The preparation of Modern Britain 1900-1960 has highlighted the rich history that lies behind the establishment of the National Gallery of Victoria's great collections of British art, as well as many other Australia and New Zealand collections.
Mary Kisler, Mackelvie Curator of International Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, New Zealand, one of the principal lenders to Modern Britain, shares with us some stories of how Auckland's strong British holdings were formed.
The Sloop Inn, St Ives 1926
Duration: 02min 09sec
Duncan Grant's portrait of his friend Vanessa Bell pregnant with their child, Angelica, offers a fascinating, intimate glimpse into the complex world of the Bloomsbury circle. Mary Kisler takes us into the background behind this painting, and Grant's relationship with Bell.
Mary Kisler discusses Phillip Connard's delicious painterly confection, the exquisite Nude of c. 1922-23, in the context of William Orpen's The English Nude of 1900, which is displayed alongside it in Modern Britain.
Frances Hodgkins is regarded as New Zealand's most significant expatriate painter. Mary Kisler considers her life and influence, and analyses the intriguing composition of Pastorale, one of the artist's classic landscape paintings.
In 1928 the enchantingly naive marine paintings of the Cornish fisherman Alfred Wallis were discovered by a number of artists, icluding Christopher Wood, who were charmed by their fresh, untutored vision. Mary Kisler considers Wallis as a painter, and the power he exerted over Wood, who was fascinated with notions of the 'primitive' in art.
The Sloop Inn, St Ives was presented to the Auckland Art Gallery by Lucy Wertheim in 1948. Mary Kisler discusses Wertheim's role as a prominent dealer and collector in Modern Britain.
British realist panters of the 1950s placed great emphasis upon images of urban domesticity. Modern Britain reunites three monumental paintings by John Bratby, Three Self-Portraits (National Gallery of Victoria), Interior with Fireplace and Window at Greenwich (Art Gallery of New South Wales), and Windows (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki) that were last seen together in the artist's solo exhibition at London's Beaux Arts Gallery in 1957. Mary Kisler analyses the rich visual structure of Windows.
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