In 1988, the year of Australia’s bicentenary, the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) was officially gazetted as Australia’s national floral emblem, enjoying a popular acceptance as the national flower long before then. We’ve been celebrating the Wattle for different reasons over the last century, and in 2020 for the first time, Brisbane is lighting up in…
Continue reading » “National Wattle Day: A celebration of a floral emblem”
In the late 19th century, Queensland artists Isaac Walter Jenner and R. Godfrey Rivers successfully lobbied for the creation of a state art gallery, with the Queensland National Art Gallery established in 1895. The new Gallery was opened by the Queensland Governor, Sir Henry Wylie Norman at temporary premises in old Town Hall on Queen…
Continue reading » “Queensland Art Gallery: Celebrating 125 years in 2020”
Two remarkable paintings by Australian artist Anne Wallace draw attention to a dark chapter in Brisbane’s history. With compassion and respect, these works tell the stories of women who suffered institutional abuse at Goodna’s Wolston Park psychiatric facility, and Wallace focuses on their hard-won resilience while demanding that we not look away. Anne Wallace Contemporary…
Paintings of jacarandas in bloom have become a popular and appealing subject for Brisbane artists, the most famous image of the jacaranda is R. (Richard) Godfrey Rivers’s painting Under the jacaranda, which has achieved enormous popularity since it was painted and acquired by the Gallery in 1903. The image depicts Rivers and his wife Selina…
Continue reading » “Bask in purple bloom of the jacaranda all year round”
Once a prominent colonial Queensland artist, Anthony Alder (1838-1915) and his works had all but vanished from public memory until, in 2011, his descendants’ estate was offered to the State Library of Queensland. Here, we reintroduce you to one of his works in the QAGOMA Collection Heron’s home 1895. Heron’s home: Before Conservation Art history…
The watercolour The bark hut on the plain, Darling Downs, Qld., Mount Sturt from Glengallan c.1850s by Conrad Martens (1801–78) provides new insights and connections to the colonial history of Queensland’s Darling Downs. In late 1851 the Sydney-based painter Martens arrived in Brisbane from Sydney via sea, and for the next few months travelled on…
Continue reading » “Conrad Martens: Insights into Queensland’s history”
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.