Ben Quilty’s paintings first seen in ARTEXPRESS at the AGNSW
Ben Quilty’s art first appeared inside the Art Gallery of NSW in the HSC major work exhibition, ARTEXPRESS, in 1991. Back then, no one could predict how closely connected to the gallery Quilty would become.
Arts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Arts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Ben Quilty’s art first appeared inside the Art Gallery of NSW in the HSC major work exhibition, ARTEXPRESS, in 1991. Back then, no one knew how closely connected to the gallery Quilty would become.
In 2011 the artist was back at the gallery — this time under the national spotlight — when his portrait of artist Margaret Olley won the Archibald Prize. Now, from November 9, Quilty’s art will take centre stage at the gallery as it never has before, in the major touring exhibition of his work which has already been seen in Adelaide and Brisbane.
Called Quilty, the exhibition’s curator is Lisa Slade, assistant director of the AGSA.
“For most of this century, Ben has been delivering urgent visions of our time in history. An unlikely activist, he wields paint to draw our attention to our responsibility as critical citizens in an increasingly fraught world,” Dr Slade said.
Celebrating the exhibition’s arrival in Sydney, Quilty’s home town, ABC television will screen a new documentary by acclaimed filmmaking duo Catherine Hunter and Bruce Inglis. Titled Quilty: Painting the Shadows, the film covering the artist’s life and work will be screened at 9.30pm on November 19 (and afterwards on iView).
The exhibition at the AGNSW will encompass Quilty’s entire body of work from early paintings relating to rogue initiation rituals performed by young Australian males, through to his work as an official war artist in Afghanistan, his campaign to save the lives of Bali Nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, his trips to Lebanon, Lesbos and Serbia with writer Richard Flanagan, and “his recent grotesques made in response to contemporary politics”.
Quilty the exhibition will be on from November 9, 2019 until February 2, 2020.