Beyond blockbusters, gallery focuses on its own
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday November 27, 2009
HIS next exhibition may be the blockbuster Masterpieces from Paris but the newly reappointed director of the National Gallery of Australia, Ron Radford, plans to increase the focus on its own $3.8 billion collection.The Canberra gallery's four-year upgrade, opened yesterday, allowed its most popular Australian work, Sidney Nolan's series of 26 Ned Kelly paintings, to be positioned much more prominently, he said. "We want to in the future promote the national collections better," Mr Radford said. "And now that we're displaying them better and more prominently and in a more easy-to-read way ... we very much want to promote the collections and not just temporary exhibitions."The $45 million refurbishment, opened by the federal Arts Minister, Peter Garrett, has also created galleries for Polynesian and Melanesian art and photography as well as exhibition spaces for jewellery, fashion and costume pieces, enabling many to be brought out of storage and lifting the number of displayed works from 1000 to about 1400.The upgrade provided easier navigation and a richer experience for an estimated 600,000 visitors year, Mr Radford said."It looks beautiful."Temporary blockbusters such as Masterpieces from Paris, which opens next week, were important but carried a tremendous financial risk and were a "bit of a nightmare to look after".Mr Radford, appointed this week to a further three-year term, was tight-lipped about other plans or acquisitions. But he said touring exhibitions, which drew 850,000 people to mainly regional galleries last financial year, would be boosted.Construction is continuing on the gallery's new building, whose centrepiece will be 10 indigenous art galleries, to open next year.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald