National Gallery of Victoria exhibition reveals Australia’s natural history
Australia’s national collecting institutions – galleries, libraries, museums and archives – play a vital role in our nation’s cultural life. They protect and celebrate our rich heritage and share it with people across Australia and around the world.
The Australian Government International Exhibitions Insurance Program (AGIEI) provides funding to these organisations to assist them in purchasing commercial insurance for significant cultural exhibitions with the aim of providing all Australians with broader access to important art and cultural collections. Without AGIEI, the high cost of commercial insurance would prevent many organisations from being able to tour these exhibitions to a wider audience.
With this support, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) developed a travelling exhibition of works by Eugene von Guerard, one of Australia’s most important colonial landscape painters and the NGV’s first Curator.
Travelling exhibition visits Canberra and Queensland
Eugene von Guerard: Nature Revealed features over 150 artworks, including some never-before-seen landscape paintings and sketchbooks. The exhibition includes von Guerard’s depictions of Australia’s gold rush, mid-19th century Melbourne and his expeditions through Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and New Zealand. It also features paintings from his time in Germany and Italy.
Following the exhibition at the NGV (16 April to 7 August 2011), around two-thirds of the paintings will travel to the Queensland Art Gallery (17 December 2011 to 25 March 2012) and the National Gallery of Australia (27 April to 15 July 2012).
Cherie McNair, NGV’s Senior Exhibitions Coordinator, highlighted several reasons why this collaborative exhibition is significant.
“This is a particularly important exhibition for the NGV, as von Guerardwas the gallery’s first Curator and Master of the School of Painting,” she says.“His works have not been seen in a dedicated exhibition since 1980, and it’s the first time a von Guerard exhibition of this size has toured to Queensland.”
According to Cherie, von Guerard’s meticulous landscapes are valued for their depiction of Australian, and particularly Victorian, landscapes from the mid-1800s. Many of his representations of Australia’s forests, lakes and mountains hold important environmental significance today.
“The paintings are particularly meaningful to people from regional areas,” she says. “To encourage people to visit the exhibition, the NGV arranged discounted train travel for passengers travelling to the gallery from regional areas.”
Support from AGIEI program strengthens the NGV
To assemble the collection, the NGVborrowed paintings from a number of regional galleries, including Geelong Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ballarat, and from private collectors in Australia and overseas.
Funding from the AGIEI program and the Victorian Government enabled the NGV to secure insurance for the exhibition and arrange to safely transport selected works to Brisbane and Canberra.
Cherie says Australian Government funding helps the NGV create its world-class exhibitions and tour many of them to venues around Australia.
“Being included in a government-funded program enhances the NGV’s reputation and helps us build a strong relationship with the Federal Government.”
About the Australian Government International Exhibitions Insurance Program
AGIEI is a funding program designed to offset insurance costs for touring major exhibitions of cultural material. This funding is available to help eligible organisations to purchase commercial insurance for major exhibitions. AGIEI aims to provide the Australian public with broad access to significant cultural material to which they would otherwise not have access.
Image Source: Eugene von Guerard Mr Clark’s Station, Deep Creek, near Keilor 1867 oil on canvas 68.4 x 122.0 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with the assistance of the National Gallery Society of Victoria and Mr and Mrs Solomon Lew, 1986.