National Gallery of Australia.

Recently, the NGA was proud to feature over 112 paintings that were imported from The Louvre, Paris. The exhibition titled 'Masterpieces from Paris' featured all the classic 19th century painting from artists such as Cezanne, Van Gogh & Gauguin. As every art student would have experienced when learning the theoretical side of art history- it would be a crime to go into it's history without highlighting (or queering) such masters within the canon. It isn't often that you get to actually witness such works in the flesh without venturing outside Australia's somewhat reclusive walls.

So naturally, I got together with two of my favorite COFA girls- Adela & Laura (excluding Hannah, Gracie & of course Nicholas) and we thought it was only fair that we were finally able to see what all the fuss was about. Basically- the exhibition was a just a good excuse to flee Sydney, catch up, talk shit about art and go on a roadtrip!

After 4 hours of good music, good company and repetitive sceneries, we finally reached the scarily organized and sterile city of Canberra. Driving through that town actually freaked the shit out of us. I don't know if it was just because we were in unknown territory or that we had just entered the most boring city in Australia, but it felt like we were driving into an A.F 632 scene from Aldoux Huxley's Brave New World... okay I'm exaggerating, but it was very organized and structured...a little too structured? Anyway that was the least of our issues, as finding a car park and actually getting into the exhibition proved to be a mission of epic proportions. Apparently this exhibition was a bigger deal than what we had expected and by that I mean it was a 2 hour wait to even enter the exhibition! So we shared the weight of the line- one of us stayed in the queue to mind our spot while the other two explored the rest of the NGA and Portrait Gallery.


To be honest, once I finally saw the Masterpieces exhibition I can't say that I was blown away. Yes it was great to actually see the iconic works, but the highlight for me was ironically the normal gallery collection. Being in the presence of work's by international artists such as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Ah Xian, William De Kooning, Marcel Duchamp, Mark Rothko, Salvador Dali & Lynda Benglis, as well as Australian artists such as Patricia Piccinini, Fiona Hall & Shayne Higson was by far the most exciting experience I had within the gallery. Maybe I'm just biased because I'm a product of the 21st century, but the Modern and Contemporary collections made the trip all the more worth it! AND I bought an amazing portrait of Nick Cave by Australian artist Howard Arkley that is now framed and hung in my bedroom- double bonus! :)