The Henderson Four machines were the largest and fastest motorcycles of their time, and appealed to both sport riders and especially police departments who favored them as they were faster than anything else on the roads. Not long after production began, in 1912 Carl Stearns Clancy (1890 – 1971) decided to choose a Henderson Four…
Continue reading » “The Henderson Four: The largest and fastest motorcycle of its time”
As conservators caring for a range of paintings in the QAGOMA collection, we began to notice that some contemporary paintings on pre-primed canvases do not always behave predictably during conservation treatments. This, combined with questions from artists, led us to a three year collaborative project with colleagues in Singapore and Melbourne to assess the range…
Continue reading » “Investigating Contemporary Artist Canvases”
Co-curators Charles Falco and Ulton Guilfoyle welcome you to the exhibition ‘The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire‘ — their videos featured here explore the absolute highlights from the motorcycles on display. We look forward to seeing you back here soon to view more, such as the 1958 Harley-Davidson Sportster XL, 1969 Velocette Sportsman, 1969 BSA Rocket…
Unconventional types of damage require unconventional treatment strategies. This is certainly true for the collaborative major treatment QAGOMA’s paintings conservation team completed on Gordon Bennett’s (1955 – 2014) Number three 2004, a significant diptych painted in acrylic on Belgian linen. Bennett is well-known for his highly figurative narrative-driven commentaries on Australian colonial history and contemporary…
Continue reading » “Conserving Gordon Bennett’s diptych ‘Number three’”
With great sadness, we acknowledge the recent passing of Kumantye (Michael Nelson) Jagamara OAM (b.c.1946-2020). One of the foremost champions of the Western Desert painting movement, Kumantye was a dynamic innovator of Papunya’s second wave of painters, known for creating evocative newforms to portray his ancestral inheritance, He was also a deeply respected Warlpiri/Luritja Elder…
Engineer Rex Tilbrook (1915-77) first built an all-Australian motorcycle in 1947, and from his Adelaide factory from 1950, the first production roadsters were sold, identified by oversized fuel tanks to cover the distances typically travelled in Australia, after originally producing a range of motorcycle components and accessories, as well as the Tilbrook classic sidecar to suit…
Continue reading » “The last Australian Tilbrook motorcycle”