National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (Australian National Gallery ) is a major art museum in the Australian capital Canberra, which specializes in paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries. Represented are mainly Australian artists, but also numerous international works are exhibited. The present museum building in the style of brutalism was built on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin and opened in 1982.
Shown are the following art movements:
- Aboriginal art (mostly contemporary, but in the traditional form)
- Australian art in the European tradition
- European Art ( emphasis on modernity )
- Art from South and East Asia (mostly traditional)
- International Modern Art
- International Arts and Crafts
- Sculpture Garden
- Traveling exhibitions
Famous works of art
Among the well-known works in the possession of the National Gallery is one of the 1952 by the American artist Jackson Pollock painted wall painting Blue Poles. The purchase in 1974 was politically highly controversial. Has The purchase price of 1.3 million AUD in retrospect but financially more than paid because since then the value of the work of art has risen to many times.
Further acquisitions:
- Self-portrait by Peter Paul Rubens
- Haystacks by Claude Monet
- A Bigger Grand Canyon by David Hockney ( 4.6 million AUD)
- Golden Summer, Eaglemont by Arthur Streeton ( 3.5 million AUD)
- Woman V by Willem de Kooning (1 million AUD)
- Pregnant Woman by Ron Mueck ( 800,000 AUD )
In September 2005, the National Gallery declined the offer for 35 million AUD Sketch for Deluge II to acquire by Wassily Kandinsky.
Major exhibitions
- The great Impressionist exhibition (1984 )
- New worlds on Australian and American landscape paintings of the 19th century (1998)
- Rembrandt, a genius and his influence (1997-1998)
- An impressionistic heritage, Monet to Moore, the Millennium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation (1999)
- William Robinson, a Retrospective (2001-2002)
- Auguste Rodin, a charming obsession, sculptures and drawings (2001-2002)
- Monet & Japan (2001)
- Bill Viola, The Passions (2005)
- James Gleeson, Beyond the Screen of Sight (2005)
- John Constable, Impressions of Land, Sea and Sky (2005)