eX de Medici’s extraordinarily layered works in ‘Beautiful Wickedness’ opening at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane from 24 June 2023, reveal the artist’s ongoing concern with the value and fragility of life, global affairs, greed, commerce, conflict and death. ‘Oh, what a world, what a world! Who would have thought a good…
Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe’s watercolour Houses of Parliament, Brisbane 1885 (illustrated and currently on display at the Queensland Art Gallery) was painted just before the artist left Australia to return to England. We can clearly see Queensland’s Parliament House and other recognisable Brisbane landmarks from across the river in a depiction of the daily life of…
Continue reading » “Go back in time to 1885 when Brisbane was a young township”
Margaret Olley moved to Brisbane when she was 12 and was a boarder at Somerville House school for girls in South Brisbane from 1937 to 1940 where they were quick to recognise Olley’s talents and recommended to her mother that she attend art school. Her friend and fellow artist Margaret Cilento also began formal art…
Continue reading » “Go back in time to Margaret Olley’s Brisbane”
Together with drawing, watercolour was most often the medium of choice for documenting the early years of settlement in Queensland, especially to depict the landscape, chosen for its ability to record fine detail, evoking atmosphere, and most favoured for its portability and convenience. In this watercolour Farm landscape with colonial homestead 1888 Robert S (Saunder)…
Continue reading » “Go back in time with early Brisbane watercolours”
Watercolours feature in the earliest records of European exploration and settlement of Australia. Its continuous presence in the history of Queensland art has changed and evolved with shifts in culture, as well as with the demands and innovations of its practitioners. We look at the medium’s important role in enriching Queensland’s visual history. Together with…
Continue reading » “Documenting Queensland’s history through watercolour”
Of all the works by (Frances) Vida Lahey (1882-1968), she is best known for her depiction of the weekly wash-day, Monday morning 1912 (illustrated). Known as a painter of oils on a wide range of subjects, she was also recognised throughout her career as a watercolourist of distinction for floral still lifes, therefore we have…
Continue reading » “Vida Lahey: Known for her distinctive flower studies”
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.