“TUMULTUOUS”, “messy”, “joyous” and “heartbreaking” were some of the adjectives used by National Portrait Gallery director Karen Quinlan yesterday (March 18) in unveiling the long-awaited “Australian Love Stories” to the media.

The exhibition of more than 200 works which opens to the public tomorrow, March 20, was in her view timely, considering the upheavals of the past year which had caused the cancellation of the original exhibition from London’s National Portrait Gallery, “Love Stories”.

Gone were the planned images of international celebs like John Lennon and Yoko Ono or David and Victoria Beckham, replaced, after a feverish year of curating, by more than 80 real-life Aussie love stories.

The show has been co-curated in an accessible, intimate way by Sandra Bruce and Joanna Gilmour, who, Bruce said, had fun “deep-diving into the collection and pulling out tiny little vignettes”.

Many couples are identified simply by their forenames – no prizes for guessing who Bob and Blanche, Ruby and Archie and (in a quirky twist) Kath and Kim might be, although Rachel and Bryan (Ward and Brown) or Nick and Susie (Cave) could be harder to work out.

On hand were two of the famous Australian couples in the show, Jimmy and Jane (Barnes) and Stan and Tracey (Grant and Holmes).

First to the Barneses, who had raised spirits last year with their online family singalongs during the 2020 lockdowns.

“That’s us,” Jimmy said on seeing the large photographic image, described by co-curator Bruce as “a sweet portrait”. Taken by their nephew Jesse Lizotte, it  features the pair lying on a bed of roses picked from their own garden.

Jane chipped in to say that that the obsession with roses started with Jimmy’s 60th birthday a few years ago when everybody had to wear a rose.

“I wanted to show a bit of the softer side of Jimmy,” nephew Jesse explained.

Giving the nod of approval to the work, Jimmy told those present, “this wasn’t about portraying a rock image and you can only be this way with people you love – I’m very lucky”.

And his favourite part of the picture? “Jane”, he replied.

Around the corner, journalists and broadcasters Grant and Holmes, possum-skin clad, were looking at the moody photograph by Nic Walker taken at the Yarrangobilly River in the Snowy Mountains on Wiradjuri country, close to where Tracy’s great-great-grandfather, a Chinese immigrant, had come to settle.

“No one should see themselves this big, it’s incredible,” Stan said. “The detail is amazing.”

“I like the way Nic has taken this place, which is important to both of us, so that we blend into the landscape,” Tracey said.

“I don’t like having my photo taken, so I wanted it to be about the place, it’s not just about love between Tracey and me but about the love of place,” Stan said.

“The first things I noticed were the branches, the light, the hill, the river, and then us.”

“I think there’s peace in it,” said Nic Walker, who had photographed them after a smoking ceremony performed by Stan’s cousin.

With contemporary photographic portraits to the fore, there are plenty of paintings as well, with works by John Brack, Charles Blackman, Albert Tucker, Del Kathryn Barton, a sign, Quinlan thought, that “Relationships where art, life and inspiration are intertwined often give rise to the most original and memorable creative outputs”.

Janet Dawson’s famous nude portrait of her late husband Michael Boddy is prominent and Arthur Boyd’s portrait of La Mama Theatre founder, Betty Burstall, is on show.

Bruce explained that in the course of last year when they had to “delay and reinvent” to get around the COVID-19 restrictions, an exhibition had been put up as a “choose-your-own love adventure” where, at the end, viewers, are given their own love profile, and it continues here.

The live exhibition adopts a wide interpretation of the word “love”, so that lifelong friendships are also celebrated, such as those between Judith Wright and Barbara Blackman, Davida Allen and Betty Churcher, and creative collaborators Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson.

There are also a selection of William Yang’s photographs of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and portraits of families, including John Brack’s images of his daughters and Vincent Namatjira’s series inspired by his great-grandfather Albert.

Theatre-lovers will be not be disappointed, with new photographic portraits commissioned exclusively for the exhibition, like Harold David’s uncompromising 2020 portrait of husband-and-wife John Bell and Anna Volska, and Peter Brew-Bevan’s 2020 portrait of David McAllister and Wesley Enoch, shown back-to-back yet comfortable and relaxed.

Australian Love Stories, March 20–August 1, bookings essential.

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