Over several years spent in Queensland, Charles Blackman was nurtured by a series of relationships and profound connections to place, and these inspired some of his most innovative and important works. During his first visit to Brisbane in 1948 Blackman experienced a period of intense personal discovery essential to the launch his career; he found…
Continue reading » “The lure of Brisbane’s sun on Charles Blackman”
After resigning from journalism cadetship at the Sydney Sun, Charles Blackman (12 August 1928-2018) hitchhiked to Brisbane in early 1948 for his first visit. He met the young artists of the Miya Studio, including Laurence Hope, Don Savage, and Laurence Collinson, and the closely affiliated group of Barjai writers, including Barrett Reid, and, most significantly,…
Continue reading » “Charles Blackman’s connection to Brisbane”
Scott Redford’s ‘Proposals’ series of sculptures, such as Proposal for a Surfers Paradise Public Sculpture/GC Cinemas 2006 (illustrated) examine and celebrate the Gold Coast as a remarkable phenomenon in late modern architecture and design in Queensland. What others stigmatise as kitsch, Redford sees as embodying a complex history and identity — perhaps the Gold Coast…
Continue reading » “Scott Redford celebrates Gold Coast-type signage”
Our understanding of Australia has been shaped by the medium of photography, its development in the 1840s parallels the growth of the colonies and settler relations with Indigenous Australians. Nineteenth-century photography was largely about recording what was encountered — the people and the landscape — as seen in the Queensland photographs of Richard Daintree (illustrated).…
The banana cutters, a rare figurative work by the much loved Australian artist Margaret Olley (1923-2011) is an intriguing and valuable addition to our Collection. Working in the second half of the twentieth century, Olley made traditional still life and interior subjects uniquely her own. It was in Brisbane in the 1960s that she first…
Continue reading » “The banana cutters, a rare figurative work by Margaret Olley”
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.