture and cars produced by these remarkable individuals embody the common themes of truth to materials, love of natural form and originality of thought. The collective achievements of this family represent four generations of a uniquely creative family in the history of design.

The idea for this exhibition stems from the NGV’s acquisition of Carlo Bugatti’s Throne chair in late 2006. This is the first Bugatti work to enter the NGV Collection, and indeed is the only Bugatti work in an Australian public collection, with the exception of a car in the Powerhouse Museum. Since acquiring this chair, furniture, sculptures and cars have come to light in private Australian collections and it is from this interest and enthusiasm from the broader community that the idea of a small, in-focus exhibition on the Bugatti family has emerged.

Opening in March 2009

The Shared Sky
13 March – 2 August 2009
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Free entry

Shared Sky is an exhibition that explores the cultural experience of the night sky over our southern continent. The exhibition includes prints, drawings and photographs as well as Indigenous works in a variety of media. The places of production of the works selected will extend geographically from Warmun in North Western Australia to Melbourne in Victoria. This is a speculative exhibition that juxtaposes works of different cultural backgrounds and locales, approaches and media to explore the breadth of human engagement with the southern sky and its celestial bodies.

The exhibition will coincide with the International Year of Astronomy. It will provide a focus for an exciting educational programme which will look at the evolution of scientific observation and documentation as well as complexity of Australia’s cultural histories.

2009 Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award
13 March – 30 August 2009
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Free entry

The Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is a generous legacy of the late Colin Rigg (1895-1982), a former Secretary of the Felton Bequests' Committee. This ‘Award of Excellence’ focuses on contemporary design practice in the state of Victoria and is a reflection of the Gallery’s continuing support for and commitment to contemporary design. It is arguably the richest and most prestigious prize ever offered to a contemporary designer in Australia, with a prize of $30,000. Each exhibition is devoted to a particular design discipline. The past four exhibitions, in 1994, 1997, 2003 and 2006 represented ceramics, metalwork, textiles and jewellery respectively.

In 2009 the exhibition is dedicated to contemporary furniture design.
 

The Satirical Eye: The golden age of political and social caricature
20 March – 23 August 2009 (TBC)
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free entry

This exhibition presents the Golden Age of satirical images in Europe, covering the period 1730-1870.  It will be drawn from the NGV Prints and Drawings collection, and will feature many works not previously exhibited.  The exhibition traces the development of political and social caricatures, beginning with a selection of prints by William Hogarth, whose observations of city life were very different from conventional urban panoramas.  Rather than representing ordered classical city views, Hogarth focused on street life in the city of London with all its chaos, raucousness and transgressions.  These satirical prints were the first of their kind, and inspired later English satirists Thomas Rowlandson, James Gillray and George Cruikshank.  The work of these three artists forms a main part of the exhibition, and represents the height of satirical wit and invention in England.

Images range from political cartoons that were aimed directly at prominent public figures, to scenarios that highlight social manners as subjects of contempt, mockery or fun.  Because of their audaciousness, such prints played a crucial role in the development of social criticism, revolutionary thinking and sexual liberation.

Top Arts: VCE 2008
25 March – 14 June 2009
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Free entry

A major event in the annual school calendar, Top Arts: VCE 2008 again presents outstanding work completed by young student artists as part of their assessment for VCE Art and Studio Arts.

VCE Art requires students to complete a body of works that involves a broad and innovative investigation and the progressive realisation and resolution of ideas, directions and individual concepts, either in an exploratory folio or through one or more visual solutions. VCE Studio Arts requires students to complete a design process that defines an area of exploration in a work brief and the production of a cohesive folio of finished works of art.

This exhibition highlights the NGV’s strong commitment and support of contemporary art, arts education and showcases the ideas and attitudes of young people. From an initial selection of over 3,000 works and through a rigorous selection process and short listing procedure it is anticipated approximately 60 students will be represented in the exhibition with a diversity of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, multimedia and installation.

Opening in April 2009

Imperial Robes from the NGV Collection (working title)
18 April – 6 September 2009 (TBC)
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free entry

This exhibition will consist of the NGV’s holdings of 19th century Chinese imperial robes. Most of the robes were presented by George (Chinese) Morrison in the 1920s and have not been displayed in a temporary exhibition before. The exhibition will explore the design of the robes in the Manchu tradition and the cosmic and auspicious symbols of imperial power from the Chinese tradition. The magnificent court robes are woven in silk and are delicately embroidered.

Among the highlights in the exhibition are undergarments woven with delicate branches of bamboo, costumes worn by Chinese women in contrast to Manchu court ladies, and examples of `bound-feet shoes’.
 

John Brack
24 April – 9 August 2009
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Admission fees apply

More than any other artist of his generation, John Brack (1920-99) was a painter of modern Australian life.  Unlike his contemporaries, Brack painted neither myth nor history and when he focused on the landscape, it was the sprawl of suburbia that caught his attention rather than the ubiquitous Australian bush. 

Brack has long been considered the quintessential Melbourne artist, a reputation which rests in no small part on the renown of his painting, Collins St, 5pm 1955.  Today it seems more appropriate to view him as a distinctively Australian artist who, with a penetrating gaze and keen sense of irony, documented aspects of contemporary life in what have become some of the most iconic images of 20th century Australian art.  More than depictions of familiar subjects however, Brack’s paintings are cerebral exercises which slowly reveal references to sources as diverse as the history of art and literature within complex layers of meaning.

This major retrospective, the first in more than twenty years, will survey John Brack’s complete oeuvre, incorporating paintings and works on paper from all of his major series.  The exhibition will be accompanied by a significant catalogue. 

Opening in May 2009

Persuasion
22 May – 8 November 2009
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free entry

Fashion plays an important, if often unstated, role in the works and letters of Jane Austen (1775-1817). Her interest in changing styles and her witty and perceptive comments mirrored the complex relationships between French and English fashions and society in her lifetime. 

Persuasion surveys the dramatic changes in dress and social customs that took place at the end of the eighteenth century and informed the style of fashionable dress in England during the time of Jane Austen’s life and writings. The era witnessed Revolution in France, political and social instability in England and the Napoleonic Wars. European fashion saw the triumph of informal styles - classically-inspired simple, white muslin gowns - over the elaborate brocaded silk robes associated with France’s ancien régime. The exhibition concludes with the next decisive shift in English fashion, towards a more romantic vision, which first emerged at the end of Austen’s life.

The display will comprise approximately fifty works including garments and accessories including dresses, bonnets, shoes, Kashmir and Paisley shawls. Selected examples of paintings, hand-coloured etchings and engravings and a small number of decorative arts and jewellery will be integrated with the display. This exhibition is based on the NGV Collection with a small number of private and institutional loans.

Light Years: Photographs of Science and Space
8 May – 27 September 2009
NGV International, St Kilda Road
Free entry

In 1950, the British Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle speculated that "once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available, we shall, in an emotional sense, acquire an additional dimension … and a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose." 

This exhibition will bring together works from the NGV Collection which depict actual space travel, in the form of photographs from the archives of N.A.S.A.; imagined space travel; images of astronomical and scientific experimentation; and photographs that show the aesthetic influence of space and scientific research on popular culture.  It will focus, in particular, on the period of the 1950s and 1960s, as a particularly exciting time historically and artistically for the research, voyage and visualisation of space.