News location:

Canberra Today 12°/16° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Best of Irish at the NGA

READERS will recall the National Museum of Australia’s huge exhibition “Not Just Ned: A true history of the Irish in Australia”.

Now the National Gallery of Australia has joined with the Canberra Friends of Ireland Society in a slightly different twist on the same idea.

Yesterday, May 16, at the gallery’s James O’ Fairfax Theatre, an unusual lecture-concert was staged under the title, “Not only Nolan”, a reference to the prominently displayed Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly works in the oval gallery just outside the theatre.

The idea was to celebrate Irish and Irish-related works in the national collection through a lecture by assistant curator at the gallery (and Irish-Australian) Miriam Kelly, illustrated by projected pictures focusing on the works of Sidney Nolan and colonial artist William Duke, an ancestor, it turns out, of His Excellency Mr Michael Bryce.

Duke, who hailed from Cork, we heard, came to Australia in the late 1840s, executed a fine European-style painting “Landscape after Rubens” (1848) which is held in the gallery, but is best known for his impressions of whaling, seen especially in “South Sea whale fishery”, a set of four lithographs shown to us.

As the images appeared on screen, award-winning Irish concert pianist and newcomer to Canberra, Elaine Brennan Loebenstein, performed her own  original music conducting up the excitement of the whale hunt, the danger of the kill, and finally the calm as the sea settled down.

Seemly contradicting the title of the lecture, the main part of curator  Kelly’s talk was given over to the Nolan  series. Commenting on the mythical status of Ned Kelly in Australian society and speculations as to whether he was a criminal or not, she also traced Nolan’s growing obsession with the outlaw, (artist friend Albert Tucker even called him “Ned”) and the similarity to Kelly when Nolan when into hiding after going AWOL during WWII. She noted the artist’s intentional use of “naïve” art techniques and his varying treatment of Kelly’s armour.

Loebenstein’s  evocative music was performed in near-darkness as the 26 Ned Kelly images flashed up on the screen conjuring up the drama, the desolation, the regimentation of the police, the whimsical aspects of outlaw Steve Hart’s cross-dressing, the siege at Glenrowan and the final courtroom scene with Judge Redmond Barry, another Irishman, it was noted.

This unique event ended with a look at several more contemporary Irish-related works, but there was no getting away from the fact that, like it or not, Ned Kelly is still our most famous Irish Australian.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Helen Musa

Helen Musa

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Music

Cunio takes top job at NZ School of Music

Immediate past head of the ANU School of Music, Kim Cunio, is to become head of school at Te Kōki, the NZ School of Music, part of the Victoria University of Wellington, reports HELEN MUSA.

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews