‘The Moderns: Highlights from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’: Rockhampton Art Gallery

People often say they don’t like modern art.  More often than not, I’d say those people don’t particularly appreciate contemporary art, and would actually enjoy Modern art.  This theory is best tested with a visit to the Rockhampton Art Gallery to see the current touring exhibition titled ‘The Moderns: Highlights from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’

Modernism is a pretty big term, it refers to a Twentieth Century trend to ignore the strict art rules developed since Classical times, and to develop new approaches to art, in particular to painting.[1]  Artists started to use colours to express emotion and atmosphere instead of pure realism, it didn’t matter that brushstrokes were visible or that objects in the painting were reduced to block colours, and inspiration started coming from new places like technological advancement or even the subconscious mind.   It all sounds like very forward-thinking European-artsy kind of stuff, but here in Australia, artists were producing some of the finest examples of Modern art in the world.

As you enter ‘The Moderns’, it seems like a very traditional showing of paintings, but on closer inspection of each work, you see that they’re all excellent examples of how this radical thinking at the start of the last century was expressed in art.  The range of different styles in this show is quite impressive; from portraiture and landscapes to highly abstracted and composition-based paintings, and each one a home-grown piece that rivals the best hanging in the best galleries and museums around the world.  Some of the works are seldom seen outside the QAG, like William Dobell’s The Cypriot 1940, and also include some very well known names of Australian art, such as Peter Purves Smith, Margaret Preston, and Russell Drysdale.

A particular highlight, even from a show billed as a highlights collection, is William Dargie’s Portrait of Albert Namatjira 1956.  This Archibald Prize winner[2] is an astounding example of Modernist portraiture.  It shows Namatjira sitting before a fairly nondescript background, staring into middle distance.  He doesn’t look happy, or sad, or bored; he looks regal surveying all that it his (including us, the viewers), yet he’s in everyday clothes looking, presumably, like he did every day.  It shows a man who was a cultural leader, not only in the art world, but also for Indigenous society.  But this is where the ‘Modern’ part comes in.  It’s obviously a well composed and executed painting (a real credit to Dargie), but the fact that you can clearly see every brushstroke, and that it looks like it was painted quite quickly using modern materials gives us the impression that the spirit of Albert Namatjira could not have been captured in any other way, not matter how hard or quickly you tried.  This is a Modern masterpiece.

‘The Moderns: Highlights from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’ is an important exhibition.  It shows us the strength and might of Australian artists from a period generally dominated by the greats of Europe and America.  It is a real treat for both the art enthusiast and the uninitiated alike, and opportunity not to be missed.

 

‘The Moderns: Highlights from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’ is on exhibition at the Rockhampton Art Gallery from 5 October to 18 November 2012.  It is a touring exhibition from The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.

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[1] Newall, D. (2008) Appreciating Art: An expert companion. Camberwell: Viking, p.155 - 157.

[2] Artgallery.nsw.gov.au (1956) Archibald Prize finalists 1956 :: Art Gallery NSW. [online] Available at: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1956/ [Accessed: 20 Oct 2012].