Friday 17 March 2017

Day 76, 17 Mar 2017: A day at the Gallery...

Day 76: ...'pearing' back

Day two of several things that had to be done in Brisbane. medical appointments mostly, check-ups, cars in for mechanicals, catching up with friends and in between, time to wander around the Gallery, part 2. 

A new exhibition, highlighting three of my favourite artists opened this month and I was not going to miss it.

Georgia O'Keeffe. Margaret Preston. Grace Cossington Smith. Making Modernism.

One American, the others Australian. But presented together, the similarities in context were marvellous. 

Some of my photography, particularly of flowers, is influenced by O'Keeffe's paintings. I first encountered her work at an exhibition at the Art Institute in Chicago in the later 1980s. I've been a fan ever since. Preston and Cossington Smith paint iconic Australian images, the Sydney Harbour Bridge included (which celebrates its 85th birthday this week). 

I was looking forward to taking a few pics. 

Alas, no pics allowed of the exhibited works. Fair enough. It gave me a chance to focus on the work in a different way. 

Outside that gallery however, another opportunity...

 
The description


The pears

Reflected

Reflections

Another angle

Close-up, O'Keeffe-inspired

Detail

Shadow play

Further reflections

Textured

And outside, it rained and rained


Many many years ago, I took some photos of George Baldessin's sculpture of seven pears, Pear -- Version number 2 (1973), outside the National Gallery in Canberra. It was therefore a thrill to see his three pears, outside the modernism exhibition today, on the watermall. I sought to bounce some photographic ideas off the pears, having seen the work of three brilliant women on the other side of the wall. It was a challenge to 'pear back' the photographic subjects.

[Camera : Lumix TZ-85, 1.00pm-1.06pm, 2.45pm; 17 March 2017]