On Thursday 6 July, Anna Gray, co-curator of the Constable exhibition, discussed of this inspiring exhibition and how it provides a new look at Constable’s work. In particular it looks at the innovative nature of his work through his plein-air sketches and his skyscapes, as well as in his mezzotints.
She will referred to the way in which he looked to the old masters for his compositional structure. She will discuss the way Constable was interested in painting atmospheric effects: his light, his dews, his breezes, his bloom, and his freshness.
She discussed his two paintings of ‘A boat passing a lock’, and what she believes Constable was interested in depicting in these two very similar images, as well as his concerns in his two variations of ‘The Glebe Farm’.
Anna Gray is the Assistant Director of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia. She was previously Director of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at The University of Western Australia 1995-2001, after fifteen years at the Australian War Memorial, where she was Head of Art.
She has been Education Officer at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Arts Officer with the East Staffordshire District Council, and Tutor in Philosophy at the University of Western Australia.
She has curated a number of exhibitions including The Edwardians: Secrets and Desires for the National Gallery of Australia; Painted women: Australian artists in Europe at the turn of the century, Fred Williams’ Pilbara, and Swingtime: East Coast-West Coast for the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery; George Lambert: Drawings for the Art Gallery of New South Wales; Send me more paint and Streeton in France for the Australian War Memorial; and Petr Herel: artist’s books for the National Library of Australia.
She is also author of several books including Line, Light and Shadow, James W.R.Linton: Painter, Craftsman, Teacher, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1986; Letters from Smike: The Letters of Arthur Streeton (with Ann Galbally), OUP, Melbourne, 1989; Art and Artifice: George Lambert 1873-1930, Fine Arts Press, Sydney, 1996; The Diaries of Donald Friend, vol.1, National Library of Australia, 2001; Australian art at the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, 2002.
She has also served as Secretary of the Art Museums Association of Australia and the Council of Australian Museums Association, and as a member of the Arts Development Board of the ACT.
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