The Art Gallery of NSW’s latest travelling exhibition, Fieldwork, goes west in more ways than one. Collecting late 19th to mid-20th-century works that beautifully render the landscapes of Sydney’s western suburbs, the Hawkesbury River and the Blue Mountains, the collection will also physically head west.
Fieldwork will mark the grand reopening of the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery on July 18. It will live there until September 20 before moving to the Maitland Regional Art Gallery from November 28 until February 7, 2021. The exhibition will then do a victory lap at the Penrith Regional Gallery from March 12, 2021, until May 9.
Fieldwork explores how a growing appreciation for our beautiful natural backdrop and the joys of painting outdoors encouraged a swathe of influential artists to make the break from the city in search of pastoral inspiration.
Including rare sightings of significant drawings and paintings seldom-seen, the show includes Hilda Rix Nicholas’ ‘Through the gum trees, Toongabbie’, Sydney Long’s ‘Midday 1896’, and Roland Wakelin’s ‘Narellan’, as well as significant works by Julian Ashton, one of the earliest proponents of ‘plein-air’ painting in Sydney.
Some of AGNSW prized possessions will be packed up for a holiday out west too, like Gruner’s beloved work ‘Spring frost 1919’. AGNSW director Michael Brand said he’s going to miss it, but that the travelling exhibition is, “a wonderful opportunity to share this iconic work with regional audiences and have it return to its hometown.”
The works are a rare treat for art lovers, he suggests. "Produced during an exceptionally rich period in Australian art history, many of these artworks were collected by the gallery at the time they were made, and some are now being exhibited for the first time in decades.”
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This article is supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas
