In 1969, the announcement of the Queensland Art Gallery’s new premises to be built at South Brisbane, bounded by Melbourne and Grey Streets to Stanley Street and the Brisbane River, and ultimately morphing into the Queensland Cultural Centre, would signal the transformation of the area. The project would be the catalyst for other major developments at South Bank.
Acquisition of land for the Cultural Centre occurred in three stages: the Art Gallery site, which would in due course, include the Museum (1969–77); Performing Arts Complex and Library sites (1975–79); and the Russell Street site for future expansion (1978–80).
As we celebrate 40 years at South Bank, we look at the buildings that occupied the South Brisbane site and surroundings before the Queensland Art Gallery opened, unearthing images of the site preparation, the building still under construction, and fit out of the interior spaces.
The Art Gallery was initially to be located along Grey Street, Melbourne Street intersection on the site of the York House Private Hotel where the Museum is today, and between it and the river edge was parkland, the Gallery’s horizontal buildings were to step down as terraces to the river, however when the Cultural Centre precinct was proposed, the Art Gallery’s placement moved closer to Stanley Street and the river allowing the Museum to share the footprint.
Model of the Queensland Art Gallery, located along Grey Street, Melbourne Street intersection, 1973 / Photograph: Richard Stringer
Future site and surroundings
Victoria Building, Melbourne and Stanley Street intersection, South Brisbane, demolished 1966 to make way for the new and third permanent Victoria Bridge / P53949 / Image courtesy: Royal Historical Society of QueenslandHotel Victoria, Melbourne and Stanley Street intersection (riverside), South Brisbane, c.1950, the site of the Performing Arts Complex plaza / 31557-0001-0082 / Image courtesy: State Library of Queensland, BrisbaneGrey Street from Melbourne Street towards the William Jolly Bridge, South Brisbane, 1950. York House Private Hotel (middle distance) demolished for the proposed Queensland Art Gallery site, now the Museum site, and Bayards Department Store (right) now the Performing Arts Complex site / BCC-B54-647 / Image courtesy: Brisbane City CouncilGrey Street and Melbourne Street Intersection toward the Victoria Bridge to the right and William Jolly Bridge to the left, South Brisbane. Originally proposed as the Queensland Art Gallery site, now the Museum corner / Collection: QAGOMA Research LibraryThe second permanent Victoria Bridge, South Brisbane, October 1953 / BCC-B54-4278 / Image courtesy: Brisbane City CouncilGrey Street and Melbourne Street Intersection toward the South Brisbane Railway Station (middle distance), South Brisbane, 1971. Bayards Department Store can be seen on the left / BCC-B54-35045 / Image courtesy: Brisbane City CouncilAbandoned buildings, Grey Street toward William Jolly Bridge to the right, down from York House Private Hotel, Melbourne Street Intersection. Site of the current Museum / Collection: QAGOMA Research LibraryConstruction of the current and third permanent Victoria Bridge to the left and the second permanent bridge to the right, 1968 / 108235 – 21218208600002061 / Image courtesy: State Library of Queensland, BrisbaneOverlooking the future site of the Queensland Art Gallery, South Bank, 1976 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library
A hallmark of the Queensland Art Gallery and Cultural Centre as a whole is an integrated approach to the design of the architecture’s low-profilemonolithic forms, geometric approach to design, and simple, ‘pure’ construction details, all in parallel with the Brisbane River. Specifically the use of a simple palette of materials throughout; a monolithic, white, lightly sandblasted concrete finish and glass, with bronze, stone and timber detailing. The architects settled on a concrete mix that included: white cement from South Australia; fine white sand from Stradbroke Island, the second largest sand island in the world; and fine and coarse aggregates from the Pine River, also in the Moreton Bay Region.
The Queensland Art Gallery was opened by the Premier of Queensland on 21 June 1982, and in the same year, the Gallery won the Sir Zelman Cowan Award for Public Buildings, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ highest award for public buildings.
