NGV Musings

July 26, 2022 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | ART, TRAVEL | 0 Comments |

(Melbourne, May 2022)

We Love the NGV very much (but not everything In it).

NGV Waterwall

In May, there was a wonderful display of Asian Art (NGV began collecting items in 1862 – no doubt the fruit of the Victorian Gold Rush – and now has over 2000). But first we had to re-visit (being white supremacists) the European galleries:

Nicholas Poussin, The Crossing of the Red Sea (c. 1634)

Camille Corot, The bent tree (1855-60)

Modigliani, Portrait of Manuel Humbert (1916)

Oscar Domínguez, The Dressmaker (1943)

Temple frieze

Detail

We liked Chen Yongcai’s Harvest Season prints on paper (c. 1972):

…and these superb Javanese puppets (1960s):

Scholar’s rock (c. 17C)

Ai Weiwei’s take on C-19 (2020)

Magnificently relaxed: Guanyin, Jin Dynasty (115-1234)

Candlestick holder, Tang Dynasty 680CE

Incense burner – Jin Dynasty 11-12C

Tomb tile (Western Han Dynasty, 206BCE-24CE)

Guardian Spirit, Tang Dynasty, 700-750 (“Tubo”, Lord of the Underworld)

The Milk Round

The whole collection on display in May included ceramics, bronze vessels, mirrored and jade objets d’art, funerary designs, as well as some contemporary pieces. The great thing about the NGV is that when it is going through hell (Melbourne suffered the longest lockdown on the planet), it keeps going: now on until October is a range of works by that old rogue, Picasso. And you can sample the fruits of Melbourne, all close by.

ngv birds

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