Nineteenth-century Australian Art in the National Gallery of Victoria


Book Description

For the first time, some of the major 19th century Australian works of art from the National Gallery of Victoria have been published in one book. Includes paintings, watercolours, drawings, furniture, silver, textiles and sculpture.




A Companion to Australian Art


Book Description

A Companion to Australian Art A Companion to Australian Art is a thorough introduction to the art produced in Australia from the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 to the early 21st century. Beginning with the colonial art made by Australia’s first European settlers, this volume presents a collection of clear and accessible essays by established art historians and emerging scholars alike. Engaging, clearly-written chapters provide fresh insights into the principal Australian art movements, considered from a variety of chronological, regional and thematic perspectives. The text seeks to provide a balanced account of historical events to help readers discover the art of Australia on their own terms and draw their own conclusions. The book begins by surveying the historiography of Australian art and exploring the history of art museums in Australia. The following chapters discuss art forms such as photography, sculpture, portraiture and landscape painting, examining the practice of art in the separate colonies before Federation, and in the Commonwealth from the early 20th century to the present day. This authoritative volume covers the last 250 years of art in Australia, including the Early Colonial, High Colonial and Federation periods as well as the successive Modernist styles of the 20th century, and considers how traditional Aboriginal art has adapted and changed over the last fifty years. The Companion to Australian Art is a valuable resource for both undergraduate and graduate students of the history of Australian artforms from colonization to postmodernism, and for general readers with an interest in the nation’s colonial art history.







British Art for Australia, 1860-1953


Book Description

Traditional postcolonial scholarship on art and imperialism emphasises tensions between colonising cores and subjugated peripheries. The ties between London and British white settler colonies have been comparatively neglected. Artworks not only reveal the controlling intentions of imperialist artists in their creation but also the uses to which they were put by others in their afterlives. In many cases they were used to fuel contests over cultural identity which expose a mixture of rifts and consensuses within the British ranks which were frequently assumed to be homogeneous. British Art for Australia, 1860–1953: The Acquisition of Artworks from the United Kingdom by Australian National Galleries represents the first systematic and comparative study of collecting British art in Australia between 1860 and 1953 using the archives of the Australian national galleries and other key Australian and UK institutions. Multiple audiences in the disciplines of art history, cultural history, and museology are addressed by analysing how Australians used British art to carve a distinct identity, which artworks were desirable, economically attainable, and why, and how the acquisition of British art fits into a broader cultural context of the British world. It considers the often competing roles of the British Old Masters (e.g. Romney and Constable), Victorian (e.g. Madox Brown and Millais), and modern artists (e.g. Nash and Spencer) alongside political and economic factors, including the developing global art market, imperial commerce, Australian Federation, the First World War, and the coming of age of the Commonwealth.




From the Ruins of Colonialism


Book Description

This book throws fresh light on the history of memory, forgetting and colonialism. It considers key moments of historical imagination, and analyses the strange ensemble of elements that constitute Australian History. It is an innovative and stimulating investigation of historical cultures and narratives.




Manual of Curatorship


Book Description

Based on original contributions by specialists, this manual covers both the theory and the practice required in the management of museums. It is intended for all museum and art gallery profession staff, and includes sections on new technology, marketing, volunteers and museum libraries.




The Spectacular Modern Woman


Book Description

Liz Conor explores the role of media technology in the emergence of the 'modern woman' in the 1920s. At once liberating & confining, the media images of women set standards of appearance that were closely tied to ideas about the roles a woman could fulfill, from city girl to mannekin to flapper.




Arts Governance


Book Description

Since the crisis in governance which led to a shortage of capable board members, recent years have seen the emergence of the enterprising arts organisation – a development which has led to the need for new types of board members who have a greater understanding of 'mission, money and merit' within a cultural construct. This innovative book explores the world of the arts board member from the unique perspective of the cultural and creative industries. Using a wide range of research techniques including interviews with board members and stakeholders, board observations and case studies this book provides a rich and deep analysis from inside the boardroom. It provides in-depth insight into the changing pressures on arts boards after the financial crisis, and focuses uniquely on the role of passion on arts boards. Part of the Routledge Research in Creative and Cultural Industries Management series, written specifically for people seeking to develop their careers in cultural and creative management, this book is also for people working in and with arts organisations, in government and non-profit arts organisations. It will also be of interest to academics and researchers working in the wider corporate governance field.




Victorian Year-book


Book Description




Mr Felton's Bequests


Book Description

Alfred Felton, a bachelor of definite opinions and benignly eccentric habits, was one of the remarkable group of Melbourne merchants who dominated the economy of the Australian colonies in the decades after the gold rush. In 1904 he left his substantial fortune in trust, the income to be spent by a committee of his friends, half on charities (especially for women and children), and half on works of art for the National Gallery of Victoria, works calculated to 'raise and improve public taste'. The Gallery suddenly gained acquisition funds greater than those of London's National and Tate galleries combined, and between 1904 and 2004 more than 15 000 items were purchased for it by the Felton Bequest. 'Although the last quarter of the twentieth century saw a dramatic and exciting expansion of Australian art museums', Patrick McCaughey writes in the foreword of this book, 'no institution could hope to replicate the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria assembled under the aegis of the Felton Bequest.' How the Felton Bequests' Committee carried out its tasks, in cooperation and sometimes in conflict with the Trustees of the Gallery, is a human story of many triumphs and occasional follies, of decisions made and unmade amid changing notions of art, philanthropy and public taste. John Poynter's account of Felton's life and the story of his Bequests covers most of Melbourne's history, from the unusual view point of three themes, business, art and charity.