Removal of the old wharf structures along the Brisbane River / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library
Site works and workshop for the Queensland Art Gallery / Collection: QAGOMA Research LibraryQueensland Art Gallery construction with earthworks underway along the Brisbane River / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library
Construction
Queensland Art Gallery construction, c.1976 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library
Queensland Art Gallery construction, June 1979 / Collection: QAGOMA Research LibraryQueensland Art Gallery construction c.1980 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library
Fit out
The Queensland Art Gallery building still under construction, July 1981 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library
The Queensland Art Gallery during fit out, March 1982 / Collection: QAGOMA Research Library
Queensland Art Gallery
Queensland Art Gallery, 1982 / Collection: QAGOMA Research LibraryQueensland Art Gallery, South Bank and surrounding South Brisbane, 15 June 1982 / BCC-B120-7876 / Image courtesy: Brisbane City CouncilQueensland Art Gallery, South Bank and surrounding South Brisbane, 15 June 1982 / BCC-B120-7879 / Image courtesy: Brisbane City CouncilMax Dupain, Australia 1911-1992 / Looking across the river towards the Queensland Art Gallery, South Bank 1982 / Collection: QAGOMA Research LibraryQueensland Art Gallery prior to opening, June 1982
This is an edited extract from the Queensland Cultural Centre Conservation Management Plan (published 2017), prepared by Conrad Gargett in association with Thom Blake, Historian and heritage consultant. Thom Blake researched and wrote the chapters on the history of the Cultural Centre and revised statement of significance. The individual building’s architecture, the site’s setting, landscape and fabric were investigated by Luke Pendergast with principal support by Robert Riddel. Alan Kirkwood and Peter Roy assisted with advice on the design approach and history of the planning and construction of the Cultural Centre.
Winifred Rumney’s Barron Falls 1906 is a powerful painting capturing the raging waters in minute detail after substantial rainfall, the artist acknowledging the power of the forces of nature. The Falls became one of the most popular tourist attractions in Queensland after the Kuranda Scenic Railway opened in 1891, allowing visitors to access its natural features.
Winifred Rumney (1870-1946) painted Barron Falls in Far North Queensland in the early part of the twentieth century, it is a unique work painted in Edwardian Queensland at a time when most women artists were painting flower pieces. It is even more unusual because this large landscape was executed by a little known artist who taught at a Technical College in Cairns.
Winifred Rumney ‘Barron Falls’ 1906
Winifred Rumney, England/Australia 1870-1946 / Barron Falls 1906 / Oil on canvas / 128.9 x 86.2cm / Gift of the Agent-General for Queensland, London 1971 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Barron Falls documented in the early twentieth century
Barron Gorge National Park is a World Heritage Area north-west of Cairns and part of the traditional lands of the Djabugandji Bama people who maintain a close spiritual connection with the country. The steep tiered cascade waterfall tumbling over craggy rocks on the Barron River is located where the water descends from the elevated regions of the Atherton Tablelands to the Cairns coastal lowlands.
This photo was taken from a now disused viewing point along the walking path to the bottom of the falls / Harriett Pettifore Brims 1864-1939 / Barron Falls c.1900 / 31054-0001-0129 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, BrisbaneHarriett Pettifore Brims 1864-1939 / Tourists at the viewing platform, Barron Falls c.1900 / 31054-0001-0230 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, BrisbaneOverlooking the Barron Falls from the railway station c.1910 / 30467-0001-0028 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane / The original capture used for ‘Barron Falls (from Station), Cairns Railway, Queensland’ (from ‘Coloured Shell Series’) c.1910Unknown, Australia / Barron Falls (from Station), Cairns Railway, Queensland (from ‘Coloured Shell Series’) c.1910 / Postcard: Colour lithograph on paper / 9 x 13.7cm / 116477 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Kuranda Scenic Railway
The Barron Falls can be viewed from the Historic Scenic Railway which cuts through the National Park on its journey between Cairns to Kuranda, just 27km away and at an altitude of 330m. Construction of the railway began in 1886, when completed in 1891 the Falls became one of the most popular tourist attractions in Queensland, with visitors able to access its natural features and scenery.
