Australian Painting XIX and XX Century exhibition catalogue cover (detail)
The Christchurch Star 27 February 1965
The Press Monday 22 February 1965
This exhibition is now closed
In June 1964 The Festival of Auckland hosted the first comprehensive exhibition of Australian art, which then toured New Zealand for 12 months.
The exhibition was sponsored by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council with works selected by the Commonwealth Advisory Board. Consequently this exhibition came to Christchurch as part of the Christchurch Pan Pacific Arts Festival.
The exhibition comprised 106 Australian paintings shown alongside 100 New Zealand paintings and the hope was to show something of the history and development of Australian art from 1815 to the present.
The exhibition was divided into Colonial, Impressionist, Middle and Contemporary periods.
The colonial section was selected from the Nan Kivell Collection in the National Library of Australia.
The exhibition included works by such important artists as Conrad Martens, J S Prout, Augustus Earle, John Glover, S T Gill, Sidney Nolan, and Nicholas Chevalier as well as two New Zealand born artists: Elioth Gruner and Roland Wakelin.
Courtesy of Qantas, films were shown on five consecutive evenings to embellish the exhibition. They reviewed the work of Russell Drysdale, winner of the Henry Lawson Festival Award 1961, William Dobell and Sidney Nolan. There were also films on Aboriginal rock and bark paintings to give a wider understanding of Aboriginal art and beliefs.
Admission was two shillings and sixpence and the catalogue cost three shillings and sixpence.
A total of 3,857 attended the exhibition, including school groups.
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Date:
22 February – 14 March 1965 -
Location:
Robert McDougall Art Gallery - main gallery -
Exhibition number:
13B