Jeffrey Smart (1921-2013) is one of Australia’s most recognised painters, but not because he paints identifiably Australian subjects or locations. Smart has a consistent fascination with the present day, and has always found the contemporary world beautiful, whatever his locations. The scenes that Smart chooses are usually mundane — parks, bus stops, expressways, petrol-stations, traffic…
The Gallery recently acquired a fine piece of late-nineteenth-century, Queensland-made jewellery — the D Mackay and Co. Gold and topaz bangle c.1900 (illustrated). Its making and provenance builds on an earlier Queensland piece already in the Collection — the Hogarth, Erichsen & Co. Archer mourning brooch c.1860 (illustrated). Together, these beautiful objects tell the historic…
Continue reading » “Family jewels tell two Queensland stories”
During springtime, Brisbane is awash with colour — the lavender of the jacaranda mix with an array of red and yellow flowers. Spring is also when you can see the vermilion blooms of the Butea at its peak, due to its fiery appearance, it’s given the name ‘Flame of the Forest’. R (Richard) Godfrey Rivers…
There’s all sorts of ways to approach and engage with the contemporary art of our times. It can be helpful to start with an artwork’s physical form, its size, the materials from which it’s made, or even how the various elements relate to each other. Brisbane-born painter Robert MacPherson (1937–2021) was one of Australia’s most…
Continue reading » “Understanding the work of Robert MacPherson”
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori was born by a small tidal creek around 1924 on the south side of Bentinck Island, of the South Wellesley Island Group in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Far North Queensland. Her Kayardild language name, Mirdidingkingathi, means ‘born at Mirdidingki’, her country on Bentinck Island, and Juwarnda means ‘dolphin’, her totem. Gabori…
Continue reading » “Sally Gabori’s ‘Makarrki’ is layered with memories of home”
Kayili artists Mary Gibson, Mrs Kumana Ward, Pulpurru Davies, Nola Campbell and Jackie Kurltjunyintja Giles have each indulged a love of colour, animating their car bonnet’s surface with shimmering, cryptic, topographical maps of their country, and the ancestral journeys that formed it. Patjarr, home to the Kayili artists, is a small community of around 20–30…
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.