Unknown, Australia / Barron Falls and train, Cairns Railway, Queensland (from ‘Coloured Shell Series’) c.1910 / Postcard: Colour lithograph on paper / 9 x 13.7cm / Gift of Glenn R Cooke through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2014 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern ArtUnknown, Australia / Barron Falls Station, Cairns Railway, Queensland (from ‘Coloured Shell Series’) c.1910 / Postcard: Colour lithograph on paper / 9 x 13.7cm / 1319089 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Winifred May Rumney
Winifred Rumney (nee Quinnell), the daughter of Elvina Robinson and Colonel R.J. Quinnell, according to her own story, My career as an artist by Winifred Rumney, both she and her brother Cecil, a founder of London’s Royal Society of Miniature Artists, showed artistic promise from an early age. She studied freehand and model drawing at the College of Preceptors in London from 1884 to 1886, before attending the South Kensington School of Art from 1886 to 1887.
After arriving in Australia in 1889, she taught at the Sandgate Ladies’ College from 1890 to 1892. Sandgate, located below the Redcliffe peninsula, was a popular seaside destination for Brisbane’s early settlers in the late 1800s.
From 1853, Rumney travelled to Victoria and painted botanical scenes at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne for both Baron Ferdinand von Mueller (1825-96), the Victorian Government Botanist, and for a time Director of the Gardens; and William Robert Guilfoyle (1840-1912), landscape gardener and botanist, acknowledged as the architect of the Melbourne Gardens.
Traveling to Tasmania, Rumney took lessons in ‘sky and foliage’ from Gladstone Eyre (1862-1933), an Australian portrait artist and landscape painter. In 1896 she married Thomas Rumney in Launceston.
By 1900 Rumney had returned to Queensland, living first in Rockhampton and then in Cairns where she taught painting at Cairns Technical College. While in Cairns, Rumney gave private painting classes and sold her canvases, depicting Far North Queensland scenes.
In 1915, she returning to Melbourne after her husband died where she continued to teach.
George Wishart (1872-1921) was born in Brisbane and was taught painting by Isaac Walter Jenner, Brisbane’s foremost marine painter (illustrated below). Wishart also worked professionally as a photographer and was associated with local firm Thomas Mathewson Photographic Studio (see contemporary depictions of Brisbane below). Wishart’s painting A busy corner of the Brisbane River 1897 (illustrated) is of considerable interest and importance as paintings which represent the commercial activity on the Brisbane River are extremely rare.
George Wishart ‘A busy corner of the Brisbane River’ 1897
George Wishart, Australia 1872-1921 / A busy corner of the Brisbane River 1897 / Oil on canvas / 76 x 101.5cm / Acquired before 1962 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Wishart mainly painted scenes of Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River. A busy corner of the Brisbane River is the most significant of his works, when it was first exhibited at the Queensland International Exhibition in 1897 it was highly praised as ‘decidedly one of the attractions of the gallery’. The reviewer from The Queenslander on 15 May that year continued: ‘The monotony of colour noticed in many of Wishart’s early works, suggesting that photography and imagination took the place of a close study of the ever-varying and always perfect colouring of nature, has in this work entirely disappeared. All those accidental lights and tints of nature are beautifully reproduced’, with the reviewer commenting on the ‘brilliant and sunny’ depiction of Brisbane’s wharf-side activity.
The enthusiasm of the reviewer most probably indicates that the work’s tonal values have been much reduced in the intervening century, however the painting has recently undergone major conservation (see conservation video below).
Contemporary depictions of Brisbane
Joseph Augustine Clarke ‘Panorama of Brisbane’ 1880
Public collections in Queensland have few outstanding examples of the work of early artists. Of the major works dating from the 19th century, the Panorama of Brisbane 1880 by J A (Joseph Augustine) Clarke (1840–90), Queensland‘s first professional artist and art teacher, is undoubtedly the best known and most significant. You can view the nearly 4–metre–long panorama on the display within the Queensland Art Gallery’s Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13).
