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Growing a Sculpture Garden

When art and nature meet, something special happens and the National Gallery’s Sculpture Garden is testament to this. For the 40th anniversary, we share the history and highlights of the iconic garden.


1 November 2022
Read time 10 minutes

For 40 years, the art and garden have grown and evolved together. From early additions by Bert Flugelman, Clement Meadmore and Auguste Rodin to contemporary works by Thanakupi, Tracey Emin and James Turrell, four decades on the Gallery has plans to revitalise the Sculpture Garden over the coming years.

Open 24 hours, seven days a week, the National Gallery Sculpture Garden is one of the most developed in the world spanning three-hectares and in the Gallery’s 40th year, currently houses sculptures by over 30 artists.

Softening the brutalism of the 60-metre-high concrete building with a flourishing garden of native plants destined for Kamberri/Canberra’s severe winter weather and hot dry summers, the garden is a work of art itself.

Following the trajectory of the repetitive triangle present throughout the Gallery’s architecture, Founding Director James Mollison worked with Harry Howard and Associates to design a surrounding garden that complimented the building. After a few years of planning, earthworks and plantings commenced on the Sculpture Garden in 1981.

The plants, native to Australia, were selected for their tolerance of Canberra's harsh climates and the garden was designed to replicate the four seasons of the year. Closest to the building for ultimate protection, visitors will find the winter flowering acacias and the earliest figurative works of art in the Winter garden. The Summer garden is situated in the shadiest part of the Sculpture Garden – beneath the Casuarinas near the marsh pond. Come September, the Spring garden explodes with flowering grevilleas and acacias planted by the lake The Autumn garden was never fully realised.

Most of the sculptures were bought and placed in the garden for permanent display during the early 1980s and reflect the abstract, industrial aesthetic of that time. Over the years, it has developed with more evocative additions from Fujiko Nakaya’s fog sculpture, the Pukamani burial poles and Antony Gormley’s life-sized maquette for Angel of the North which faces over Lake Burley Griffin. To celebrate the Gallery's 40th Anniversary, Tracey Emin's When I Sleep was acquired for the permanent Sculpture Garden collection, Naarm/Melbourne artist Linda Marrinon's Woman in jumpsuit was installed and Lindy Lee’s immersive Ouroboros was commissioned (coming late 2024).

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE GARDEN

A gum tree has an oval section of bark removed and a delicate design has been carved into it in lines

PAUL GIRRAWAH HOUSE
Ngambri (Walgalu), Wallaballooa (Ngunnawal), Pajong (Gundungurra) and Wiradjuri (Erambie) peoples
Madhan warrugarra wirimbirra gulbalanha, 2021
Various locations

Large sculptural work, pyramid shaped with greenery on the side of the structure.

JAMES TURRELL
Within without, 2010
purchased with the support of visitors to the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition 2010
© James Turrell

Photograph of trees and fog in garden

FUJIKO NAKAYA
Foggy wake in a desert: An ecosphere
1982
purchased 1977

TRACEY EMIN
When I sleep,
2018
purchased in 2021 in celebration of the National Gallery of Australia's 40th anniversary, 2022
© Tracey Emin/Copyright Agency, 2022

Photograph of sculpture garden with Virginia by Clement Meadmore in foreground and lake in background

CLEMENT MEADMORE
Virginia, 1970
purchased 1973
© Meadmore Sculptures, LLC. VAGA/Copyright Agency

LINDA MARRINON
Woman in jumpsuit, 2022
commissioned with the generous support of Art Makers

Large sculptural work of seven polished steel cones suspended horizontally. Displayed in the National Gallery Sculpture garden.

BERT FLUGELMAN
Cones, 1982
commissioned 1976, purchased 1982
© Bert Flugelman

a large spherical metal sculpture with engraved markings sitting within a garden

THANAKUPI (THANCOUPIE GLORIA FLETCHER AO)
Dhaynagwidh/Thaynakwith people
Eran, 2010
acquired through the Founding Donors' Fund 2010
© the estate of the artist, licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.

ANTONY GORMLEY
Angel of North (life-size maquette), 1996
gift of James and Jacqui Erskine 2009
© the artist

Photograph of Fiona Hall's Fern Garden

FIONA HALL
Fern Garden,
1998
purchased with the assistance of Friends of Tamsin and Deuchar Davy, in their memory, 1998
© Fiona Hall

The National Gallery Sculpture Garden is open to the public 24/7. For more visit Sculpture Garden.

This story has been published as part of the National Gallery's 40th Anniversary. For more visit 40 Years.

Art & Artists


Referenced

James Turrell

Within without
2010

Fujiko Nakaya

Foggy wake in a desert: An ecosphere
1982

Tracey Emin

When I sleep
2018

David Dallwitz

Virginia.
1953

Bert Flugelman

Cones
1982

Thanakupi (Thancoupie Gloria Fletcher AO), Dhaynagwidh/Thaynakwith people

Eran
2010

Antony Gormley

Angel of the North (life-size maquette)
1996

Fiona Hall

Fern garden
1998

Creator Profile

James Turrell

Born 1943

Creator Profile

Fujiko Nakaya

Born 1933

Creator Profile

Tracey Emin

Born 1963

Creator Profile

Clement Meadmore

1929-2005

Creator Profile

Paul House

Born 1970

Creator Profile

Bert Flugelman

1923-2013

Creator Profile

Thanakupi (Thancoupie Gloria Fletcher AO)

1937-2011

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