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Published: January 31st 2014
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Tuesday 21st January 2014. Art Gallery of NSW, St Andrews, Cathedral & Museum of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Even though we had been cultured out yesterday we still felt compelled to return and finish the Art Gallery of NSW.
We caught an earlier bus and returned to the point where we had finished yesterday - at the Jerffrey Smart paintings. We spent another couple of hours looking at the Australian Art section. These works were mainly by Australian and Aboriginal Artists but there were also some works by NZ Artists.
Charles Meere was one of a group of Sydney artists whose work modernized classical artistic traditions as a means of depicting national life during the inter-war period. The epitome of his vision is Australian beach pattern, a group of beach goers whose athletic perfection takes on monumental heroic proportions. Meere created a crowded and complex composition through the pattern of figures, which appears as a still-life of suspended strength. This iconic painting encapsulates the myth of the healthy young nation, symbolized by the tanned, god-like bodies of the sun bathers. It
was quite good and had a really exuded patriotism.
There were a few paintings by a guy
called Sidney Nolan, He painted lots of works depicting the centre of this vast country. The painting 'Central Australia' is one of the best paintings that came out of his visit to the interior of Australia during 1949. Nolan himself said "in many ways it was, I think, the most complete statement I was able to make on central Australia" Like the other paintings in this series, Central Australia arose out of Nolan's experience flying over the Australian interior when accompanying a pilot on mail runs to the remote settlements. The painting celebrates the beauty of desert colour, form and light. Another Sidney Nolan painating of note is 'First Class Marksman'. This shows the isolated figure of Ned Kelly in solid black armour - its flat abstracted shape incongruously placed against a delicate landscape. The title refers to an incident which took place in the Wombat
Ranges in Victoria when Kelly an his gang were practicing the marksmanship, firing hundreds of rounds at surrounding trees from a bullet-proof hideout. Nolan painted many pictures of the notorious outlaw between 1946 and 1947. The work that is considered to be Nolan's best is a painting called 'Hare in Trap'. It reflects the
growing sense of unease Nolan experienced while staying at the home of Melbourne patrons John and Sunday Reed, and the anxiety caused by his desertion from the army in 1944. With its startling blue eye conveying fear, pain and a desperate struggle for
freedom, it is a powerfully autobiographical painting - a self portrait of sorts.
The next works we really liked were Russell Drysdale's paintings of Aboriginal people from the Cape York peninsula. Before these, European artists had often depicted indigenous Australians as a 'dying race', reflecting the unquestioned racist attitudes of the time. 'Group of Aborigines' is a compassionate portrait, regarded as one of Drysdale's masterpieces. Drysdale depicts the group with a sense of quiet dignity. Really good.
One of the most impressive items we saw today was a fantastic carving called 'Killing Time' by Ricky Swallow. It was absolutely incredible. It is a carving of a dining table, with a table cloth that was so realstic you wanted to reach out and touch it (which, of course, wasn't allowed!). Also sitting on the carved table were a carved crab and a carved overturned bread basket. It is a very appropriate piece to be displayed in
the centre of a gallery which only contained still life paintings.
We left the gallery and walked past the Burns statue before heading across The Domain towards St Andrews Cathedral. We walked down the full length of the nave of this cathedral, admiring the beautiful stained glass windows. Once outside in the square we took a picture of the front. We then crossed Hyde Park, taking a photo of the magnificent fountain and the Sky Tower. We strolled on until we came to the amazing Strand Mall, a fantastic art deco style building with a glass roof and amazing tiled floor. Once outside we had lunch at McD's the Strand.
After lunch we made our way to the Museum of Sidney. We purchased a '4 in one' ticket which allows us entry to 4 named museums at a discounted price. It was even more discounted as D got his OAP concession! There was a free tour starting 10 minutes after we arrived so we did our own thing for a few minutes before joining the tour. The museum is located on exactly the spot that the first Government House was built on. Silver markers in the pavement outside
mark the exact footprint of this first building. The foundations have been exposed and made visible.
There were plans to build a skyscraper on this site but, after much protest, this landmark site in Sidney was saved and turned in to a museum. The right outcome as far as we were concerned, as this really represents the birth place of Australia, let alone the city of Sydney. The guide explained that when Europeans first arrived here there were 30 clan groups of Aborignies, all speaking different languages. This was known as Gadigal land and covered an area from the south shore of Sydney Harbour from Watson's Bay to Sydney Cove, including the area where the museum now stands. The number of languages spoken only served to complicate relationships between the Europeans and the native people. Some of the natives became interpreters which facilitated communications. Many of the exhibits in the museum were devoted to recording and explaining this complex relationship between the native peoples and the European settlers.
After the tour we were left to explore on our own. There was an exhibition of photos called Urban Noir on the top floor which showcased police forensic photographs of
crime scenes from the 1950 and 60's. It was quite interesting. There was also a room with porcelain, clothing and furniture from a well to do house of the time of early settlement. We watched 3 movies in the theatre, including one about the building of the harbour bridge which was great.
We returned to Rach's place and D went around the corner for some Fish and Chips. M shared Rach's lamb stew which was lovely.
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