ABOUT THE GALLERY: Research

ABOUT THE GALLERY

Research

FRIENDS OF THE GALLERY RESEARCH PROJECTS:

Coordinated by Education Officer Naomi McCarthy and supported by members of The Friends of Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest.

The Friends of Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest is a volunteer organization that has supported the running of the Gallery since its establishment as a regional gallery in 1980. During 2004, members of The Friends participated in a research project to develop a comprehensive series of FACTS sheets for targeted works in our collection. This will culminate in an exhibition of the selected works in 2005.

As Friends discover exciting and intriguing facts, stories, anecdotes and relationships about their adopted work, the web site will be updated with the unfolding narratives discovered.

MARGEL INA HINDER>> (1906-1995) Born USA. CURRAWONGS & SIX DAY WAR 1

FRANK HODGKINSON>> (1919-2001) Born Ashfield, Australia. THE HAPPY WANDERER

ADOLPH GUSTAV PLATE (1874 – 1914) Born Hanover, Germany: ‘The Great Achiever’

CARL OLAF PLATE (1909 – 1977) Born Perth, Western Australia: “The Master of the Abstract “

GEORGE FINEY (1895 - 1987) Born Auckland, New Zealand

HENRIKAS (HENRY) SALKAUSKAS (1925 – 1979) Born Kaunas Lithuania

Margo and Gerald Lewers, the original owners of the property at Emu Plains, were instrumental in the development of Modernism in Australia. The Gallery’s holding includes a rich representative survey of Margo and Gerald Lewers’ work, including painting, sculpture, wall hangings, ceramics, mosaics and fountains.

The Gallery’s permanent collection is an important survey of the development of Abstraction in Australian art from the early 1930’s to the mid 1980’s. The Gallery also houses a vibrant collection of work from Margo and Gerald’s contemporaries, including work by Robert Klippel, Desiderius Orban, Elwyn Lynn, Frank and Margel Hinder, Judy Cassab, Yvonne Audette, Frank Hodgkinson, Henry Salkauskas and Stanisluas Rapotec and Carl Plate. (For a complete listing of artists in the collection click here>>)

The Friends of Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest is a volunteer organization that has supported the running of the Gallery since its establishment as a regional gallery in 1980. During 2004, members of the Friends will be participating in a research project to develop a comprehensive series of FACTS sheets for targeted works in our collection. This will culminate in an exhibition of the selected works in 2005.

As Friends discover exciting and intriguing facts, stories, anecdotes and relationships about their adopted work, the web site will be updated with the unfolding narratives discovered. Click here for full details>>

CHRISTOPHER DEAN PROJECT:
Nine new works were completed during my eight week residency at the Penrith Regional Gallery & Lewers Bequest in 2003. The brief of the residency was to respond to the collection with the aim of producing a series of new works for exhibition. During this time I lived in Ancher House and worked in the Sonia Farley studio. Throughout most days and nights I worked in a solitary way and by the end of my time at the gallery I had also read my way through the library and had studied my favourite works from the collection in detail. Read more>>

ALISTER BRASS FOUNDATION:
In 1988, the Gallery established the Alister Brass Foundation to foster research and curatorial scholarship in Australian art. Publications occur in conjunction with specially curated exhibitions focussing on art in New South Wales between 1930 and 1970. Contributions to the Foundation are fully tax deductible.

Alister Brass was an exceptionally gifted man whose many talents included a humanistic approach to his first profession – medicine. He was also a gifted writer, a poet, and an original and uncompromising journalist and editor. During his short, active life, Brass was an avid supporter of the arts – Abstract Expressionist painting in particular – and many of this movement’s most influential artists were counted amongst his friends. The Foundation was established by some of his friends following Brass's early, tragic death.

PENRITH REGIONAL GALLERY & THE LEWERS BEQUEST - 86 RIVER ROAD, EMU PLAINS NSW AUSTRALIA 2750
Phone: 02 4735 1100 / Fax: 02 4735 8334 / E-mail: gallery@penrith.nsw.gov.au
OPEN DAILY 10am - 5pm ADMISSION FREE