3 December 2011 to 29 January 2012
Image: Hugh Ramsay Miss Nellie Patterson 1903, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1966.
Australian Portraits 1880-1960 took a fresh look at portraits from the National Gallery of Australia's collection, from the 1880s late colonial period to the mid 1960s and the move into abstraction. It featured 54 portraits by 34 leading Australian painters, including Tom Roberts, E Phillips Fox, Hugh Ramsay, George W Lambert, Max Meldrum, Rupert Bunny, Violet Teague, Margaret Preston, Stella Bowen, Napier Waller, Albert Tucker, Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Roy de Maistre, Russell Drysdale and John Brack.
The exhibition included much-loved paintings from the Gallery’s collection in addition to little-known works and two recently acquired pieces that had not been shown in public before.
Australian Portraits 1880-1960 considered the international influences upon Australian portrait painting and the more distinctive turns that Australian portraiture has taken in its own right. Australian artists have often challenged the possibilities of portraiture, rejected the predictable and pushed boundaries in both their choice of subject and their painterly approach.
This exhibition was supported by the Australian Government through the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, and Visions of Australia. The exhibition was also generously supported by the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund and media partner ABC Local Radio.
