The National Gallery of Australia (NGA, originally the Australian National Gallery) is Australia’s national art museum and one of Australia’s largest art museums, with over 166,000 works of art on display. Located in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, it was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art museum.
The Gallery’s vision is the cultural enrichment of all Australians through access to their national art gallery, the quality of the national collection, exceptional exhibitions, exhibitions and programs, and the professionalism of our staff.
The main priorities are to further develop the outstanding national art collection; maintain and protect the national collection; ensure participation in exhibitions, displays and public programs; to ensure wide access and publication and promotion of the national collection and fine art.
The National Gallery of Australia opened to the public in October 1982. It is an organ of the Federal Government, established by an Act of the Australian Parliament in 1975.
The National Gallery building is in the brutalist style of the late 20th century. It is characterized by angular masses and raw concrete surfaces and is surrounded by a series of sculpture gardens planted with Australian plants and trees.
The building’s geometry is based on a triangle, most evident to visitors in the coffered ceiling grid and main floor tiles. Madigan said of this device that “the intention of the architectural concept is to introduce a sense of freedom into the grammar of design so that the building can be altered and varied, but will always express its true purpose.” This geometry runs throughout the building and is reflected in the triangular stair towers, columns and building elements.
The building is built primarily of reinforced bush piled concrete, which was also originally the interior wall surface. More recently, the interior walls have been covered with painted wood, allowing for more flexibility in the design of the work.
The building is 23,000 m2. The design provides space both to display and store artwork and to house the Gallery’s curatorial and support staff. Madigan’s design is based on Sweeney’s recommendation that there should be a spiral plan with a sequence of galleries to display works of art of different sizes and allow flexibility in how they should be displayed.
There are three levels of galleries. On the main level, the galleries are large and are used to display Native Australian and International collections (meaning European and American). The lower level also contains a series of large galleries, originally intended to house sculpture but now used to display a collection of Asian art. The uppermost level contains a series of smaller, more intimate galleries that are now used to display the gallery’s collection of Australian art. Sweeney recommended that natural light sources should not detract from the collections, and so the light sources should be indirect.
In November 2007, the High Court and National Gallery District were added to the Australian National Heritage List.
The National Gallery of Australia’s collection includes:
Australian Art.
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art (mostly recent, but in traditional forms)
Art in the European tradition (from European settlement to the present day)
Western art (medieval to modern, mostly modern)
Eastern art (from South and East Asia, mostly traditional)
Modern art (international)
Pacific art (from Melanesia and Polynesia, mostly traditional)
Photography (international and Australian)
Crafts (dress dishes, international)
Sculpture garden (Auguste Rodin to the present)
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art dominated the Aboriginal Memorial of 200 painted tree trunks celebrating all the Indigenous people who died between 1788 and 1988 defending their land from invaders. Each tree trunk represents a duplex or log coffin used to mark the safe tradition of the soul of the deceased from this world to another. Ramingining artists painted it to commemorate Australia’s bicentennial, and it was accepted for display at the Sydney Biennial in 1988. Mollison agreed to buy it for a permanent showing until its completion.