Betty Quelhurst (17 September 1919-2008) was born at Laidley, a rural town in the Lockyer Valley Region near Brisbane. Her commitment to art with her career spanning several decades was a significant presence to the art scene in Queensland, including her contribution as a teacher, and her generous philanthropy. Focusing on recording life in Brisbane…
George Seymour Owen’s (1844-1921) watercolours provide an accurate record of the early heritage of Brisbane and the Moreton Bay area. House under Bowen Terrace, Brisbane 1889 (illustrated) of a cottage in inner-city Bowen Terrace, is a detailed representation of a home in the young township of Brisbane. The watercolour shows the unquarried cliff along which…
Continue reading » “Go back in time when Bowen Terrace was an unquarried cliff”
Embracing new visual vocabularies to better express their distinct viewpoints, many notable Australian artists broke from tradition in the 1920s and 1930s and turned to Modernism. At this time, these artists immersed themselves in geometric concepts of space and volume, rhythm and repetition, as well as illusion and flatness. On display within the Queensland Art…
In this large-scale painting moreton bay rivers, australian temperature chart, freshwater mussels, net, spectrogram 2022 (illustrated) on display within ‘mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri‘ (tomorrow the tree grows stronger) at the Queensland Art Gallery until 11 August 2024, Judy Watson surveys the rising tide of climate change by representing a bird’s-eye view of Queensland’s Moreton Bay…
Continue reading » “Judy Watson surveys the rising tide of climate change”
We take you on a journey of discovery beneath the paint surface of The Blue Alice 1956-57, uncover previously hidden details, and look at the technique and materials used by Charles Blackman. The Blue Alice is currently on display in the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) until 28 April 2024.…
Continue reading » “Beneath Charles Blackman’s Alice in Wonderland”
In Sir Arthur Streeton’s The bathers 1891 the artist has painted a group of four boys swimming in a creek, however under infra-red light we see there were originally more figures. Streeton (8 April 1867-1943) significantly contributed to the way Australia imagines itself, the romance and beauty of his landscapes reflects the vision for Australian…
Continue reading » “Arthur Streeton: Romanticism & swimming in bush creeks”
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.