Go back in time to 1928 when Brisbane was a growing city

On display in the Queensland Art Gallery’s Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13) Brisbane townscape 1928 (illustrated) by William Bustard (1894-1973) depicts a growing city in a construction boom establishing itself as a state capital. We look over rooftops toward Queen Street from Edward Street, to the City Hall clock tower…

Telia rumal: Double ikat textiles from South India

This collection of extraordinary telia rumal (some of which are on display within the exhibition ‘I Can Spin Skies’ at the Queensland Art Gallery’s Henry and Amanda Bartlett Galleries (5 & 6) was made using time-consuming double ikat dyeing techniques. Few weavers still maintain the skills required to create these attractive textiles, in part because…

Erica McGilchrist: Picturing change

On display in the Australian Art Collection, Queensland Art Gallery (Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries), Photographic machine 1968 (illustrated) by Australian artist Erica McGilchrist — whose career can be defined by the freedom with which she explored different styles and directions — was a passionate activist for women’s art, and ahead of her time.…

Art Nouveau jewellery

Crafted by French master horn-carver Georges Pierre (1873–1943), Cicada pendant necklace c.1910 (illustrated), and three other delicate examples of Art Nouveau jewellery already in the Collection, greatly enhances the Gallery’s holdings from this significant period. Georges Pierre ‘Cicada pendant necklace’ c.1910 The shapes and rhythms of nature inspired the style now recognised as Art Nouveau.…

Bundaberg Post Office: Then (1891) & Now

Although the artist of A view of the new Post Office & School of Arts, Bourbong St. Bundaberg from Barolin St., Augt. 1st 1891, Queensland 1891 (illustrated) is unknown — like the artists of many images of nineteenth century Queensland — the watercolour quite possibly by an architectural draftsman, is significant in showcasing the growing…

The Shahnameh: Persian miniatures

The Gallery has acquired ten miniature paintings from a volume of the Shahnameh, or ‘Book of Kings’, by the Persian poet Abu’l Qasim Firdausi (935–1020CE), the epic poem captures the lives and stories of the ancient Iranian kings, from the creation of the world to the Arab conquest of Iran in 642.1 The Shahnameh —…