Wednesday 20 September

EXHIBITION TALK in association with Giacometti
With Deborah Edwards, curator of Australian art

Join Deborah Edwards as she guides us through the Giacometti exhibition.  

Alberto Giacometti Walking man II, 1960. The Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation © Alberto Giacometti/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2006

FREE CONCERT In association with Giacometti
Sydney Conservatorium String Soloists directed by Goetz Richter

Strings in the Old Courts
Violinist Goetz Richter was born in Hamburg, Germany where he received his early violin tuition from Helmut Heller, Concertmaster of the Hamburg State Opera Orchestra. Following further studies in Munich with Gerhart Hetzel and Berne with Max Rostal Goetz was appointed Concertmaster of the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985. After a brief engagement with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as acting Associate Principal Violin II Goetz was appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony in 1987. He is artistic director of the Kendall National Violin Competition and a faculty member of the 2005 Euroarts summer academy in Leipzig, Germany. In 2002 Goetz was appointed Associate Professor of Strings at the Sydney Conservatorium where he has been a senior lecturer in violin and the Chair of Strings since 1997.

FILM PROGRAM
In association with Giacometti
The last of the great sculptors of Montparnasse, Swiss born, Alberto Giacometti had worked in Paris for most of his creative life. He was heartened by the war's end, but, harbouring a fear of death, continued to be haunted by the horror and suffering. Working in sympathy with the prevailing philosophy of "existentialism", Giacometti's austere works were powerful metaphors for the human condition in a disillusioned age.

Filmmakers, too, were affected by the sense of transition and uncertainty in post-war Paris. Imbued with a new realism and frankness, stories and imagery, tainted by dark memories of war, explored death, imprisonment, fate, corruption and the fragile nature of existence. This film series includes feature films and documentaries by emerging and established filmmakers, many shot in the streets of Paris and capturing the post-World War 2 mood. 

Orphée
Dir: Jean Cocteau  1950
95 mins  35mm  B&W  Rated PG
Jean Marais, Maria Casares, Juliette Greco
French with English subtitles

Using the "existentialist", proto-beatnik Paris of 1949 as a jazzy backdrop, Jean Cocteau's masterpiece is a modern retelling of the Greek myth exploring love, death and the mystery of mortality. Like Giacometti, Cocteau was scarred by the horrors of WW2 and the imagery employed in Orphée is his testament to the dark years of the Occupation; the examinations of the prisoners in the underworld summon up the grimness of actual interrogations by the Conseils d'Epuration in the days following Liberation; the helmeted, dark goggled, leather jacketed motorcyclist assassins conjure German SS militia; the cryptic "poems" being transmitted via radio suggest the coded British broadcasts and Resistance radio. Above all, the film is a cinematic representation of Cocteau’s personal, magical, Surrealist imagination.

MUSIC IN THE ARTBAR
Stu Hunter & Friends
For this series in the ArtBar, Stu Hunter will be performing instrumental nu-jazz in solo format and with special guests. Music to warm the winter soul and inspire the mind.

In conjunction with the Giaccometti exhibition. ArtBar from 7.30-8.30pm.

ARTBAR
The Gallery cafe becomes the ArtBar after 5pm serving a delicious range of evening meals, wine and beer. Enjoy the vista of Woolloomooloo.

The CAFE and GALLERY SHOP are open until 8.45pm.

The Art After Hours COURTESY BUS runs every 15 minutes from the Gallery to surrounding car parks and Martin Place from 7pm to 9pm.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales Research library is open to the public until 8.45pm.

GIACOMETTI
Until 29 October 2006

This exhibition brings to Australia, for the first time, sculptures, prints and drawings by Alberto Giacometti drawn from the remarkable modern art collection of the Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.   

Alberto Giacometti Walking man II, 1960. The Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation © Alberto Giacometti/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2006

ZEN MIND, ZEN BRUSH
Until 24 September 2006

This exhibition, drawn from the remarkable private collection of Dr Kurt A. Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen, will include works by the greatest Zen masters of the last three centuries.   

Nakahara Nantenbo (detail) Procession of begging monks (1923), hanging scroll, ink on paper

BRENDAN LEE
Until 22 October 2006

Melbourne artist Brendan Lee works in the medium of video installation. His work explores the linear motion of film through re-contextualising existing and constructed filmic moments.

Brendan Lee (detail) Pigkiller (from Two Birds with One Stone) 2006. Original photo Paul Batt. Courtesy of the artist.

PETER KINGSTON & MARTIN SHARP
Until 19 November 2006

From the halcyon days of the hippy, anti-establishment era, this collection installation will explore the inventive genius of Sydney artists Peter Kingston and Martin Sharp, two key artists of the Yellow House. 

Martin Sharp Mr Tamborine Man 1967. Thea Proctor Memorial Fund 1970

WANDERLUST: ARTIST BOOKS
Until 25 November 2006 (Mon - Fri and Wed nights only)

Alexander Arcus is an artist working in paint, textiles and paper. Liz Jeneid is an artist who has been making artist books since 1989. This Research Library exhibition examines the process of notation by these two artists of their travels in Australia and overseas. 

Artist books by Liz Jeneid (detail)