Category: Australian Collection

Edmund Rosenstengel provided the benchmark of excellence in his field

Posted by Glenn R Cooke   ●   21 May 2013

Edmund Rosenstengel, the most highly regarded furniture maker in Brisbane from the 1920s to the 1950s, provided the benchmark of excellence in his field for several generations. This acquisition, purchased for the Collection with the generous assistance of Valmai Pidgeon, AM, is a piece that Rosenstengel made for himself. Edmund Rosenstengel (1887–1962) was born in Toowoomba,…

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Watch as we clean Anthony Alder’s ‘Heron’s home’

Posted by Jocelyn Evans   ●   8 Mar 2013

Watch our time-lapse as Anthony Alder’s original colours are restored in Heron’s home 1895 showing the full tonal range and sharpness of colour. A final varnish layer on a finished painting has been an artistic practice for centuries. Artists often apply a transparent varnish to give saturation and their desired level of gloss to the painting,…

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Marks on Hunt and Roskell’s ‘Presentation vase’

Posted by Glenn R Cooke   ●   7 Feb 2013

This magnificent Presentation vase 1864 is the most important example of Victorian silver in the Gallery’s Collection. Its elaborate decoration is unlike anything produced in the Australian colonies, though the beautifully cast and chased kangaroos and an emu (as well as a camel) around the base suggest that it was commissioned with an Australian connection…

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Ian Fairweather: Late works

Posted by Angela Goddard   ●   7 Nov 2012

After a restless early life, in 1953 artist Ian Fairweather (1891–1974) consolidated his home and art in a hut on Bribie Island, in Brisbane’s Moreton Bay. The following 20 years saw Fairweather achieve the summation of his life’s labour as a painter and the works from this period brought him enduring fame. From his hut,…

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Luke Roberts on Sculpture

Posted by Ellie Buttrose   ●   23 Oct 2012

Luke Roberts’s Wunderkammer/Kunstkamera (detail) 1994 is an all-encompassing work, it includes found objects, homemade dolls, mementos, remade and modified objects, as well as featuring selected historical works from the Gallery’s Collection. Each object is labelled by the artist, with some labels factual and others taking more creative leaps, and they are presented in a museum…

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Gordon Hookey on Sculpture

Posted by Ellie Buttrose   ●   11 Oct 2012

Gordon Hookey’s King hit (for Queen and Country) 1999 is a provocative work that intimates action. The work consists of a boxing bag painted with porcine depictions of John Howard, Pauline Hanson and David Oldfield who hold their boxing gloves raised at the viewer ready for a fight. Below the bag is set of boxing…

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