IN Masters

If you’re not a regular visitor to the Art Gallery of Western Australia, it’s time to change your habits. A collection of art’s modern masterpieces are spending the rest of the year in our city.

When was the last time you visited the art gallery? Reckon there’s nothing there for you?

Well, think again – especially when an exhibition of 20th century masters from New York’s Museum of Modern Art goes up on the walls.

The exhibition, called Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters, will feature more than 100 modern masterpieces by 14 of the most iconic artists of the last century. Ranging from Pablo Picasso to Andy Warhol the exhibition will also include celebrated works by Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Giorgio De Chirico, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock and Romare Bearden.

“These exhibitions are about making people feel comfortable in this space,” effuses Dr Stefano Carboni, the director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia. “Art is not for the elite. It’s not about not knowing anything but just being able to look at things. It’s about your personal feelings and reactions to a work of art.

“Whether you think it’s good or bad, any kind of reaction already means that you are in tune with it. You don’t necessarily need the help of experts to enjoy it because art is for everybody.”

Opening next month, the exhibition is a collaboration between the Art Gallery of Western Australia and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and is the first of six exclusive exhibitions from New York to be seen in Perth over the next three years. They will include a landscapes and still life show, iconic photography of New York, contemporary art through digital media, a design collection devoted to kitchenware featuring a complete kitchen, and post-impressionist masterpieces.

“The initial idea behind the collection is that instead of having a major show or an important international show every few years we would try to engage with a single institution once a year. In this case the public of WA could expect two such shows a year,” Stefano says.

Consisting of around 130 pieces, the exhibition starts in the 1900’s and ends with the work of the only living artist of the collection, 81-year-old Jasper Johns. Picasso will be represented by about nine oil paintings and six etchings while we’ll get to see three major works by De Chirico. Andy Warhol’s 32 legendary soup cans will be on display as will a self portrait and his Brillo Boxes.

The exhibition will be supported by a strong program of talks and activities. Stefano hopes this exhibition and indeed the whole series, will appeal also to tertiary students and the 18 – 35 age demographic alongside the dedicated and long-time lovers of the gallery. Because of the exclusive nature of the shows he also expects plenty of visitors from the eastern states.

Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters is at the Art Gallery of Western Australia from June 16 to December 3. Entry fees apply.

Image: Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987) Self-Portrait, 1966 Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on nine canvases Each canvas 22 1/2 x 22 1/2" (57.2 x 57.2 cm), overall 67 5/8 x 67 5/8" (171.7 x 171.7 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York Gift of Philip Johnson © 2012 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York