Word pictures
7 Jul – 2 Oct 2012
About
A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. Since the early 20th century when Picasso and Braque made their radical breakthrough with Cubism, there has been a flourishing of modern and contemporary art produced with text at its core. Alphabets with their infinite potential for words, the visual form of letters, the art of printmaking with its origins in typography and the artists’ book are some of the themes explored in this exhibition. Word Pictures is the National Gallery of Australia’s contribution to the National Year of Reading. This selection of surprising and often humorous works of art reveals the artists’ playful connections between our visual and written languages.