40 years

Story

40 years with The Director

Director Nick Mitzevich reflects on the past four decades and looks to the future.

Story

Place

A building is nothing without strong foundations and ours are rooted deeply in Ngunnawal Country. Wierdi/Birri Gubba man Bruce Johnson McLean discusses the importance of place.

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The American Connection

Michael Maher, an Australian-New Yorker and President of the American Friends of the National Gallery of Australia, explains its mission of mutual cultural enrichment.

40 Acquisitions for 40 years

See some of the art that has joined the collection in our 40th year as we share 40 new works to celebrate 40 years of building a national collection.

Story

Buy the Whole Damn Thing: The Tyler Collection

78 artists, 7400+ works of art and 120,000 archive photographs. Curator David Greenhalgh shares how the collection came to call the Gallery home.

Story

Brutal Beauty

Australian photographer Max Dupain from 1982 illustrate architect Col Madigan's words on the iconic building.

Introducing

Introducing Kara Walker

Senior Curator Sally Foster introduces the New York based artist who is recognised internationally for her graphically striking work and creations of complex narratives.

Story

Know My Name: A New Chapter

Writer and Curator Julie Ewington looks to gender parity in the arts and asks what happens when you open doors and minds?

40 Years of Collecting

With his open-minded pursuit of excellence for the national collection Founding Director James Mollison was a defining figure in Australian art, writes Dr Grazia Gunn.

First Nations

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Curator Kelli Cole revisits the work of Anmatyerre woman and acclaimed artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye in the national collection.

Indigenous Arts Leadership Program: On Country

Over the last 15 years more than 110 First Nations art works have taken part in the program which is now delivered onsite at the Gallery and on Country with community.

Bedroom Nocturne: When Intricacy Meets Intimacy

Considered a breakthrough work in her career, Cressida Campbell offers an intimate night-time view of the bedroom she shares with her husband, Warren Macris, in intricate detail.

Don't Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS

Art often offers a time capsule back to a specific moment in history. This 1994 exhibition defied courage for the Gallery as it captured the relentless onslaught of HIV/AIDS on our society.

Betty Churcher: Hidden Treasures

Take a deep dive into the collection with Betty Churcher through this series of mini-documentaries.

Enlightening the Gallery

Each year for the Enlighten Festival, commissioned artists are handed over the 60m façade of the brutalist Gallery building as their blank canvas.

Influencing the National Collection

Art critic Robert Hughes influenced the formation of the collection through his approach to modernism and internationalism, writes Curator Lucina Ward.

Collecting the Artistic Voices of Indonesia

From the unique and technical to the contemporary practices, Senior Curator Carol Cains uncovers the origins of the Gallery’s extensive Indonesian art collection.

Stories & Ideas

Contemporary Australian Architects Speakers Series

Canberra-based architects Bruce and Catherine Townsend discuss how they started the iconic series in 1987 and how architecture and design has evolved today.

Ever Present:
First Peoples Art of Australia

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Curator Tina Baum shares the art, histories and realities of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.

Worldwide

Love Machine

A visit to Rebecca Horn's studio and foundation in Germany, offered a rare insight into the German artist's practice.

Touring Exhibitions

Touring the collection

Helping the Gallery to be a truly national institution for over three decades, the Touring Exhibitions team share how they tour the collection to regional, metropolitan and overseas venues.

A surrealist, a forger and the return of ancestral remains

In 2019, a work in the National Gallery collection was identified as both inauthentic, a forgery, and sadly created from Māori ancestral remains.

James Gleeson:
Oral History Collection

Discover the stories behind the collection and step back in time with surrealist James Gleeson through these historical interviews with 98 Australian artists.

Growing a Sculpture Garden

For the 40th anniversary, we share the history and highlights of one of the world's most developed Sculpture Gardens.

Madhan warrugarra wirimbirra gulbalanha

Ngambri/Ngunnawal Traditional Custodian Paul Girrawah House discusses the traditional practice of tree scarring and the contemporary marking of trees on Country.

Lindy Lee:
Reaching for the stars

Commissioned for her first immersive public sculpture to celebrate the 40th anniversary, we sat down with Lindy to talk about art, life and loss.

Walk in their shoes

Get to know the First Nations artists commissioned for the National Gallery x Volley project.

Guided Tours

40 years of guiding

Still guiding today, volunteer guide Kerin Cox looks back at the very first days of guiding visitors through the Gallery.

International Art

Worldwide:
Curator Picks

In celebration of the Gallery's 40th Anniversary, Russell Storer, Head Curator of International Art, shares his highlights from the major collection display Worldwide.

Collection

Australian Art:
Curator Picks

National Gallery’s curators, share their favourite works of art by women artists from the major collection display of Australian art.

Performance Art

A MOMENT IN TIME

Curator Elspeth Pitt explores the contemporary significance of ACT 3 and the National Gallery’s broader approach to the collection and presentation of performance art.

Art & Friends:
Connecting people living with dementia

Find out how the National Gallery has helped lead the way in developing programs for people living with dementia.

Films

The Exhibitionists

Rose d’Or Award-nominated film, The Exhibitionists is both a playful and profound docu-comedy celebrating women in the arts.

The Balnaves Contemporary Series

The red thread of history

Artists Judy Watson, Waanyi people, and Helen Johnson have forged a dialogue on the roles of women in contemporary and colonial Australia.

Conservation

How to fly Brancusi's Birds

Installing Birds in space by Constantin Brancusi is a complex, delicate procedure, writes National Gallery Conservator, Objects Beata Tworek-Matuszkiewicz.

40th Anniversary

Surrealism revolution

Surrealism: Revolution by Night exposed Australians to new ideas and aesthetics and would impact the Gallery’s permanent collection forever.

Exhibition

Cressida Campbell

24 Sep 22 – 19 Feb 23
Ticketed | Temporary Exhibition Galleries, Level 1

See over 140 of Campbell's intricate woodcuts and paintings in her largest exhibition to date.

First Nations

The Aboriginal Memorial

Ongoing
Free | Level 1

Back at the heart of the Gallery, The Aboriginal Memorial is the centrepiece of the national collection.

Project

Project 2: Kara Walker

Until 5 Feb 23
Free | Level 2

With an internationally recognised practice built on narratives of race, gender and sexuality, this is Walker's first exhibition in Australia.

Touring Exhibition

Rauschenberg & Johns:
Significant Others

On Tour

Until 29 Jan 23
Free | Level 1

This exhibition draws upon the National Gallery’s Kenneth Tyler Collection of prints by American artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

Tracey Emin:
When I Sleep

Oct 22 – ongoing
Free | Sculpture Garden

Monumental yet fragile - Emin's four-metre resting bronze joins the Sculpture Garden permanently.

Bridget Riley:
Wall painting

Ongoing
Free | Level 2

Commissioned especially for the 40th anniversary, Riley presents a seven-by-seven metre wall painting.

Linda Marrinon:
Woman in jumpsuit

Oct 22 – ongoing
Free | Sculpture Garden

Facing Lake Burley Griffin, Woman in jumpsuit is a new addition to the Sculpture Garden.

Collection

Worldwide

1 Oct 22 – ongoing
Free | Level 1

'Centre of art for the whole world' – this new major display drawn from the collection is inspired by the National Gallery's founding history.

Collection

Australian Art

8 Oct 22 – ongoing
Free | Level 2

This new collection display tells wide-ranging and complex stories of Australian art.

Project

Project 3: Angelica Mesiti

5 Nov 22 – 29 Jan 23
Free | Lower Ground

See Mesiti's 58th Venice Biennale work ASSEMBLY, a three-channel video immersive installation proving the nature of connection.