BUILDING REFURBISHMENT & GALLERY DESIGN
Impressionism to Pop
New International Art Permanent Collection Display
A major renovation of the NGA’s ground floor galleries was carried out in 2006.
By removing the white painted MDF cladding and the cove lighting from the tops of the display walls, we revealed Col Madigan's hidden architectural features and reopened many of the buildings original view corridors.
It is impractical to drill into and hang on the NGA bush hammered concrete walls as it is almost impossible to repair the wall surface and is not optimal for the long-term care of the collection.
We designed new cladding, using details drawn from Col Madigan’s original wall designs and developed a new surface finish, a painted render with mixed grain fine sand in shades of grey – a surface that still had the feel of a natural material finish - that could be easily touched up and was more sympathetic to the original bush hammered concrete.
While the NGA’s International Art collection is essentially modern with its strengths in the 20th century, it also includes major European and American works from the past 200 years that parallel the collection of Australian art.
The new displays included the new international art gallery showing the historical art movements from Impressionism through to Pop Art, and two new galleries for the display of the Indian and southeast Asian art collections.
On a tour of the new displays with Col Madigan, he said he was 'very happy with the new displays ... they are more sympathetic to my buildings design' and that he was 'very pleased to see the original features of the building uncovered'.