J A (Joseph Augustine) Clarke, Australia 1840–1890 / Panorama of Brisbane 1880 / Oil on canvas / 137 x 366cm / Collection: Queensland Museum
Poul C Poulsen ‘Brisbane River’ 1880
Poul C Poulsen, Australia 1857-1925 / Brisbane River 1880 / Albumen photograph on paper mounted on card / 14.8 x 20.9cm (image) / Gift of Glenn R Cooke through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2009 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Brisbane photographed by Thomas Mathewson 1881
Thomas Mathewson, Scotland/Australia 1842–1934 / Brisbane photographed from Bowen Terrace 1881 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Isaac Walter Jenner ‘View of Brisbane’ 1885
View o f Brisbane 1885 (illustrated) and Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm 1888 (illustrated) serve an important function — at the time of their execution such works supplied the population of early Brisbane with artistic impressions of their new home, in some ways validating it — art as a sense of place.
Isaac Walter Jenner, England/Australia 1836-1902 / (View of Brisbane) 1885 / Oil on wood panel / 21.7 x 52.5cm / Purchased 1986 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Isaac Walter Jenner ‘Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm’ 1888
As historical documents, Isaac Walter Jenner’s paintings of early Brisbane record the busy shipping life of the colony. This is particularly true of Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm (illustrated), not only for its depiction of early Brisbane, but especially of the rigging of the ships, which testify to Jenner’s love and knowledge of the sea. The main ship in the painting is the RMS Quetta, which was regularly used on the London-Brisbane ocean mail service.
Isaac Walter Jenner, England/Australia 1836-1902 / Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm 1888 / Oil on board / 14.5 x 21.8cm / Purchased 1995. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
City Botanic Gardens and Kangaroo Point cliffs c.1913
The Kangaroo Point Cliffs, across the Brisbane River from the Botanical Gardens, c.1913 / 94520 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
A busy corner of the Brisbane River records the commercial activity at the Eagle Street Wharves, now part of Brisbane’s Central Business District. Towards the background, Wishart has captured the Bunya pines in the old botanic reserve, later to become the City Botanic Gardens established in 1828 to provide food for the early penal colony. Further back, the light strikes the cliffs at Kangaroo Point (illustrated above).
A photograph of the ‘AWSN Wharf and Thomas Browns Building’ from 1989 (illustrated) shows the two galvanised iron covered warehouses that Wishart depicts. The row of windows set just below the roof-line in the distant building is particularly distinctive. Similarly, the photograph ‘Eagle Street Wharves’ from 1888 (illustrated below) is close to the character of the painting, other than the masted ship facing the opposite direction, suggesting that Wishart based his works on photographs.
Eagle Street Wharves
The first wharf along Eagle Street was built in 1858 by the Australasian Steam Navigation Company (ASN) where passenger and cargo ships would dock in Brisbane. By 1864, the wharf was expanded and extended in both directions, upstream and downstream.
The construction of the new Customs House (illustrated below) on Queen Street with river frontage, stimulated wharf development around the Eagle Street Wharves with the grand new building opening on the site of its predecessor in 1889. This confirmed that the Petrie Bight area was still the heart of the port of Brisbane for some time.
Downstream from the Customs House, wharf development occurred a little later, extending towards the bend of the river opposite Kangaroo Point below Bowen Terrace, then further downstream around Newstead.
Today, the original Eagle Street Wharf is home to waterfront dining, with the Eagle Street Pier further enhanced by the Howard Smith Wharves entertainment precinct downstream under the Story Bridge.
Petrie Bight & Kangaroo Point 1875
Sailing ships moored in the Brisbane River at Petrie Bight, overlooking the buildings at the Eagle Street Wharves and the Kangaroo Point cliffs in 1875 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Kangaroo Point Cliffs 1878
A family in their garden on the cliffs at Kangaroo Point in 1878, with ships docked at the Eagle Street Wharves across the river in the background / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Eagle Street Wharves 1880s
Eagle Street Wharves c.1880 / 185472 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, BrisbaneThe Town Reach near Eagle Street Wharf 1880, taken from the wharf looking uphill to Eagle Street / 185471 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, BrisbaneSailing ships docked at Eagle Street Wharf c.1888 / 158916 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Eagle Street Wharves 1890s
Eagle Street Wharves c.1898 / 142817 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Customs House 1898
Brisbane’s Customs House 1898 / 65241 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Watch secrets revealed through conservation
Go behind-the-scenes as we delve into the secrets of A busy corner of the Brisbane River. The painting has undergone major conservation, and as a late 19th century painting, it has special conservation needs. These are mostly due to the difficulty of removing stubborn wax and varnish layers from thinly painted, sometimes solvent sensitive paint, in areas such as the rigging. The varnish had become yellowed and some of the in-painting which had been completed to reinstate or restore damaged areas had discoloured.
