Art Gallery of Western Australia
Encyclopedia
Perth Cultural Centre
The Perth Cultural Centre is an area of central Perth, Western Australia and the collective name for the buildings of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum, Perth Gaol, Alexander Library, State Records Office, and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts .William Street,...
, in Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. It is located near the Western Australian Museum
Western Australian Museum
The Western Australian Museum is the state museum for Western Australia.The Western Australian Museum has seven main sites: two in Perth within the Perth Cultural Centre, two in Fremantle , and one each in Albany, Geraldton, and Kalgoorlie-Boulder...
and State Library of Western Australia
State Library of Western Australia
The State Library of Western Australia is located within the building known as the Alexander Library Building, in the Cultural Centre of Perth, Western Australia....
. The current gallery opened in 1979.
The State's art collection consists of over 15,500 works of art, and the Art Gallery is visited by approximately 400,000 people annually.
History
The Art Gallery was originally housed in the Jubilee BuildingJubilee Building
The Jubilee Building is part of the Western Australian Museum in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. It was opened in 1897 and was designed by George Temple-Poole and his 1895 successor John Grainger in the Victorian Byzantine style....
with the State Museum and Library. The Jubilee Building, which was intended to be a public library only, was to be opened in honour of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee
A Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In Thailand :King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 9 June 1996.- In the Commonwealth Realms :...
in 1887, but instead, only the first stone for the foundation was laid. The foundation stone was laid for the Art Gallery in July 1901 by the Duke of Cornwall and York
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
, shortly after the federation of Australia
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
.
Several notable individuals were involved with the development of the Jubilee Building and Art Gallery, including John Winthrop Hackett, James Battye
James Battye
Dr. James Sykes Battye was the first chief librarian of the Victoria Public Library in Perth, Western Australia. He was a leading historian, librarian and public figure of the State...
, Ludwig Glauert
Ludwig Glauert
Ludwig Glauert was a British-born Australian paleontologist, herpetologist and museum curator. He is known for work on Pleistocene mammal fossils, and as a museum curator who played an important role in natural science of Western Australia.Glauert was born in Ecclesall, Sheffield, England...
, George Pitt Morison
George Pitt Morison
George Pitt Morison was an Australian painter and engraver noted particularly for his painting The Foundation of Perth 1829 which was commissioned as part of Western Australia's centenary celebrations, and presented to the Art Gallery of Western Australia in February 1929.In 1890 he travelled to...
and George Temple-Poole
George Temple-Poole
George Thomas Temple-Poole was a British architect and public servant, primarily known for his work in Western Australia from 1886....
.
Government House, Perth
Government House in Perth is the official residence of the governor of Western Australia and was built between 1859 and 1864. The buildings and gardens are listed on the Western Australian Register of Heritage Places and are open to the public from time to time.-Description:The building is a two...
. It was built during the economic boom created by the 1890s Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...
gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
. The Administration Building moved into the Police Quarters in the 1970s during the nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
mining boom.
The Main Gallery Building was built in 1977, and was also spurred by the mining boom. Western Australia was also placing more importance on cultural institutions, and the government was inspired by the upcoming 150th anniversary of federation in 1979. Construction of the Alexander Library
Alexander Library Building
The Alexander Library Building, in the Cultural Centre of Perth, Western Australia, houses the State Library of Western Australia, J S Battye Library, State Records Office, in the Perth Cultural Precinct in Northbridge in Perth, Western Australia...
began in the same period.
The architect of the Main Gallery Building was K. Sierakowski from the Public Works Department, who worked with engineer Philip Nadebaum and architectural company, Summerhayes and Associates. It was designed in the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
method with a Brutalist exterior, which was popular in European design. The slab and shear head column system was an innovative architectural feature in WA at the time.
Exhibitions
The Art Gallery's first collection was eclectic. The first collection consisted of IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n and Asian
Culture of Asia
The culture of Asia is human civilization in Asia. It features different kinds of cultural heritage of many nationalities, societies, and ethnic groups in the region, traditionally called a continent from a Western-centric perspective, of Asia...
craft work, followed by art created by European Australians and copies of English art. The Aesthetic Movement inspired the collection with its broad definition of art.
Ongoing exhibitions include Indigenous traditional and contemporary art from the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
and Western Australia, and WA art from the 1820s to 1960s. An annual exhibition called "Year 12 Perspectives" highlights works from Western Australian Art and Art & Design students, including paintings, prints
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
, digital art
Digital art
Digital art is a general term for a range of artistic works and practices that use digital technology as an essential part of the creative and/or presentation process...
, fashion design
Fashion design
Fashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social latitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories....
and sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
.
Past exhibitions have included:
- Auguste RodinAuguste RodinFrançois-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
(2001) - Monet (2001)
- Max ErnstMax ErnstMax Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
(2002) - Islamic art from KuwaitKuwaitThe State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
(2002) - Pre-Raphealite paintings and drawings from the Tate GalleryTate GalleryThe Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
(2003) - Italian RenaissanceItalian RenaissanceThe Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
, 17th century DutchNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and 18th and 19th century FrenchFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
drawings from the Amsterdams Historisch MuseumAmsterdams Historisch MuseumThe Amsterdam Museum, until 2011 called the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, is a museum about the history of Amsterdam. Since 1975, it is located in the old city orphanage between Kalverstraat and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal.-History:...
(2003) - IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n contemporary artContemporary artContemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
(2004-2005) - RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n art from the early 1900s (2005) - Australian ceramicCeramicA ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
s from the 1950s to 1960s (2005-2006) - Norman LindsayNorman LindsayNorman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....
etchingEtchingEtching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
s (2006-2007) - EgyptianCulture of EgyptThe culture of Egypt has thousands of years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations. For millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself...
art on loan from the Louvre Museum (2007)