Category Archives: exhibition

Auckland Library Exhibition of Interest: Shakespeare in His Time

Shakespeare in His Time | Central City Library, Auckland

Friday 11 March – Sunday 19 June
9:00am – 4:00pm daily
Free

To celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death in 1616, Auckland Libraries is showcasing its remarkable Shakespearean treasures.

This includes the only first folio (the first collected edition of his plays printed in 1623) held in New Zealand, as well as a quarto of Pericles (1619) and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th folios.

These are displayed within their 16th and 17th century context- alongside the works of other writers, as well as Bibles of the Reformation, which inspired Shakespeare and describe the politics and daily life of his age.

Exhibition of Interest at the Art Gallery of South Australia: William Blake’s Engravings

William Blake’s Engravings: The Book of Job and Dante’s The Divine Comedy
Art Gallery of South Australia
18 December 2015 – 9 May 2016
Free Entry

More info: http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Exhibitions/NowShowing/William_Blakes_engravings.html

William Blake (1757-1827) was an English artist, poet, and seminal figure of the Romantic movement. His drawings, watercolours, prints and hand-printed books are highly personal and imaginative interpretations of Biblical stories and poetry.

This small display brings together selected engravings from two of Blake’s print series and includes three new acquisitions to the Gallery’s collection.

Both The Book of Job and Dante’s The Divine Comedy engravings were commissioned by the artist John Linnell, an important patron of Blake’s who was one of the few supporters of his work during his lifetime.

Exhibition of Interest at the NGV: Eighteenth–Century Porcelain Sculpture

Eighteenth–Century Porcelain Sculpture
NGV International
27 Feb – Dec
Free entry

More info: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/eighteenth-century-porcelain-sculpture

The NGV has particularly rich holdings of eighteenth-century porcelain sculpture, including a number of rare and important works by Continental and English factories. This is the first large-scale exhibition devoted to porcelain sculpture held at the NGV and features more than seventy works from the permanent collection.

Porcelain figures are often thought of today as merely ‘decorative’ objects, but in the eighteenth century these objects were admired as examples of the sculptor’s art and many were created by some of the leading sculptors of the day. The subjects of these exquisite sculptures were often mythological and allegorical and played a part in the richly symbolic visual culture of the Baroque court, particularly in Central Europe. The visual language of theatre and dance also informed much of this production. Portraits and devotional images executed in porcelain tell us of the important status that the medium held in the taste of the times. These small-scale sculptural works were among the first objects to be made in the newly mastered porcelain material at Meissen in the 1710s and 1720s, taking inspiration from imported Asian votive sculptures. The European porcelain images reflected a Baroque taste for cabinet sculpture and small sculptural works, which were intended to be handled and appreciated at close quarters and often decorated festive banquets in royal courts. Ambitious large-scale sculptures were also executed in porcelain, testing the very limits of ceramic technology.

Exhibition of Interest @ de Beer Gallery, University of Otago: Fashion Rules OK

Fashion Rules OK | de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, University of Otago
11 March – 3 June, 2016

‘Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.’ ― Coco Chanel

In Hollywood Costume (2012) Valerie Steele writes: ‘fashion is usually defined as the prevailing style of dress at any given time, with the implication that it is characterised, above all, by change… Fashion is also a system, involving not only the production and consumption of fashionable clothes but also discourses and imagery’. Some of these discourses and imagery are showcased in the exhibition Fashion Rules OK, revealing both the allure and the work of fashion. Drawing on a diverse collection of books, magazines, and objects, Fashion Rules OK also presents some highs and lows of fashion style from the Regency period to the Moderns; some iconic Fashion Greats; and aspects (often forgotten) such as fashion etiquette, fashion marketing, fashion theory, and costume.

Notable items on display include historical works such as Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1684), Racinet’s Le Costume Historique (1888), The Ladies’ Gazette of Fashion (May 1856), and The Glass of Fashion: Some Social Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster (1921). Contemporary fashion magazines such as Vogue, Dazed & Confused, and Harper’s Bazaar will also feature. And there are (among others) the Fashionistas: Christian Dior, Issey Miyake, and Elsa Schiaparelli. New Zealand is not forgotten. There are sample fashion photographs and fashion house invitations from the Avice Bowbyes Collection; Bowbyes was a lecturer in the Home Science Department at Otago and for 20 years the reporter on French fashion for the Otago Daily Times. And there are samples of indigenous fashion items like the high summer issue of New Zealand Fashion Quarterly (1999) and Black Magazine (2015). In addition, spot Barbie, and the Pantone 2016 Spring colours!

For further information, please contact Dr Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian (Donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz), Romilly Smith (Romilly.smith@otago.ac.nz) or Dr Elaine Webster (elaine.webster@otago.ac.nz).

The Emotional Life of Objects Exhibition @ The University of Melbourne

The Emotional Life of Objects Exhibition | The University of Melbourne

Date: 4-13 May 2016
Venue: George Paton Gallery, 2 Union House, The University of Melbourne, Union Road, Melbourne
Registration and enquiries: Penelope Lee: penelope.lee@unimelb.edu.au

Possessions are conduits to remembering. Artists examine the affective dimensions of relationships between people and objects, revealing narratives of history, identity, loss and comfort. Staff and students of The University of Melbourne and the general public are invited to contribute to the exhibition through the sharing of their meaningful object and its story, participate in a recorded interview and join in an experiential workshop.

This exhibition forms part of the Objects and Emotions project within the Centre for the History of Emotions where emotional relationships of people to things are the subject of academic study.

