‘The composite self’, a theme in the exhibition ‘Looking Out, Looking In’ at the Queensland Art Gallery until 6 August 2023 explores the multidimensional nature of identity, and the idea that our sense of self is informed by numerous influences, including our social circles and familial ties. For example, Vincent Namatjira’s double portrait Albert and Vincent…
Continue reading » “The composite self: Exploring the self-portrait”
The exhibition ‘Looking Out, Looking In: Exploring the Self-Portrait’ considers the complex and fascinating genre of the self-portrait — a distinct form of portraiture in which subject and artist are one, here we examine the enduring human interest in the self-image, revealing artistic tendencies towards both introspection and flamboyance. ‘Looking Out, Looking In’ is devised…
Continue reading » “Looking Out, Looking In: Exploring the Self-Portrait”
A conventional portrait — a seated half-figure painted from life — which is disrupted by the subject’s race. In mid-twentieth-century Australia, Indigenous people had rarely figured in a genre that confirmed the status of ‘elder statesman’ upon its (mainly male) subjects. William Dargie’s Portrait of Albert Namatjira 1956 (illustrated) has subsequently become the most identifiable…
Continue reading » “This portrait of Albert Namatjira has become his most identifiable image”
William Dargie’s iconic image of Albert Namatjira has become the most identifiable image of the artist, and Ben Quilty and Vincent Namatjira have each been inspired to incorporate this original into their versions. Ben Quilty’s painting Albert 2004 features two identifiable Australian identities placed together, Namatjira, the pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, and the…
Continue reading » “Albert Namatjira, an Australian identity”
‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) featured a diversity of indigenous voices — the largest contingent in the Triennial’s history — who share a common experience of dislocation through European settler occupation. Brisbane-based Indigenous artist Ryan Presley looks at how the practices of five of these artists engage with the legacy of…
Albert Namatjira occupies a significant place within Australian art history, being the first widely recognised Indigenous artist. His work Western MacDonnells c.1945 was the first by an Aboriginal person to enter the QAGOMA Collection in 1947. The Hermannsburg School art movement that began at the Lutheran mission of Hermannsburg in Central Australia in the 1930s,…
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.