Event Review

The Art Gallery of New South Wales

On Saturday I went to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The main event featured in the gallery was a guided tour called Paths to Abstraction but there were also additional exhibitions showing art from different places in the world. The exhibitions will run for about three months starting from the 26th of June and ending the 19th of September 2010. The Art Gallery of NSW is located on Art Gallery road in the city. It is a ten minute walk from both St James and Martin Place station and only a five minute walk from Hyde Park. The gallery is open 10am to 5pm every day except for Good Friday, Christmas Day and on Wednesdays which it is open from 10am to 9pm. Admission into the gallery is free but visitors have to buy tickets for the guided exhibitions. For the Paths to Abstraction tour tickets cost $20 for adults and $15 for concession and members. There are also family deals available which will save a lot of money.

The Art Gallery of NSW was established in 1897 and is the fourth largest art gallery in Australia. The first director of the gallery, Eliezer Montefior, was appointed in 1892.The gallery has five levels and features Australian, Aboriginal, European, Asian and Contemporary art.

There was hardly any advertising for the event. I didn’t see any before deciding to go and only went to the gallery because I had been there before. The only promotion of the gallery I saw was on the website and at the gallery itself. There were huge banners hung from the outside of the gallery showing people the different exhibitions they were displaying inside.

The art gallery offers a lot of different types of art and plenty of things to do so that it’s suitable for a wide range of people. As well as providing people with their usual display of art The Art Gallery of NSW had new exhibitions with different types of art such as Australian art, early European art and abstract art. Visitors can choose to either take a guided tour where each piece of art is explained to them or walk around and interpret the art for themselves. There’s even a tour especially for young children. The gallery also has a wide range of education programs suitable for different audiences such as children in primary school, high school students and tertiary students. For those that worship art the gallery’s store has one of the most comprehensive range of art books in Australia. Also available at the store are popular prints, posters and other merchandise. The gallery also provides visitors with a place to relax after viewing the art with a large cafe and a sitting area on a balcony. Other activities include painting and photography workshops, lectures and book clubs. With all these different types of art and activities to choose from The Art Gallery of NSW is targeted towards all sorts of people looking for a new experience and a good time.

There were a lot of different types of people at the event ranging from young children to the elderly. In the guided tour there were mostly middle aged men and women and not many children. There were also students at the exhibition taking notes while the tour guide explained the artworks. At a certain time of the year the gallery also has an exhibition called Art Express which is mostly attended by high school students in year eleven and twelve studying art. It features the best art chosen from previous year 12 students’ major artworks. The event is also a hot spot for tourists the gallery being one of the main attractions of art in Sydney.
When I arrived at the gallery I first looked around the main area where the usual art display is. I saw most of the pieces that were there during my previous visits along with some new additions. I then went to look at some of the new exhibitions which included Australian art and pre-1900s European art. The pre-1900s European exhibition had paintings drawings and sculptures mostly of men and women of that time. After that I went to buy my ticket for the guided tour. I got a concession ticket which costed $15 for the Paths to Abstraction 1867-1917 exhibition. There were audio devices available to hire that give a detailed explanation of each artwork. The guide took us through the paintings in chronological order showing us how the idea of abstract art was started and how artist were inspired by the works of the generation before theirs. The exhibition included works from famous impressionists such as Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne. Abstraction was inspired by impressionism because of the way impressionists used the element of human perception and painted horizontally. The tour took about 40 minutes and after that I went to take a look at the gallery store and get something to eat at the cafe.

Although there were some nice artworks in the Abstraction tour the one I liked the most and really stood out was a part of the gallery’s usual exhibition. It’s a sculpture by Robert Klippel (1972) called No. 300 and is a collection of steel objects welded together. I like this sculpture because I enjoy fantasy and to me it looks like an evil factory. It is even suggested to be a factory by its mechanical look linking it to the traditions of western sculpture and industrialisation being a part of western culture. Even the name of the artwork makes it look like it has been mass produced suggesting that it is just one number of many. A good thing about this work is that being a sculpture it doesn’t have any particular framing or angle the viewer can look at it from any distance or angle changing the impact the work has. From afar the viewer can appreciate the how the piece works as a whole and from close up they can see all the small pieces and details that went into it which makes it really great. The sculpture took two years to complete and was added to The Art Gallery of NSW in 2006. After seeing this work I researched the artist some more and found that he did some similar artworks that I also liked. Robert Klippel was born in 1920 in Australia and was often described to be Australia’s greatest sculptor producing 1300 sculptures throughout his career.

Another piece I liked was Construction by William Rose. It is a cubism piece and was painted using oil paints on hardboard. I also like this one because of its complexity and because of how the artist has paid attention to detail and chosen colours that go well together.

My overall opinion of the event was that it was quite enjoyable and educational. It was good to revisit the old exhibition and the newer art was great and had some amazing pieces including a series of different sized pots and jugs filled to the top with red dye. I liked thought it looked really good because of the way the red stood out from the dull light brown colours of the pots and jugs. My favourite sections of the gallery were the usual displays and the pre-1900s European art. I liked the European art because there were some great paintings and the sculptures were quite impressive especially the giant one of a man wrestling a snake. I learnt a lot from the guided tour like where abstract art originated from and what influenced the artists. Most importantly the tour helped me understand the art movement abstraction. I did think the tour went for a little long because of the amount of detail the guide put in the explanations. I thought the shop was great and spent a lot of time in there looking at all the different books on art. It also had merchandise featuring famous artist such as Claude Monet post cards and calendars. Even though there was some nice stuff in there it was all quite expensive. I also enjoyed the cafe because the food and drinks were great and sitting on the balcony was refreshing and provided a great view. As well as having a good time at the gallery I also learned a lot and got a better understanding of different types of art so it was overall a good experience.