Infrared images of the painting indicate that Wichart prepared a very careful under-drawing, we can see exquisite outlining of the large ships and their rigging, as well as free sketching of figures and cargo, and the horizon of the Kangaroo Point cliffs.
Also revealed are many small changes, examination shows that the small boat in the foreground of the completed painting was an afterthought (see illustration below), as seen in the X-ray, the river continues through the boat design, and there is no sketch of it in the original composition.
Infrared image
Conservation Infrared image of A busy corner of the Brisbane River 1897
Prior to conservation
George Wishart, Australia 1872-1921 / A busy corner of the Brisbane River (prior to conservation) 1897 / Oil on canvas / 76 x 101.5cm / Acquired before 1962 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
We look back at all the Queensland Art Gallery’s Watermall installations from 1993 — ten memorable Asia Pacific artist projects encompassing almost three decades.
The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) was designed around the Brisbane River and the Watermall within the Gallery runs parallel to the waterway threading its way through the river city. This grand water feature is the Gallery’s most striking feature and a visitor favourite — the perfect backdrop for these spectacular installations. Always surprising, always inviting, what has been your most-loved Asia Pacific Triennial?
‘The First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT1) focused exclusively on the contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific. Originally intended as the first of three exhibitions in the series, APT1 brought together nearly 200 works by 76 artists from 13 countries and territories, informed by concepts of tradition and change in the region. The overwhelmingly positive international reaction to APT1 paved the way for future major exhibitions of contemporary Asian and Pacific art.
While the first Triennial looked at bringing the past into the now — ‘The Second Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT2) focused on the time at hand. The exhibition concept of ‘present encounters’ meant engaging the immediate present in the works themselves.
The Watermall featured the Waka Collective, a collective of New Zealand/Polynesian artists located within the concept of two wakas (Maori canoes), one containing five men (Chris Booth, Brett Graham, John Pule, Peter Robinson and Ben Webb) and the other six women (Bronwynne Cornish, Judy Millar, Ani O’Neill, Lisa Reihana, Marie Shannon, and Yuk King Tan). Together, they create one Pacific narrative.
APT3 | 9 September 1999 – 26 January 2000
Cai Guo-Qiang, China b.1957 / Bridge Crossing 1999 / Bamboo, rope, rainmaking device, aluminum boat, and laser sensors / Site specific work commissioned 1999 for ‘The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT3) / Courtesy: Cai Guo-Qiang
Bridge Crossing
‘Beyond the Future: The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT3) emphasised artists whose works cross boundaries between past and future, and between traditional and contemporary life, with many works inviting audience interaction.
Cai Guo-Qiang explored the meeting of cultures with his narrow bamboo suspension bridge Bridge Crossing. Spanning the Watermall, the crossing made you consider whether to back up and make way for the other to cross, or consider how to allow each other to pass, eventually enchanting visitors with a spritz of fine mist who successfully made it past the central meeting point.
The installation of the Gallery’s Narcissus garden is an incarnation of the reflective work that has held the artist’s attention for many years. Kusama creates a floating carpet of mirrored spheres, the balls reflecting the building’s architecture back onto itself from an infinite number of angles, creating a world that is both trapped and indefinite.
Comprised of approximately 2,000 mirrored balls, the spectacular and mesmerising Narcissus garden was conceived especially for installation in the Watermall during ‘The 4th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT4), the work shaped by both the currents and the limits of the water.
Composed of 270,000 crystal pieces, Boomerang is a site specific work created for ‘The 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT5), an imposing example of Ai Weiwei’s strategy of working playfully across cultural contexts. Shaped after the iconic Australian Aboriginal throwing tool, this oversized, intensely lit, waterfall-style chandelier fills the soaring space above the Watermall as if it were in a hotel’s grand foyer.