Exhibitors include:

  • Clara Bradley
  • Georgina Cockshott
  • Linda Judge
  • Robyne Latham
  • Nicholas Mellefont
  • Elizabeth Rich
  • Andrew Turland

Curated by Kate Richards (Master of Art Curatorship, The University of Melbourne) and Penelope Lee, EOO (Vic) ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.

For queries and registration about participating in the interviews or workshops, please email Penelope Lee (penelope.lee@unimelb.edu.au)

Western Australian Museum – A History of the World in 100 Objects Exhibition

A History of the World in 100 Objects Exhibition | Western Australian Museum, Perth
13 February – 18 June, 2016

For full details and to purchase tickets, please visit: http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/perth/history-world-100-objects

Be taken on a voyage through the British Museum’s collections to explore the last two million years of human history. Each object featured in A History of the World in 100 Objects marks a point on your journey through history: from early stone tools to Dürer’s celebrated print The Rhinoceros; the famous Flood Tablet to colourful Javanese shadow puppets.

Unlock fascinating stories and discover interactions between cultures of the past. Wonder at the remarkable achievements of humans as they faced changing climates, new lands and changing political arenas, and be amazed by their ingenuity and awed by their craftsmanship.

Exclusive to the Australian tour is the bronze Head of Augustus from Meroë. One of the most important surviving portraits of Rome’s first emperor, it was originally part of a statue that was ritually beheaded in antiquity. This object caused an international sensation when excavated in Sudan in 1910.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to view treasured objects from around the world and discover how humans have shaped the world and, in turn, have been shaped by it.

Shakespeare Documented – Now Online

Shakespeare Documented is the largest and most authoritative collection of primary-source materials documenting the life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), bringing together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare, his works, and additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter. Nearly 500 references, found in roughly 400 print and manuscript documents, provide a rich portrait of Shakespeare as a professional playwright, actor, poet, business man, and family man who lived in both London and Stratford-upon-Avon. These documents trace Shakespeare’s path to becoming a household name, from the earliest reference to his father in Stratford-upon-Avon, a bustling market town in Warwickshire, in 1552, to the publication of his collected plays, now known as the “First Folio,” in 1623, to the earliest gossipy references to Shakespeare in the following decades.

On this site you will find images, descriptions, and transcriptions of:

  • 103 manuscripts that refer to William Shakespeare by name in his lifetime (spelled in many different ways, which was typical of the period), including four manuscripts signed by him, and one letter addressed to him
  • 89 printed books and manuscripts from Shakespeare’s lifetime that mention or quote his plays or poems, or that refer to him directly or indirectly as a writer
  • 34 Stationers’ Register entries for Shakespeare’s plays and poems, up to and including the First Folio (1623), five of which name him as author
  • 84 printed editions of Shakespeare’s plays and poems, up to and including the First Folio (1623), 62 of which include his name on the title-page or dedicatory leaf
  • More than 100 documents that refer to other members of Shakespeare’s family, including references to Shakespeare’s coat of arms

The Shakespeare Documented website can be found at: http://www.shakespearedocumented.org.

By Land & By Sea. Scientific Expedition Reports in Special Collections from 1826 to the 1960s – Now Online

The exhibition “By Land & By Sea. Scientific Expedition Reports in Special Collections from 1826 to the 1960s” that is currently running at the University of Otago’s Special Collections Library (until 4 March, 2016) is now available as an online exhibition:

Rich with photographs, colourful plates, scientific descriptions, anthropological and geographical observations, and general insights into expeditionary life, the Scientific Expedition Reports, housed in the University of Otago’s Special Collections, are a veritable mine of information. From the Arctic to the Antarctic, from Uganda to Patagonia, the earliest of the reports dates from D’Urville’s expedition in the Astrolabe from 1826 to 1829, published in 1832; the latest are from the University of Canterbury Snares Islands expeditions beginning in the 1960s. Men and women from New Zealand, Australia, Norway, France, Sweden, America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, China, Egypt and many more countries besides, have travelled the world by land and by sea in the name of science and exploration and have documented the results in these scientific reports. Many of the scientific observations made and specimens taken are still being researched today and despite the treacherous conditions and ever present risks, most members of these expeditionary parties returned alive. The Scientific Expedition Reports in Special Collections are a testament to and a record of humankind’s insatiable desire for knowledge.

To view the online exhibition, please visit: http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/exhibitions/scientificexpeditions.

Black + White + Grey: The Lives + Works of Eric Gill + Robert Gibbings – Now Online

The Eric Gill and Robert Gibbings exhibition that ran at the University of Otago’s Special Collections Library from June to August, 2015, is now available as an online exhibition. Eric Gill was the creator of many of the fonts we use today, but also was involved with the Arts and Crafts movement which was strongly medievalist in inspiration.

To view the online exhibition, please visit: http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/exhibitions/gillandgibbings

Exhibition of Interest @ National Library of Australia: Celestial Empire: Life in China 1644-1911

Celestial Empire: Life in China 1644-1911
National Library of Australia
2 Jan-22 May 2016

Cost: Free
More info: https://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/celestial-empire

Celestial Empire – 300 years of Chinese culture and tradition from two of the world’s great libraries. From life at court to in the villages and fields, glimpse the world of China’s last imperial dynasty.

See exquisite and precious objects from the National Library of China. Marvel at drawings and plans for Beijing’s iconic palaces from the Yangshi Lei Archives, never seen in Australia. Beautiful maps, books and prints come alive in ornate detail.

Discover the National Library of Australia’s acclaimed Chinese Collection, including rare items from the London Missionary Society; a unique view of early western impressions of China.