Private Collectors, Public Benefactors: Ian & Judeen Airey

Benefactors of the Gallery for 25 years, Ian and Judeen Airey recently raised the Collection’s holdings created by Japan-based French artist Paul Jacoulet from one work to 28. Here, the Aireys share something of themselves and their approach to collecting, and giving, with the wider Gallery community. Paul Jacoulet ‘Une belle de Palaos’ 1935 Paul…

Birds of Passage: The influence of travel & cross-cultural experience

‘Birds of Passage’, a display in Queensland Art Gallery’s Philip Bacon Galleries opening 24 February 2024, sees the works of artists Ian Fairweather and Paul Jacoulet illustrating the influence of travel and cross-cultural experience on their respective works. In bringing together these artists, the Gallery celebrates the power of cultural exchange in creative practice. ‘Birds…

Albrecht Durer & the fifteenth-century printing press

Few machines have altered history like the fifteenth-century Gutenberg printing press or the camera in the nineteenth century. Steam engines, electricity and anaesthesia may compete for primacy in a tale of technological advances, but unlike industrial or medical innovations, the impact of the printed word and image was felt on a more cerebral level, invariably…

Old Master prints of the fifteenth century

Masters of the fifteenth century, such as Lucas van Leyden and Heinrich Aldegrever, transformed printmaking into a refined art form and have influenced artists for centuries. The Gallery’s historical international holdings of Old Master prints comprised of etchings, woodcuts and engravings by artist–printmakers from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries includes works by Lucas van…

Early prints by Pablo Picasso

Announcing the acquisition of five extraordinary early prints by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Director Chris Saines CNZM noted the economy, sensitivity and brilliance with which their human subjects were captured. He also recognised the generous support for the acquisition from the Margaret Olley Art Trust, the Henry and Amanda Bartlett Trust and the Airey Family through…

Albrecht Dürer: The Seventh Seal

Looking at Albrecht Dürer’s representations of the ‘last days’ – as described in the Book of Revelation of St John – it is not hard to imagine that, given a movie camera and a Hollywood studio budget, he would have turned his fantastic Apocalyptic saga into a major cinematic blockbuster. However, in the late fifteenth…