Ai Weiwei has a history of bringing everyday things into art museum settings. He has long acknowledged the influence of early-twentieth-century artist Marcel Duchamp, who famously brought otherwise banal objects into a gallery and declared them art, thereby creating the ‘readymade’. Accordingly, Boomerang takes the chandelier, with its connotations of wealth and opulence, and enlarges it to absurd scale, shaping it into the motif of an object associated with exotic conceptions of Australia.
Someoftheartistsin ‘The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT6)exploredelementsofarchitecturein their work. Ayaz Jokhio’s major architectural Watermall project, entitled a thousand doors and windows too… takes the form of an octagonal building, with each wall containing a mihrab, or niche, which in a mosque points toward Mecca.
The soaring structure takes its inspiration from the verse by Bhittai,thegreatSindhiSufipoetofthelateMughalera.Jokhio considers the work a piece of ‘conceptual architecture’; a physical translation of Bhittai’s expression of the omnipresence of God. As in the Islamic tradition of ‘hidden architecture’, its focus is on an internal, enclosed space, in which the work truly exists ‘only when entered, penetrated and experienced from within’.
The Gallery commissioned Ressort by Huang Yong Ping, one of the signature works of ‘The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT7). The gigantic aluminium snake skeleton dominated the Watermall as it spiraled 53 metres from the ceiling to the floor, as if coming down from the sky with its skull floating just above the water, metaphorically linking sky and water.
Part of a series of large-scale sculptures that depict a snake or dragon, a central symbol in Chinese culture, as well as in many other countries around the world, the work plays on different interpretations of the snake, from creation and temptation to wisdom and deception.
Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Open Modular Cubes (Small), Expanded 958 Times
Haegue Yang transforms spaces through light, colour, objects and movement to ensure a constant shift in perception and experience. Sol LeWitt Upside Down — Open Modular Cubes (Small), Expanded 958 Timesconsists of 1,012 white Venetian blinds, arranged into grids and suspended from the Watermall ceiling in an inverted and expanded rendition of the ‘open modular cube’ structures, signature works of American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (1928-2007).
Yang appropriates, up-scales and upturns this classic motif. Where LeWitt’s cubes were solid-edged, open-sided and made-to-order from industrial producers, Yang’s are impressionistic, created by arrangements of ready-made household blinds whose overlapping slats may be read as either open or closed, depending on the position of the viewer.
My forest is not your garden is a collaborative installation by Singaporean artists Donna Ong and Robert Zhao Renhui. A critical take on attitudes towards the natural world of the tropics, the installation integrates Ong’s evocative arrangements of artificial flora and tropical exotica — titled From the tropics with love— with Zhao’s The Nature Museum, an archival display narrating aspects of Singapore’s natural history, both authentic and fabricated.
Over more than 20 years, Kamruzzaman Shadhin has developed new possibilities for contemporary art in Bangladesh, based on the communities of his home village, Balia, in the far north-western state of Thakurgaon. Suspended over the Watermall The fibrous souls is a collaborative installation by Kamruzzaman Shadhin and the Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts.
Constructed with 70 giant shikas — embroidered, reticulated bags typically made of jute strings that are tied to an exposed beam — The fibrous souls explores part of Bengal’s colonial history, inspired by the families that followed the railway tracks after the British East India Company established the Eastern Bengal Railway. Working with 13 women from jute-making families to construct the shikas, along with a handful of local craftspeople to create the pots and connecting jute ropes laid out as a map of the historic railway.
Elliott Murray is Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
Featured image detail: Kamruzzaman Shadhin / Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts Bangladesh, est. 2001 The fibrous souls 2018–21
Together with drawing, watercolour was most often the medium of choice for documenting the early years of settlement in Queensland, especially to depict the landscape, chosen for its ability to record fine detail, evoking atmosphere, and most favoured for its portability and convenience.
