Papunya Tula Art Movement boards retained in Australia

QAGOMA has acquired seven Papunya boards with funds from the Australian Government’s National Cultural Heritage Account, painted in the first critical years of Australia’s contemporary Aboriginal art movement. The Gallery is dedicated to showcasing historical and contemporary Indigenous Australian art and reflecting the rich diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. This acquisition guarantees…

Dancing across the landscape is the spirit of the Plains

On the face of it, Sydney Long’s (1871-1955) Spirit of the Plains 1897 is an unusual painting to have emerged from the Antipodean colonies in the final years of the nineteenth century. Find out why and delve into its beauty, and the mythology of a burgeoning Australian nation, then go behind-the-scenes as conservation x-rays reveal…

Go back in time to a morning on the Brisbane river

The work by Vida Lahey (1882-1968), one of Queensland’s best loved artists is widely admired for her watercolour floral studies, however in Morning light, Brisbane River c.1925-30 Lahey has beautifully captured the effects of light on water, and also provides us with a little mystery which you may be able to solve for us, let…

Small moments

As the hours, days and weeks in which we have recently been confined to our homes compressed and merged into an endless monotony, certain moments of beauty that have been lurking in the minutiae of domestic ordinariness shone through. The slowing of my once busy schedule provided more opportunity for reflective movements. I’ve become mindful…

Finding joy in small things

Grace Cossington Smith’s artworks are a reminder that joy is all around us. In her hands, an array of objects, the fold of a tablecloth or light falling through stained glass inspire delight and open windows onto her world. In this time of social distancing and self-isolation, it can be challenging to resist the feeling…

Danie Mellor: The pleasure and vexation of history

A striking drawing in blue wax pastel by Mackay-born Danie Mellor explores the complex, often troubling intersections between Indigenous and frontier histories, and brings to light the complicated narratives of Australia’s colonial past. The pleasure and vexation of history 2017 is reminiscent of a tropical paradise — an idyll of tranquillity. Skilfully hand-drawn, and based…