Cezanne and Monet join hands with David Goldblatt for the next Sydney International Art Series

Poplars and pine trees by Cezanne and Monet, and gritty photographs of South African ex-cons by David Goldblatt, will be seen in twin Sydney exhibitions announced today.

Claude Monet’s oil on canvas, Poppy fields, c1890. Picture: supplied

Poplars and pine trees by Cezanne and Monet, and gritty photographs of South African ex-cons by David Goldblatt, will be seen in twin Sydney exhibitions announced today.

Modern Masters from the Hermitage, opening on October 13 at the Art Gallery of NSW, will comprise 65 paintings by artists including Kandinsky, Picasso and Gauguin.

At the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from October 19, an exhibition titled David Goldblatt will survey the photographer’s long career. Goldblatt turns 88 this year and will be coming to Sydney for his show.

The exhibitions make up the next Sydney International Art Series, the annual event launched by Destination NSW in 2010.

Pablo Picasso’s Table in a Cafe (Bottle of Pernod), 1912, will be seen as part of the Sydney International Art Series 2018-19. Picture: supplied

The latest exhibitions in the series — Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist at the MCA, which drew 110,000 visitors, and Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age at the AGNSW, which drew over 130,000 — have just closed.

The artworks in the next AGNSW exhibition will come from the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, whose collection boasts major works such as Cezanne’s Great Pine Near Aix, 1895-97, Picasso’s Woman With a Fan, 1908, and Monet’s Poppy Fields, 1890.

Many of the modern masterworks in the Hermitage were originally purchased in Paris — sometimes direct from the artist’s easel — by legendary collectors Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov.

At one point in their life history, Stalin banned the works from display after they had been seized by the state, AGNSW curator Peter Raissis said.

But the paintings capture the “ebullience, idealism and confidence of their creators”, Raissis said.

The artists were breaking with the past in the most radical way. They were on a mission to make their art less narrative and illustrative, and to use line and colour to symbolise the inner state of human nature.

Paul Cézanne’s Great Pine Near Aix, 1895-97, from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. The painting will be seen at the Art Gallery of NSW as part of the Sydney International Art Series. Picture: supplied

Malevich’s Black Square, dated circa 1932, which is in the show, “represented the final disengagement of painting from reality”, Raissis said.

The painting, a black square painted on a white background, is “one of the seminal works in modern art”, Raissis said.

AGNSW director Michael Brand is a well-known figure at the State Hermitage Museum, of whose International Advisory Board he is a member.

Dr Brand said the Hermitage and the AGNSW first collaborated in 1988 on an exhibition that came to Sydney called Masterpieces from the Hermitage.

Pablo Picasso’s Woman with a fan, 1908, will be seen as part of the Sydney International Art Series 2018-19. Picture: supplied

At the MCA, the David Goldblatt exhibition is the work of MCA senior curator Rachel Kent.

As part of her research for the book that will accompany the exhibition, Kent undertook a 1500km road-trip with Goldblatt in his four-wheel drive.

At one point, Kent and Goldblatt suffered a flat tyre when they were out of mobile range in the wilderness. A passing farmer helped them on their way.

Kent said Goldblatt lives frugally and backs away from being called an artist, preferring to be called a photographer.

Blitz Maaneveld at the Terrace, by South African photographer David Goldblatt. A major exhibition of Goldblatt’s gritty photographs of South African life will be seen at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia later this year. Picture: supplied

“Without question, he is one of the greatest living photographers of our time,” Kent said.

Goldblatt did one series of photographs of ex criminals who took him back to their crime scenes and told him their stories.

He photographed Nelson Mandela on numerous occasions, and some of these pictures are in the exhibition.

“Goldblatt says apartheid was central (to his work), but his real preoccupation was ‘our values — how did we get to be the way we are?’,” Kent said.

Fifteen-year old Lawrence Matjee after his assault and detention by the Security Police, by South African photographer David Goldblatt. Picture: supplied

HIV has been a major theme in Goldblatt’s work, in all of which there is an “inherent humanity”, Kent said.

“He talks about holding up the mirror to ourselves,” she said.

A plot-holder, his wife and their eldest son at lunch. A photograph by South African photographer David Goldblatt, to be seen as part of the Sydney International Art Series. Picture: supplied

The Sydney International Art Series has been held at the MCA and the AGNSW every summer since 2010.

Moderns Masters from the Hermitage will be on at the AGNSW from October 13 2018 until March 3 2019.

David Goldblatt will be on at the MCA from October 19 2018 until March 3 2019.