Uta Uta Jangala, Old Man Dreaming at Yumari, 1983, AGSA; Turkey Tolson (Tjupurrula), Straightening Spears at Ilyingaungau, 1990, AGSA and (Floor plinth) Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Untitled 2007, NGA
Elevation wall layout for Emily Kngwarreye, Anwerlarr anganenty (Big yam Dreaming) 1995; Rover Thomas, Cyclone Tracy 1991 and Queenie McKenzie, Gija Country 1996
Dennis Nona, Mutuk 2009, NGA; Kathy Temin, Tombstone Garden 2012, NGA; Mike Parr, Great Distances Between Small Towns 1990-1991, NGA; Rosalie Gascoigne, Monaro 1989, AGWA
Uta Uta Jangala, Old Man Dreaming at Yumari, 1983, AGSA; Turkey Tolson (Tjupurrula), Straightening Spears at Ilyingaungau, 1990, AGSA and (Floor plinth) Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Untitled 2007, NGA
Royal Academy of Arts, London
21 September – 8 December 2013
In 2013, 200 Australian works on the themes of land and landscape, covering a period of over 200 years, went on display in the Royal Academy’s main exhibition galleries in London. Spread across twelve historic rooms, this was the first major survey of Australian art in the UK for over 50 years.
Over a quarter of the exhibition was produced by First Nations artists and included the greatest examples of Australian art, showing the fascinating social and cultural evolution of our nation.
The exhibition featured many of Australia’s most iconic works by our best-known artists: Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington Smith, Arthur Boyd, Russell Drysdale, Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Sidney Nolan, whose iconic Ned Kelly painting adorned the exhibition posters plastered on the walls of London Underground stations. Of the 145 artists included in Australia, more than half had never been included in any previous exhibition in London.
While London's notoriously tough art critics were divided, the British public responded very enthusiastically to the exhibition. Attendances to the show were high, with the RA reporting that visitors were pouring into the exhibition, and that the exhibition was considered an extraordinary breath of fresh air, providing a large body of work that people in Britain had never seen before.