In Bendigo to see Melbourne Opera’s Ring Cycle we dropped into the Bendigo Art Gallery to check out this exhibition which was on between 18 March to 23 June 2023. According to the gallery website it promised to survey the iconography of Australiana in art and design through key chapters in our history through to the present day. This painting by Marlene Gilson, The Landing, 2018 is one of the first you see on entering the exhibition. It imagines Cook’s landing at Botany Bay focussing on the Gamangal people living on their Country: fishing, hunting, cooking, sewing, teaching, playing. An alternative to the Eurocentric artistic imaginations of this event. Included are an eagle and a crow, honouring Bunjil the creator spirit and Waa the protector, the two moiety ancestors of the Wathaurung and the Kulin Nations.
There were lots of objects including a wonderful possum coat at the entrance and some beautifully crafted wooden weapons; all in glass cases that were too hard to photograph. Also examples of early colonial furniture and artefacts but I was drawn to the familiar paintings. They were arranged chronologically in the different galleries. Starting with Eugene von Guerard’s Weatherboard Creek Falls, Jamieson’s Valley, NSW, 1862.
This painting of a bushfire was included in the gallery celebrating the hardships endured by white settlers. It is by John Longstaff, Gippsland, Sunday night, February 20th, 1898,1898.
Another enduring fear of white settlers was the lost child. Captured in this painting by Frederick McCubbin, Lost, 1886.
Then we’re onto the Heidelberg School with Arthur Streeton’s Near Heidelberg, 1890.
And in the same year a painting that’s been central to Australian myth making – Tom Roberts’ Shearing the rams, 1890.
So far so familiar. This one is less so, although I’ve seen it as part of the Bendigo Art Gallery’s permanent collection. I love it though I know nothing about the artist. A fantastically proportioned beast. C Watkins, Darling Downs, 1887.
And now we’re into the twentieth century and more familiar paintings and more myth-making. This is Walter Withers’ The drover, 1912 which conjures up Clancy of the Overflow (purportedly a relative of mine although that’s contested by another family) experiencing the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended.
I’ve not heard of Hilda Rix Nicholas before, but liked her In the bush (Dorothy Richmond on horseback), 1927. More bucolic bushland.
While back in the city women artists were hard at work bringing a different sensibility to life though it would take a long time for them to be fully recognised. This is Grace Cossington Smith’s painting of the Sydney Harbour Bridge under construction, The Bridge in-curve, 1930. Apt title.
And her still life, Bottlebrushes, 1935.
Alongside Margaret Preston’s Banksia and Flannel Flowers, 1938.
Russell Drysdale brought a different style to bush paintings – one that I’m not really keen on but it brings back memories of a period in time. This is The rabbiters, 1947.
This is John Brack, The bar, 1954. I remember having to do an essay on the famous John Brack painting of people in Collins Street for a Commonwealth scholarship exam. Perhaps being familiar with that one I imagine this is the bar of the Windsor hotel.
I wasn’t familiar with this one at all but it conjures up the many long and short family rides endured growing up in the mallee. Entitled The car, 1955.
Apart from the paintings I was taken with one of the final galleries which focussed on a history of Australian fashion. This brilliantly coloured dress, Waratah Fire Cheongsam1986 is by Jenny Kee. Wonderful and could be worn today.
These two pieces are by Prue Acton. The Suit from 1987 with a black straw hat by Peter Jago. And the Gum Leaf dress from 1981, designed for a fancy dress ball. She also designed the necklace made of leather, gumnuts, metal and cotton. You could also wear both outfits – including hat and necklace – today.
And from 2015 we have this Bush magic dress and gumnut cap from the fashion house Romance Was Born, Sydney established 2005. Based, obviously on May Gibbs Gumnut Babies and Banksia Men.
I was very taken with these gowns by contemporary Indigenous designer Paul McCann who takes inspiration from his grandmother who sewed a lot of her own dresses in the 1950s. He incorporates hand-painted fabric and his personal Connection to Country in his designs. These two are White Ochre gown and Water Lily gown.
And this is Saltwater Crocodile gown. In May 2022 Australian Vogue published an issue dedicated to First Nations design which included these gowns. They were subsequently acquired by the Bendigo Art Gallery. Incredibly beautiful.
There was one other cute display which was associated with an activity for children. A wall of images of ice-creams through the ages. Kenny Pittock’s 100 ice-creams. Great fun.
It was fun trying to find your favourite among the many dating from our childhoods! I couldn’t find a chocolate paddlepop! Here’s a close up. Fun.
On the way out I took pictures of these paintings from the Gallery’s permanent collection. Kame colour 2, 1995 by Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
Water Dreaming with bush tucker, 1972 by Mick Namarari.
And a final one – Iwantja Tjukitji (Iwantja Soakage), 2018 by Julie Yatjitja
Bendigo Art Gallery is always worth a visit. The exhibition was good, but so is the permanent collection.
Pauline says
Australian: Designing a Nation is such a broad topic…I’m not sure the exhibition carried it of. A few to many areas left out and some over catered for. Maybe space was an issue. I found it hard to navigate chronologically It seemed to have no flow. That said agree there were some amazing works that are worth the trip to see. I loved seeing old favourites like Aunty Marlene’s painting ‘The Landing’, McCubbin’s ‘Lost’ and Roberts ‘Shearing the rams’ next to his first sketch of the subject, It was great to revisit Godfrey Miller’s ‘Summer’ and Ginger Riley Munduwalawal’s work ‘Limmen Bight Country’ I thought the Oudin Marseille silver-plated ‘Bust of a noblewoman’ was amazing but I also loved the embroidery work in the mantlepiece valance, the small ‘Halley’s Comet brooch’ and detailed enamelled ‘buckle’. Pieces that are often tucked away in storage.