Issue 139 | October 2010

Now is the time to visit the NGA—the opening season commences on Friday 1 October.

The 11 Indigenous galleries and new entrance will be open to the public from Friday, kicking off the opening season celebrations.

Get your diaries because October will be big. Regular events like The Big Draw and the Australian Print Symposium are joined by fresh faces in great new spaces. This is a stick up sees the Gallery overrun by street artists for a day to celebrate the opening of Space invaders, the exhibition Anton Bruehl begins and we host the forum Public culture 2010: the art museum and the digital future.

But you don't have to wait until then to get lost and entranced in Life, death & magic, a spectalcuar exhibition of Asian art on until 31 October. Enjoy.

Australian-born photographer Anton Bruehl was one of the most successful photographic illustrators in America, renowned especially for colour photography.

He was most famous at the time for the advertising campaigns he undertook where he created ‘characters’ out of the products he was advertising. He began work for the Kentucky bourbon brand Four Roses in the early 1930s and made images for the brand until the late 1950s.

One Four Roses ad called Manhattan magic of 1948 showed a Manhattan cocktail hovering above a table as if by magic. The 'Roses’ went on all sorts of adventures on trains, on cruises, to concerts.

More about In the spotlight: Anton Bruehl phorographs 1920s–1950s

Purchase tickets online for Life, death and magic to go into the draw to win a trip for two to Bali

What people are saying on Twitter:
Life, death & magic @NatGalleryAus was fascinating+moving.

Artonline special offer: Be one of the first five to email artonline@nga.gov.au with a ticket receipt number purchased after 22 September to receive a free copy of the Life, death & magic exhibition catalogue.

Space invaders opens 30 October and the Gallery will be overrun by street artists.

This is an excerpt from an interview with Australian street artist Vexta by National Gallery curator Jaklyn Babington. The full interview will be available on the exhibition website.

JB: In recent years, Australian street art has transitioned from the streets to the gallery. I see you as one of the Australia’s key ‘cross-over’ artists. You have established a successful gallery career but you are still enthusiastically producing work in the streets. Do you see yourself as a ‘cross-over artist’?

V: I guess I could be seen as some kind of “cross-over artist”. I didn’t go to art school, I taught myself. I was never part of the art world. I guess if you’re a cross-over artist you have to come from somewhere and go to somewhere else, right? I just wanted to make things that are beautiful, objects that make people feel and think about different ways of living and being. I feel that my work has more in common with outsider and low-brow art than the contemporary high-end art world.

More about Space invaders (full website coming soon)

The Big Draw
Sunday 10 October 11.00 am
Come and draw the distinctive architecture and inspirational works of art in the Gallery. People of all abilities and ages can participate in the fun. People with disabilities and carers are welcome.

Saturday 30 October 10.30 am
This is a stick up: a Saturday of street art at the National Gallery of Australia
To launch the exhibition Space invaders, the Gallery is preparing itself to be overrun by street artists who will demonstrate their techniques and distinctive styles in a range of free activities.

BOOK NOW!
15–17 October
MATERIALITY: the seventh Australian print symposium
Tim Maguire will be out from London to talk about his huge-scale digital prints from the last few years, as seen in Contemporary Australia: Optimism at Queensland Art Gallery. Richard Tipping will be doing a live cross from overseas to answer questions. Jon Cattapan will be talking about the influence on his work from his recent stint as an official war artist in Timor Leste.

Friday 22 October 6.30 pm
Origins, voyage, cosmos
$45, $35 members/concession (includes exhibition ticket) | bookings essential 02 6240 6528
View Life, death and magic and enjoy a haunting performance of new and ancient sounds by Synergy Percussion, Australia's premier percussion group. Pay bar and hawker-style food available.

Members Stage One Opening Celebrations
Join us Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening of the opening week to celebrate the ‘new look’ National Gallery.

Friday 1 October, Sunday 3 October 6.00 pm
Members cocktail party
$60 members / $70 non-members| bookings essential 02 6240 6528

Saturday 2 October 6.00 pm Members dinner
$145 members / $155 non-members bookings essential 02 6240 6528

Sunday 31 October 6.00 pm
Life, death and magic: Halloween Dinner
Dress: devilish and debonair | $110 members, $130 guests | bookings essential 02 6240 6528
Farewell the exhibition with a Halloween-themed dinner; enjoy a talk and tour followed by a three-course meal.

Special members offer:  The first 15 members to book into the Halloween Dinner and mention the Artonline offer will receive a double pass to see the upcoming film Let me in PLUS the first 5 members to book will also receive a copy of the original novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. 

Become a member and receive a range of benefits.

Conservation of Indigenous art

In preparation for the Stage One opening lots of conservation work has been completed on the works of art filling the 11 new Indigenous galleries.

Special attention is given to delicate barks and traditional materials, however more modern works of art also present issues such as paint flaking.

The above image shows a detail of the work under UV light. Click through to Flickr for more conservation images of this work which has been attributed to Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri and/or
Timmy Payungka Tjapangarti
c 1927–1998 and c 1935–2000
Pintupi people, Papunya,
Western Desert, Northern Territory.

See more conservation images on Flickr

Monet's haystacks

Gallery favourite Monet's Haystacks, midday will not be on display for the next few months. The masterpiece has left us for a jaunt to Paris where it will join friends at Les Galeries nationales du Grand Palais for Claude Monet 1840–1926.

The international art rehang due in a couple of weeks will see this new purchase on the wall. This acquisition by Toulouse-Lautrec was made possible through the National Gallery of Australia Foundation and the Poynton Bequest, 2010.