Digital resources tagged with ‘art’

Augustus Earle and his Dog, Jemmy

Misadventure turned to good fortune when young English artist Augustus Earle was rescued after being marooned on a remote island and accidentally became the colony’s first trained artist.

Ballet Russe

The National Gallery of Australia is home to one of the world's finest collections of costumes from the celebrated Ballets Russes.

Ben Chifley’s Pipe

Possibly our best loved Prime Minister, and a former train driver, Ben Chifley was rarely seen without his pipe, as he guided the country through the austere post-war years.

Captain Cook’s Tragic Death

Captain James Cook’s untimely return to Hawaii ended with his violent death, the details of which are portrayed in numerous conflicting illustrations.

Cartooning Techniques

Bruce Petty demonstrates his representation of key Australian political figures.

Death of a Workman In A Streeton Painting

Streeton's eyewitness account of the death of a workman during the blasting of a railway tunnel at Lapstone in the NSW Blue Mountains. It becomes the inspiration for his painting "Fire's on, Lapstone Tunnel".

Dreamings, Through Indigenous Art

Indigenous art is like topographic mapping of land and culture. Michael Nelson Tjakamarra works at painting concentric circles which represent sacred sites.

Figure in the Landscape

John Glover revolutionised his art to become one of Australia’s finest landscape artists.

Fiona Hall

The exquisitely delicate work of Australian artist Fiona Hall reminds us of the fragile diversity of the natural world.

From Clay Maquette to Bronze

It's the small lively clay studies for the bronze civic monuments Burghers of Calais by Auguste Rodin and Monument to the Republic by Jules Dalou that bring us closer to the artists themselves.

Inge King Sculptor

Australian sculptor Inge King has been producing striking steel monumental public sculpture for the past fifty years. She reminds us of the persistence and determination needed for any artist to succeed.

Internationalism & Regionalism in Pottery

Whereas Sydney artist Anne Dangar moved to France to focus on cubist design in ceramics, Merric Boyd and Milton Moon looked to the Australian landscape for inspiration for their pottery.

J.W. Lindt -- The Mechanical Eye of the Camera

It's often said that the camera doesn't lie but the photograph can be manipulated like any other art form.

John Olsen’s Opera House Mural

John Olsen’s visual diary reveals the inspiration behind the biggest commission of his career, the Sydney Opera House mural.

Linocuts of Black, Syme & Spowers

Dorrit Black, Eveline Syme and Ethel Spowers introduced to Australia a dream of European modernism--to bring art to the masses through affordable linocuts.

Matisse & Islam

Islamic art, the Tahitian islands and the circus all provided inspiration for French artist Henri Matisse.

Max Ernst Collection & Lake Sentani Figures

The indigenous art of Africa, the Americas and Oceania inspired European artists such as Jacob Epstein and Max Ernst, who in turn were an inspiration for Australian painter Albert Tucker.

Natalia Goncharova & Alexandra Exter

Natalia Goncharova and Alexandra Exter were both Russian artists but where one moved to Paris and incorporated folk art traditions into her work, the other was drawn back to Bolshevik Russia and embraced the revolutionary art of constructivism.

Peter Sculthorpe Composes

Peter Sculthorpe wants to create a perfect work of art. He created "Irkanda One for Violin" by tracing the landscape around Canberra on a 360 degree graph, then wrote music to follow the contours.

Poster Mania

In the late 19th century, art literally took to the streets as Paris was flooded with eye-catching posters, made possible by the invention of lithography.

South Sea Islander in London

Omai, a young Tahitian warrior who joined Captain James Cook’s second voyage, had his portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and inspired a spectacular pantomime at Covent Garden.

The Art Machine

Powered by a funding boiler, the current Art Machine features a critic unit, pop tube and entertainment cylinder.

The Art of Cattle Droving

An artist and two drovers capture the beauty of 1200 head of cattle making their way across the outback in the last great Australian cattle drive.

The Australian Surrealists

In response to the Second World War, a group of talented young Australians drew on the 'dream' imagery of European surrealism to express their disquiet at world events.

The Godfrey Shawl

Among the Natioinal Gallery of Australia's rarely seen treasures is an astonishing embroidered shawl from Kashmir in India--one off the finest and rarest of its kind.

The Magic Pudding Illustrations

Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding is one of our best-loved children’s books and the central character, one of our great Australian anti-heroes.

The Photographer and the Painter

Artists working in different media have created a visual time capsule showing Melbourne in the late 1800s.

Tom Roberts' Bailed Up

With its revolutionary approach to depicting the landscape and light, Tom Roberts’ Bailed Up is a painting that helped define Australia’s national identity.

Tommy McRae & Mickey of Ulladulla

Working at the end of the 19th century, Aboriginal artists Tommy McRae and Mickey of Ulladulla drew the world around them with an extraordinary vitality and sensitivity to detail.

Violet Teague & Jessie Traill

Violet Teague and Jessie Traill were part of a remarkable group of independent women who, in the early 20th century, were able to devote their lives to art.

William Dobell - Sketchbooks

Perhaps more than most painters, William Dobell's art relied on drawing so his sketchbooks are invaluable to our appreciation of his work.