When visiting new places there are some places that top my list of “must visit” and art galleries are right up there at the top of the list.
So on the first day in Sydney we made a bee line, across the botanic gardens, via St Mary’s Cathedral (more of those later) and into the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Apart from appreciating the magnificent and varied paintings I also noticed the many windows.
Dawn of “The Day After” is responsible for my obsession with windows as she runs a challenge each week for us to showcase windows we find.
So here they are….
The classically elegant Art Gallery of NSW is one of Sydney’s most distinctive landmarks. The façade and old wing of the Gallery were built between 1896 and 1909. Architecturally, the building reflects 19th-century ideas about the cultural role of a gallery as a temple to art and civilising values. Yet early designs for the Gallery were less confident about the institution’s role and image. The present building is the work of government architect Walter Liberty Vernon, who secured the prestigious commission over the less conventional architect John Horbury Hunt.
The story of building the Gallery reads like a sensational novel. All the elements – intrigue, personal animosity and nepotism – are present. That the institution acquired such a fine historic building is almost fortuitous. (click here to read more)
The views through the windows are also works of art, and the windows are scattered all over the building in corners. They fascinated me.
The restaurant fascinated me as it had windows looking in from the gallery and windows looking out to the interesting view. A window watchers delight…
This gallery showcased an exhibition of still life art hanging on the walls, and this sculpture of still life dominated the centre of the room, but look at those windows at the back of the room.
An interesting wall with an installation of reflective windows
Finally, nothing to do with windows, but I will share with you one of my favourite work of art. For me this painting brings back memories of my days in New Zealand when I milked cows. I am constantly amazed that, as long as you do not use flash or a tripod, you can take photographs of the art work.
Spring Frost. Elioth Gruner
Awarded the Wynne Prize in 1919 and painted the same year as Roland Wakelin’s and Roy de Maistre’s experiments in colour harmony, ‘Spring frost’ is one of Elioth Gruner’s most critically acclaimed achievements. With its impeccable sense of light and tone, and its vigorous foreground brushwork, ‘Spring frost’ is a tour de force, and perhaps the most loved Australian landscape painting in the Gallery.
Elioth Gruner painted ‘Spring frost’ according to 19th-century plein-air conventions, but the work also demonstrates a contemporary succinctness of form. To complete the painting – one of his largest compositions – en plein air, Gruner built a structure to protect the canvas from the weather, and wrapped his legs with chaff bags to avoid frostbite. Although painted largely outdoors at Emu Plains, its large size and somewhat theatrical quality make it likely that Gruner completed parts of it later, in his city studio.
Wow! Amazing post. Just wow wow wow!
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Thanks Dawn my sentiments too… 🙂
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We have never been there, it looks sooo good
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You must visit next time you get to Sydney, one of the best free events in Sydney
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What a great place for window shopping 😉
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It certainly was
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This is a wonderful gallery, over the many years I have been visiting it always is enjoyable.
Full of inspiration from the old favourites and the new.
The architecture has changed over the years and you have shown that and captured the whole atmosphere.
Another wonderful time I have shared with my pommepal.
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Life is good Jack
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Don’t know why I never thought about Sydney having an art museum… another wonderful addition to my list of places to see. Love the wall of reflecting coloured glass. Eagerly awaiting more of your snaps from around NSW! del
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It is a magnificent building and beautiful art work Del you must visit if you get to Sydney
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On my list of ‘things to do’ in Sydney PP. Great photos. I love the wired pebbles installation AND the coloured windows – how fitting for the challenge. Your favourite painting looks very English, including the frame. Not unlike a Constable. Lovely long shadows in it.
Jude xx
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Yes it may be the “Englishness” of that painting that attracts me. I love Constables paintings too.
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Really enjoyed this post PP . You took full advantage with your camera ! Love Art galleries too , such opportunities to open one’s mind to different types of work not just paintings .
😀 those huge wired pebbles !! reminds me of the giant pebbles down in Cornwall at Porth Nanven .
The favourite painting of yours is so nice .. I can feel the crisp air of the early morning as no doubt you must have done if you were milking cows once upon a time 😉
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G’day Poppy I’m loving being in the “big smoke”. Those stones were an amazing work of art, the precision of the placement.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/australia-culture-blog/video/2013/jul/31/art-ken-unsworth-gallery-video
Here is a link to the installation of the stones and this is what they said about them…
‘To put those stones into a relationship that finally finishes up with a coherence and a magic is purely intuitive … they’re not put together by a formula.’ Ken Unsworth’s Suspended Stone Circle II features 103 river stones suspended on wires so that they seemingly hover.
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Thanks for link PP . I jsut looked at it properly .. wow .. the installation process … all those wires and getting the right stones in position .. Think I will still with my hag circlet 😉
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Gives you an idea of what to do with your hag stones Poppy…lol
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Wonderful window shots, What a fabulous place this must be to visit. 🙂
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It is a marvellous city Ad
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Cool!!! Great shots of a really great museum!!! I love visiting there when I’m in Sydney!
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I’ve got hundreds of photos Stephen and we’ve only been here 3 days….
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