American Masters: curated for maximum impact

Posted on 25 October, 2018

It’s always good to have a drawcard to any exhibition—you know, something eye-catching, famous, controversial…

But if you haven’t been to see the National Gallery of Australia’s (NGA) latest exhibition, American Masters 1940-1980, its curator Lucina Ward wants you to know it is so much more than simply Blue Poles.

Yes, Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionist work—which caused national outrage in 1973 when then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam had to approve its purchase for $1.3 million—is certainly one of the more topical works of art on show.

But it is just one of 150 works by more than 70 artists, including Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Yoko Ono, Mark Rothko, Willem De Kooning, Frank Stella, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman, Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, Dan Flavin, Louise Bourgeois, Barnett Newman, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, James Turrell, and more.

Roy Lichtenstein. Kitchen range 1961-62, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1978. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/Copyright Agency, 2018

“It’s a point of entry, it’s a hook. I mean I adore the painting, I find it fascinating but, we don’t want this exhibition to be about revisiting the Blue Poles controversy.”

Lucina chose to focus on a wider narrative about “the most extraordinary four decades of American art which started around 1940”.

This encapsulates the transfer of attention for the avant-garde from Paris to New York, the impact of the two World Wars, the impact of the rise of National Socialism, and the settlement of new generations of European immigrants in New York—many of them prominent artists.

“So New York becomes the kind of melting pot for all of these ideas. And that’s what we intend to suggest in the first half of the exhibition. We’ve made a fairly distinct point visually between what’s on the left as you come in the door; the geometric abstraction, and what’s on the right; the impact of European surrealism, and how those two elements come together to influence the artists of the New York School.”

Lucina has been working with the collection for nearly 20 years as the NGA purchased a wide array of seminal American Masters in its infancy under the then director James Mollison.

Nan Goldin. Nan and Brian in bed, NYC 1983, direct positive colour photograph. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1994 © Nan Goldin. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Today it is considered one of the world’s best and largest collections of post-war American art outside of America.

“This exhibition could have been two to three times larger without significant loss of quality. It remains very large and expansive, but the focus is on a very, very high level of quality which is hugely important.”

And while it is huge—Sol LeWitt’s blueprint for a wall drawing takes out 19 metres on its own—there is no sense of the works being cramped.

Lucina notes there is the luxury of space for maximum perspective and enjoyment.

“This is the first time that we’ve turned the whole temporary exhibition pavilion—those six galleries, seven if you count the foyer—over to the permanent collection like this.”

Media include paint and canvas, photography, neon, light, wood, metal, fibreglass and latex. It is a far cry from passing row upon row of gilt-framed masters in more conventional exhibitions. But the feedback and visitor numbers suggest the high drama of this exhibition has been a hit with art-lovers.

But has it been hit with James Mollison, the Melbourne-based former director who purchased 75 per cent of the collection of American Masters before the NGA had even been built? His passion and vision is not lost on Lucina.

“I hope James Mollison will come. I’m not sure if he’s visited yet. He wouldn’t tell us: he prefers to be anonymous, to slip in without unnecessary attention, to appreciate the works without fanfare.

“But I know various friends and colleagues of James’ have reported back to him, in very positive terms about what we’ve been able to do, displaying the collection in a way he might have wanted.”

the essentials

What: American Masters 1940–1980
When: Runs until 11 November
Where: National Gallery of Australia, Parkes
Cost: Free
Website: nga.gov.au/americanmasters

Main image: Nick Mitzevich, NGA Director, and Lucina Ward, NGA Senior Curator International Paintings and Sculpture, in the American Masters exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

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