Finally eleven shipments, making a total of over 100 pieces of art, have made it safely from New York’s prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) to the Art Gallery of WA. The result … Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters opens this weekend. And I thought carrying a friend’s wedding cake to the car was stressful.
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Stefano and Glenn infront of Andy Warhol © The Ponder Room
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Apologies up front for what will most likely be a series of posts about this exhibition, but I was lucky enough to attend the first walk-through today, and seriously there’s so much to inspire, and ponder. What I thought would be a quick one hour stop over, turned into a half day event.
The morning was opened by the Minister for Culture and the Arts, John Day who reminded us of the uniqueness of this experience. Many of the pieces rarely leave home, and this is their only outing in the southern hemisphere.
Tourism WA CEO, Stephanie Buckland described the exhibition as a ‘world-class event’ that cannot be seen elsewhere, and hence fits perfectly with their current ‘experience the extraordinary’ in WA campaign.
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© The Ponder Room
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But more importantly it was great to see AGWA Director, Dr Stefano Carboni standing next to MoMa Director, Dr Glenn D. Lowry who’d just arrived from New York. It’s thanks to the friendship between these two gentlemen that we have the exhibition in WA at all.
When asked why Perth? Glenn replied ‘why not?’
He went on to explain that ‘the work was meant to be seen’ and that while Perth may consider itself on the periphery, ‘we are all connected’, adding that it was their ‘pleasure to keep building audiences in Australia’.
Stefano agreed saying he disregarded Perth’s isolation tag when he first arrived in Perth, instead seeing it as ‘a new place with potential.’
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© The Ponder Room
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‘After two years of planning we are so excited to see the pieces finally on the walls and delighted with the way the exhibition looks,’ Stefano said.
‘I am particularly honoured to be able to share this rare, once-in-a-lifetime experience with the Australian public and international visitors as we bring New York and MoMA to the heart of Perth.’
Thankfully Glenn went on to enthusiastically describe the exhibition as ‘breath-taking’, a ‘handsome installation’ and ‘we couldn’t have done it better’.
Watching the two men field off copious questions and photo opportunities, I pondered the immense pressure these two have been, and will continue to be under until the pieces return home. I was reminded of the last time I’d lent friends a book, hair straightener or $50. You’d be hard pressed to find a better example of ‘trust’, than offering your friend a shipment of over 100 priceless art pieces.
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Lowry & Carboni © The Ponder Room
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With these thoughts in my head I moved on and got my first glimpse of the exhibition. As you’ll see over the coming posts my mind flooded with things to ponder. As a taster ….
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The sheer size of Picasso’s canvases.
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The thickness of the oils on Pollock’s paintings.
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The scale of Warhol’s Campbell Soup.
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How wonderful to see strangers chatting about what they were looking at.
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Thank god the pieces weren’t travelling during the tornado.
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How nice to see the two men finding a quiet moment to chat.
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But mostly how strong partnerships between friends can yield unlimited results, John and Paul, Abbott and Costello, Mork and Mindy, Ren and Stimpy …. Lowry and Carboni.
Special event: Saturday June 16th 8.15am Bagel with the Director. Where you can hear Stefano and Glenn chat.
Dates: Exhibition runs from June 16 to Dec 3 2012
Artists featured: 14 Artists featured: Picasso to Warhol features a dynamic selection of works created by celebrated artists Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Giorgio De Chirico, Joan Miró, Romare Bearden, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol
For more information about: After Work Wednesdays; AGWA Nights at the Gallery; Literary Link Tours; or the exhibition go to http://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/
