Looking Great in ’88

Looking Great in ’88 provides a lively national picture of the fresh and diverse work of young artists in schools today. Education services at the National Gallery of Victoria presents a student exhibition annually to increase awareness of the importance of art education in Victoria, but this year to celebrate the Bicentenary we have invited schools Australia-wide to
contribute.

A selection from this exhibition is to be preserved and displayed again in two hundred years’ time for the delight of future generations. Contemplate how the interests students reveal through works in this exhibition might change over two centuries! Perhaps a subject like ‘Dad and I fishing’ will evolve from a sturdy little boat rocking gently on the sea, to an underwater scene with gilled father and son using strange sonar devices to trap mutations of our present-day crayfish! Equally possible, ‘the Frog’ leaping to catch its insect lunch may have ceased to exist, as ponds and wetlands continue to be drained to accommodate the exploding human population.

The influence of computers is already evident, but what part will lasers, holograms and new technology play in the development of the two-dimensional image in art programs of the future?

Children have a remarkable knack of being able to capture the significant, to reveal a passion or to pursue a new discovery with refreshing enthusiasm. Whatever the next two hundred years may bring we can rely on students for candour and spontaneity in expressing their concerns and responses to the world around them.

Sourced from: Education services of the National Gallery of Victoria, Looking Great in ’88, National Gallery of Victoria, 1988, foreword