In this watercolour Farm landscape with colonial homestead 1888 Robert S (Saunder) Rayment (1839-93) captures an ordered and productive English-inspired Queensland landscape hewed from the surrounding bush thought to be in the area around Brookfield or Pullenvale, now rural residential sister suburbs 12km south-west of Brisbane. The work features the rolling hills of the area, however by the 1850s early loggers sought the rich timber reserves and the land was then subdivided and auctioned in the 1860s when early settlers moved in to farm a variety of fruit and crops, with dairying beginning in the 1880s. This enduring watercolour is now a rare record of a mid-nineteenth century Brisbane pastoral scene.
Robert S Rayment ‘Farm landscape with colonial homestead’
Robert S Rayment, England/Australia 1839-93 / Farm landscape with colonial homestead 1888 / Watercolour over pencil on wove paper on cardboard / 38.5 x 101.2cm / Purchased 1911 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
‘Fairview’ (built in 1875) at Brookfield
James Brimblecombe’s residence ‘Fairview’ (built in 1875) at Brookfield, Brisbane / 39243 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Farm workers at Pullenvale
Farm workers at Pullenvale, 1889 / 41551 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, BrisbaneDetail of Robert S. Rayment Farm landscape with colonial homestead (detail) 1888
Robert S (Saunder) Rayment
Born in London, from an early age, Rayment showed a talent for painting, but in deference to his parents’ wishes, he studied law, and after obtaining his qualifications, he returned to his first interest — art. He was once a pupil of the influential English art critic and watercolourist John Ruskin (1819-1900), but little is known of his artistic career before he migrated to Australia with his family in 1887 and settled in Brisbane July of that year.
Rayment was determined to contribute to this new society, only a month after his arrival, he exhibited watercolours of local subjects at the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association. The following year, among others, he also provided paintings for the Queensland Court at the Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne in 1888. Rayment’s first two years in Queensland were spent travelling and painting clients properties. He painted numerous locations on the Brisbane River, as well as bush scenes in and around Brisbane, however his active career in Brisbane lasted just six years and very few of the artist’s works survive.
Robert S Rayment ‘Stanthorpe’
Robert S. Rayment, England/Australia 1839-93 / Stanthorpe 1888 / Watercolour over pencil / Collection: State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Robert S Rayment ‘Humpybong (Redcliffe)’
Robert S. Rayment, England/Australia 1839-93 / Tippers 1889 / Watercolour over pencil / 37 x 33cm / 66351 / Collection: State Library of Queensland, Brisbane / Mr and Mrs Henry Tippler, two of the earliest residents of Humpybong (Redcliffe), seated outside their bark hut. Humpybong is situated on the shores of Moreton Bay, the southern extremity, Woody Point, being immediately opposite Sandgate. Henry Tippler was a member of one of the well-known oyster lease families at Currigee on South Stradbroke Island towards the end of the Nineteenth Century.
Robert S Rayment ‘Mount Coot-tha’
Robert S. Rayment, England/Australia 1839-93 / Mount Coot-tha c.1892 / Watercolour and gouache over pencil on wove paper / 34.8 x 24.4cm / Gift of Miss E. Rayment 1911 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
The beginning of Brisbane’s art and culture
Rayment exhibited his watercolours at the Royal Queensland Art Society, of which he was a member, and taught drawing at the Brisbane Technical College, and Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School. In 1890, he applied for a position vacated by JA Clarke (1840–90) as Head of the Art Branch at the Brisbane Technical College which was eventually awarded to R Godfrey Rivers (1858-1925).
Rayment’s contemporary, JA Clarke is best remembered as a pioneer art teacher. In 1869–74 he was the only drawing teacher in Queensland Government schools and in 1881 he initiated art classes at the Brisbane School of Arts, and it was largely due to Clarke that the School of Arts classes became a Technical College in 1884.
Joseph Augustine Clarke ‘Panorama of Brisbane’
JA (Joseph Augustine) Clarke, Australia 1840–1890 / Panorama of Brisbane 1880 / Oil on canvas / 137 x 366cm / Collection: Queensland Museum
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, as the infrastructure of the Colony of Queensland improved and Brisbane began to acquire facilities usually found in much larger cities, formal institutions for teaching and education were established, and watercolour was an ideal medium to teach for its versatility. The Brisbane School of Arts opened, the Royal Queensland Art Society opened in 1887 as a result of the efforts of local artists Isaac Walter Jenner (1836-1902), Oscar Friström (1856-1918) and L.W.K. Wirth (1858 –1950), and the Queensland National Art Gallery (now QAGOMA) opened its doors in temporary premises in the old Town Hall on Queen Street in 1895, following advocacy by Jenner and Rivers.
