| Description |
1 online resource (6 min.) |
| Series |
Australasian video online |
| Summary |
What kind of art does an artist collect? At the National Gallery of Australia is part of a collection once owned by European surrealist artist Max Ernst. An eclectic collection of masks and carvings from Africa and the Americas, it's a fascinating glimpse of Ernst's personal passions and preoccupations as an artist. Like other surrealists, Ernst felt himself to be at the tail end of a European tradition that had for centuries been dedicated to visual realism. To his eyes, the indigenous artists he collected had by birthright what the surrealists longed for: access to human instincts that lie buried under the layers of inhibitions and societal taboos of European civilisation. American-born British sculptor Jacob Epstein was also an avid collector. Amongst his collection were a series of imposing figures, probably from the 18th century. Dredged up from the bottom of Lake Sentani in West Papua in 1929, they once would have formed the post of a house built over its water. Now they're part of the National Gallery's collection. In Australia, it was the European surrealists who most inspired a group of young artists in Melbourne as they responded in their work to the trauma of the Second World War. Among them was Albert Tucker who was appalled by the licentious behaviour he saw in the blacked-out city streets. In the gallery's collection is his Image of Modern Evil 24, with its brilliant red crescent a symbol of female depravity. Its watcher on a balcony is as weird and inventive as anything the European surrealists came up with, but the setting-a cast-iron balcony-makes it unmistakably Australian |
| Notes |
Title from resource description page (viewed November 3, 2014) |
|
In English |
| Subject |
Ernst, Max, 1891-1976.
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Tucker, Albert, 1914-1999.
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| SUBJECT |
Ernst, Max, 1891-1976. fast (OCoLC)fst00047247 |
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Tucker, Albert, 1914-1999. fast (OCoLC)fst00108022 |
| Subject |
National Library of Australia -- Art collections
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| SUBJECT |
National Library of Australia. fast (OCoLC)fst00545798 |
| Subject |
National libraries -- Australia
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Artists.
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artists (visual artists)
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Art museums.
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Artists.
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National libraries.
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Australia.
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| Genre/Form |
Documentary films.
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Documentary films.
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Documentaires.
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| Form |
Streaming video
|
| Author |
Hughes, John.
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Campey, Philippa.
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Churcher, Betty, 1931-2015.
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