Australian Art Exhibitions

Melbourne : Thames and Hudson, 2018. Quarto, boards in dustjacket, pp. 432, illustrated. New copy, still sealed in publisher’s shrinkwrap  (RRP $100)

This pioneering publication outlines the exciting and often controversial development of Australia’s public galleries and the changing conditions that have determined their exhibition programs from the 1960s to the present. The extravagantly illustrated chapters are based on the extensive research of four authors associated with four universities from three states. Trace the growth and evolution of curatorial practice in Australia’s rapidly changing art scene. Read how initial consultations between state gallery directors in the 1950s and 60s led to the emergence of national endeavours under the guidance of Gough Whitlam.

Richly annotated with multiple appendices and a comprehensive index of more than 1,500 entries, this publication is an incredible resource for Australian art history that concludes with an analysis of the value of exhibitions that enables visitors to ‘see art with fresh eyes and see the world anew’.

Includes installation photographs of exhibitions by Howard Arkley, Ben Quilty, John Glover, Noel Sheridan, Ti Parks, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Harold Cazneaux, Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Fred WIlliams, Albert Tucker, Ian Fairweather, Stanislaus Rapotec, Margaret Preston, Wolfgang Sievers, Dorrit Black, Albert Namatjira, Adam Cullen and many others, as well as seminal general survey exhibitions such as The Field, Golden Summers etc. Includes an invaluable selection of images of rare and scarce exhibition catalogues, posters and art ephemera. Chapters on modernism, feminism, Aboriginal art, colonialism, nationalism and the role of art exhibitions in reflecting and shaping our national culture.

Dr Joanna Mendelssohn is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales Art & Design and is the editor in chief of Design & Art Australia Online.

Dr Catherine De Lorenzo is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales Art & Design and at the Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Art Design and Architecture, Monash University.

Dr Alison Inglis is an Associate Professor and a graduate of the Art History Department at the University of Melbourne. Alison has co-ordinated the university’s Masters Art Curatorship programme since 1995.

Dr Catherine Speck is a Professor at the University of Adelaide where she coordinates the Art History Program that is offered at the university and at the Art Gallery of South Australia.