Queensland (National) Art Gallery opened in 1895
The Queensland National Art Gallery opened in 1895 in the now demolished Brisbane Town Hall building in a large upper room placed at the disposal of the Trustees by the Municipal Council / Courtesy: John Oxley Library, Brisbane
Isaac Walter Jenner ‘Brisbane’
Isaac Walter Jenner, England/Australia 1836-1902 / Brisbane from Bowen Terrace, New Farm 1888 / Oil on board / 14.5 x 21.8cm / Purchased 1995. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
R. Godfrey Rivers ‘Under the jacaranda’
R Godfrey Rivers, England/Australia 1858-1925 / Under the jacaranda 1903 / Oil on canvas / 143.4 x 107.2 cm / Purchased 1903 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
In 1928 a competition for the design of a Shrine of Remembrance (illustrated) in Brisbane was won by Sydney architects Buchanan and Cowper. Construction proceeded over the following two years with Anzac Square opening on Armistice Day in 1930. The Shrine honours the men and women of Queensland who served abroad and at home in conflict and peacekeeping.
The winning design for the Anzac Memorial in Brisbane
The winning design for the Anzac Memorial in Brisbane from the scrap-book of Elizabeth Eugenie Cowper-Field 1908-92 / Courtesy: Trove, National Library of Australia and John Cowper
Armistice Day commemorates the agreement that ended the First World War on 11 November 1918 at 11am — on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month — and the Brisbane Memorial specifically honours that year with 18 Doric columns supporting a circular entablature externally ornamented with rosettes and internally inscribed with the names of battlefields where Australian soldiers fought.
Brisbane’s Shrine of Remembrance and Eternal Flame
The Shrine of Remembrance and Eternal Flame, Anzac Square / 23478025 / Courtesy: National Library of Australia
The State Memorial, located in the centre of Brisbane, with the Shrine of Remembrance and Eternal Flame burning in a bronze urn at its heart offers a place to reflect on the commitment, bravery and sacrifice of those who came before us. Beneath the Shrine, the Anzac Square Memorial Galleries housed in the crypt delve into Queensland’s military history.
Anzac Square during construction
Anzac Square during construction, 21 August 1929 / DID25960 / Courtesy: Queensland State Archives
Anzac Square in late construction phase c.1930 / DID26765 / Courtesy: Queensland State Archives
Anzac Square completed
Anzac Square completed / DID27035 / Courtesy: Queensland State Archives
Anzac Day service c.1940-45
Anzac Day service at Anzac Square c.1940 / 7708-0001-0106 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
Max Dupain
Max Dupain always had a particular interest in photographing architecture, a subject that he considered to be like a ‘giant still life’. Anzac Square c.1940-45 (illustrated) is an important addition to the Gallery’s holdings of his work, the aerial view of the square transforms the scene from a literal one into an abstraction of forms, light and shadow. Anzac Square employs a motif that is evident throughout Dupain’s work, that of the lone male figure. Sometimes this lone figure can be identified even in a crowd, as in this work.
Dupain most frequently stressed that it was his quest for simplicity that was the particular quality in the subjects he chose to present. His goals were for simplicity but his aesthetic was complex in its understanding of how it actuality related to the wider notions of the documentary movement, which had a considerable impact on still photographers in the late 1940s
Max Dupain ‘Self portrait’ c.1940
Max Dupain, Australia 1911-92 / Self portrait c.1940 / Photograph / IE14164701 / Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Max Dupain, Australia 1911-92 /War memorial, Brisbane c.1940-45 / IE19457154 / Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Max Dupain ‘Anzac Square, Brisbane’ c.1940-45
Max Dupain, Australia 1911-92 / Anzac Square, Brisbane c.1940-45 / IE19456868 / Courtesy: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
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