Art Sets.
Innovation
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AGNSW collection Anne Dangar Beer mug for Rah Fizelle 1937
Anne Dangar is an under acknowledged figure in the history of Australian art. Born in Kempsey she moved to France in 1930 where she worked as a potter in an artist community set-up by French cubist Albert Gleizes. From there she wrote letters about Gleizes' teaching to friends at the Balson-Fizelle art school, setting up a kind of cubist correspondence school for artists in Sydney. Her pottery is in several major collections, including the Centre Pompidou, and the AGNSW owns this very handsome beer mug made for her friend Rah Fizelle.
AGNSW collection Ralph Balson Painting 1941
While other artists had made abstract paintings in Australia before Balson, he was the first to stage a one-person show that was completely devoid of figuration. Staged at the gallery of former Sydney department store, Anthony Hordern's, in 1941, the exhibition was a kind of manifesto for abstraction. 'Painting' was one of the 21 works exhibited.
AGNSW collection Daniel Crooks Train no.1 2002-2005
This is one of Daniel Crooks' remarkable 'timeslice' works, a technique invented by the artist that involves slicing video footage into vertical strips and then recombining them in a different order. The resulting videos turn time and space inside out. Technically brilliant and completely mesmerising.