John Glover Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land 1838. Purchased with assistance from Mr and Mrs J.K. Bain 1985

Grace Cossington Smith The curve of the bridge 1928-1929. © Estate of Grace Cossington Smith. Purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales and James Fairfax 1991

Dating from the beginnings of the Gallery, the Australian collection is large, with almost 11,000 items, and includes some of the greatest works in Australian art history: Tom Roberts's The golden fleece (1894) and Bailed up (1895-1927); Arthur Streeton's Fire's on (1891) and The railway station, Redfern (1893), Charles Conder's Departure of the Orient - Circular Quay (1888) and Frederick McCubbin's On the wallaby track (1896).

The Australian collection is comprehensive in its holdings of certain artists. For example Conrad Martens, WC Piguenit, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and George Lambert, to name a few, are well represented. From the 20th century the Gallery has major and extensive holdings of such artists as Elioth Gruner, William Dobell, Lloyd Rees, Godfrey Miller, John Passmore, John Olsen, Fred Williams, Ian Fairweather, Robert Klippel and Jeffrey Smart, among many others.

In the late 1970s the Gallery established a separate contemporary art department, which has allowed the Australian department to concentrate on improving the historical collection while the contemporary department concentrates on more current practice.

While this has sometimes lead to controversy about the definition of contemporary art, a constant dialogue between the two departments has ensured a complementary relationship. With this in place, the Australian department has continued to collect the work of living artists and to produce a vigorous programme of exhibitions, including important retrospectives and survey shows, lecture series and publishing projects.

The Australian department is an essential part of the identity and the history of the Gallery and continues to collect and exhibit some of the most popular and historically significant work in the collection.

For more information contact:
Business Development Coordinator (02) 9225 1746

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(The Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation is the Gallery’s major acquisition fund and umbrella organisation for all Gallery benefactor groups.)