Sometimes life holds some joyous surprises. I wandered into Perth on the weekend and ended up visiting the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Since I can never work out who holds what copyright, I’ll share an old photo of the gardens outside it, rather than the artworks inside — which is a shame because the art is good.
Anyway, once inside the gallery, I pursued my usual strategy of not knowing what I wanted to see, but just looking. That brought me to the Your Collection 1800-Today exhibition and in particular to its Your Collection 1800-1920: Here and There section which was housed in the older section of the gallery, a location that worked perfectly.
Having a memory like a sieve, I can’t tell you the names of the artists or their creations, but I saw wonderful old glass, paintings of life a hundred years ago and fabulous watercolours and sketches of Fremantle and Albany. The latter was fun to try and match current day landscapes to those of more than a century ago. I do remember that a painting by Arthur Boyd finally showed me why he’s so famous. Though I wish I could remember its name! The mountains in the background heaved with life.
The exhibition was a lovely experience outside of time. Quiet, reflective and yet humming with the energy of much-loved art. It reminded why I like the Art Gallery of WA: It always offers a visitor a welcome and a gift.
6 responses to “Art Gallery of WA – State Art Collection”
I love going to art galleries. Though it's been ages since I last visited the SA one. I'll have to put that on my list of things to do when the kids go back to school next year. ๐
LOL I understand that thinking … though even worse would be encountering a school group at the gallery on excursion. Aaargh … so much sympathy for their struggling teachers.
Sounds wonderful Jenny. I imagine you found lots of inspiration while you were there. ๐
Absolutely! and lots of wistful "wish I could paint" feelings ๐
I love visiting art galleries. They are so full of wonderful discoveries! I must make time to get up to the city again and see some!
Do! even after battling the evil train (not so evil, but the guy next to me was demonstrating some sort of sit down dance – don't ask!) the exhibition was wonderful … and then I went to David Jones and bought choc chip cookies ๐ Thoroughly recommend