return to fed square’s ngv

Melbourne has two impressive national galleries — one on St Kilda Road dedicated to overseas art and the Federation Square gallery that displays exclusively Australian art. Every time I return to Melbourne, I visit the downtown art gallery and head straight to the Aboriginal section where there’ll be something new on display.

St Kilda’s ngv exhibition

St Kilda’s National Gallery of Victoria was a buzz of activity when I stepped through its entrance past the Haring copy that graced the watery glass front. The New York artist’s original design on the large NGV window had been done years back before someone threw a stone through the glass. I was on my way to Haring and his colleague, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s exhibition at the insistence of my daughter.

Truth behind lies

Above painting: Men in mourning — Maree Clarke

Aboriginal history was glossed over when I was at school, and even today, the depth of the injustice is often omitted.

Old and New in the St Kilda Road NGV

After the paintings in the National Gallery of Victoria, I walked through period furniture to discover an exquisite marble fireplace originally from a house in Dublin along with the glass candelabra manufactured in France in the early 1900s.

A touch of Picasso

I skipped most of the old portraits of wigged men and religious motifs that made up part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s European paintings in the St Kilda branch. Instead, I strode to the section where a couple of Picasso’s works were displayed.

A peek into Japanese art

When I originally ventured into the St Kilda branch of the National Gallery of Victoria, the Federation Square Complex was decades away from being built. The gallery housed all that Melbourne had to offer in the art world at that time.

Outdoor sculpture

In the Sculpture Garden of Melbourne’s original National Gallery on the southern side of the Yarra were unique art works scattered among the trees and lush grass.

John Olsen’s Lake Eyre Series

During the 1970s, John Olsen journeyed into Central Australia with a naturalist to Lake Eyre. This remote lake below sea level was usually a dried up salt pan, but on Olsen’s trip it had rained. The area was then overrun by thousands of fish and pelicans.

John Olsen’s Sea Paintings

After the artist spent several years in Europe, he returned to Australia. As explained in a video at the NGV exhibition, most Australians live around a saucer — from Bristbane around to Perth — following the coast.

John Olsen Exhibition

This well known artist had never been near the top of my most admired Australian artists, but after viewing his exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, his work left a deep impression on me.