Australian regional and rural population centres invariably enjoy lavish sporting facilities, and it's a bit of a conundrum that so many of them also have public art galleries. I speak specifically of my home State, Victoria, where a dozen or more centres of as little as 10000 citizens have a public gallery, and the art collection that adorns it. Perhaps the public appreciation of art stems from the nineteenth century worker education movements of the Mechanics Institutes and the Workers’ Educational Associations; or perhaps from the prominence and deserved fame of the early landscape painters. Perversely, it might derive from some sort of push-back against the ubiquitous sporting culture (oxymoron intended) – an attempt, subconscious perhaps, to demonstrate that Australia is not all about cricket, football and beer.
Regardless, it is undeniable that Victoria’s regional art galleries are significant cultural institutions, each important in its own right and important for the town or city where located. It seems that the establishment of an art gallery was part of the foundational mindset of early white settlers, not at the pioneer stage perhaps, but soon thereafter to become one of the hallmarks of permanence, and of “civilization” being imposed over the bush.
These institutions exist today with varying degrees of [choose your word] modernity, popular appeal, curatorial skill, funding; and with collections of varying standards; and with varying degrees of local support. And with the needs must consequences of the tastes of generations of benefactors. But despite their variability each has some treasures, some comment on the national story, some feature to make a visit worthwhile. I make this final remark in anticipation of proving it to be true……..because Annie, my wife, and I have resolved that in the ensuing months we shall progressively visit Victoria’s regional art galleries - not adhering to a regular timetable, simply occasional visits. We have previously visited a number of these galleries, but this is a new project, and any re-encounters will be a pleasure.
First up: Shepparton Art Museum [SAM]………for two specific reasons: to see the “first significant showing of works by acclaimed Yorta Yorta artist Lin Onus, on Country”; and to see the gallery itself.
SAM is squeaky-clean new, and unapologetically in your face. The Shepparton collection dates from 1936, but is now housed in its brilliant five storey centre, surrounded by parkland, overlooking Victoria Lake and the Goulburn River beyond.
The re-location occurred late in 2021, and the SAM happily welcomed the Shepparton tourist information bureau to occupy a piece of its ground floor, and thus enjoy the benefits of some captured tourists.
The building was designed by Denton Corker Marshall, Melbourne and International architects of enduring fame – architects of The Melbourne Exhibition Centre, of the Bolte Bridge and Gateway, of the Melbourne Museum, and so on. With SAM they have “done it again”! I cannot express too strongly my view that this is an overwhelmingly fine building.
Built into the wall between the cafeteria and the adjacent open space are several display cases (glassed both sides), currently featuring the lifetime collection of Shepparton local, Ian Wong – an assemblage of domestic and household items, predominantly plastic, that would be nothing but kitsch if they hadn’t been gathered into a collection. Each display has a colour theme, so there are 50 or so black items in one showcase, similar orange items in another, and red, and blue, and so on. And these items? Car fridges, toys, all manner of utensils and gadgets, characterised as Everyday Australian Design. Stuff known to and remembered by us all. Ian Wong’s collecting mania has been turned into a powerful insight into the domesticity of Australia in the 1980s.
The Wong collection is on display until early in May. It would be a great loss if the collection did not become part of SAM’s permanent museum collection.
In the Level 1 gallery space (until September 2022) is the exhibition Flow: Stories of River, Earth and Sky. As the name tells us, this exhibition is about landscape. The program notes elaborate: it “explores the narratives we weave through the places we inhabit, and the myriad ways in which nature shapes our lives and culture”. It is significant that the exhibition is all drawn from the SAM permanent collection of some 4000 works. It features more than 60 artists. The ubiquity of landscape as a theme has enabled the curators to feature some of SAM’s major possessions, paintings by
Grace Cossington Smith
Albert Namatjira
Sydney Long
And then the Level 2 People’s Gallery exhibition of works by Lin Onus. Onus is the son of Bill Onus, famous in my youth as an aboriginal activist and showman (boomerang throwing demonstrations at public events), and founder of the Aboriginal Advancement League. The younger Onus grew up in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, and first worked as a mechanic and spray painter; later making a career as a sculptor, printmaker and painter. He died in 1996, at age 47.
The SAM exhibition is a comprehensive retrospective, described in the program as “the first significant showing of works by acclaimed Yorta Yorta artist Lin Onus”. The paintings are both representational and symbolic and likely not to everybody’s taste, but there is much to admire in the undoubted skill of Onus in applying paint to canvas. The “exhibition weaves together a story of Onus’ experiences and relationships to place, people, and the politics of his time”. I was particularly taken with the series of large canvases titled Dreams in the Garden of Allegation, otherwise known as the Musquito Series. Musquito was an aboriginal bushranger in New South Wales, later in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). His story verges on the unbelievable and, while the man may be notorious in the southern State, his story is little known north of Bass Strait. It ended, in 1825, at the end of a rope. Each of the Onus paintings depicts an incident in Musquito’s colourful career, with the protagonist facing the viewer with a look, alternatively, of bewilderment, anger, resignation, frustration……….
By the time you read this the Lin Onus exhibition will have terminated – it ran from 20 November 2021 to 13 March 2022. A considerable number of the exhibits are the property of the Onus family and, as with the works owned by galleries and others, they will be returned whence they came. There is no plan for the collection to travel, or ever to be re-assembled. This is a great shame.
Gary Andrews
