New gallery provides opportunity to see the collection

The University of Queensland will present a major exhibition of works of art from its collection for the first time in the redeveloped and recently opened Mayne Centre on the St Lucia campus.

‘Seeing the Collection’, a selection of 80 outstanding works, dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, will be on display in the lower gallery from July 10 to January 23, 2005.

On display in the upper galleries until 15 August will be focused displays of works by contemporary Queensland artists who feature strongly in the collection, Eugene Carchesio, Scott Redford, Madonna Staunton and Carl Warner.

“It is particularly exciting to be able to present such a large selection from our extensive collection in the superb new gallery space,” Director of The University Art Museum Ross Searle said.

“The first university in Australia to acquire works of art, the University of Queensland now has Queensland’s second largest public art collection, with more than 2500 items.”

A highlight of ‘Seeing the Collection’ is William Frank Calderon’s dramatic Victorian painting, Crest of the hill (1898), which underwent major restoration at the Queensland Art Gallery in 2003.

‘Seeing the Collection’ will showcase such key works as Robert Dowling’s Werrat Kuyuut and the Mopor people, Spring Creek, Victoria (c.1855-56) alongside scenes of the Australian landscape by Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts, Walter Withers, Sydney Long and Lionel Lindsay.

Also on display for the first time will be a group of Darling Downs landscapes painted in the 1890s by artist William George Wilson, acquired by the University in 2003.

In marked contrast are the scenes of Edwardian opulence such as Rupert Bunny’s Summer sunset and E Phillips Fox’s Reclining figure, as well as portraits by George W Lambert, Josephine Muntz-Adams and John Longstaff.

Max Meldrum and Will Ashton provide glimpses of the artist abroad, while Weaver Hawkins, Vida Lahey, Roy Dalgarno and Lilian Pedersen present scenes of Australians at work and play in the 1940s.

Popular Queensland artists have been included, such as Vida Lahey, Anne Alison Greene, Bessie Gibson, Kenneth MacQueen, Lloyd Rees and sculptors Daphne Mayo and Harold Parker.

Laurence Hope, Pamela Seeman and Laurence Collinson, who associated with Miya Studio and Barjai magazine in the 1940s, will offer a reminder of Brisbane’s dynamic war years and of links formed with Melbourne’s Angry Penguins artists.

The Angry Penguins artists are represented in the exhibition by Joy Hester, Sidney Nolan and Danila Vassilieff.

Works from the mid-twentieth century include paintings by Charles Blackman, Donald Friend and Jon Molvig.

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