Past Exhibitions 2000-2005
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Past Special Collections Exhibitions
Past Art in the Library Exhibitions
Past University of Melbourne Archives Exhibitions
Past exhibitions at the Ian Potter Museum of Art
Past exhibitions at the Medical History Museum
2005
Leisure times: Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 19 November 2005 to 12 March 2006). Works by George Bell, Rupert Bunny, E Phillips Fox, Roy de Maistre and Ada May Plante. Drawing on the University of Melbourne Art Collection, this exhibition brought together artworks on the theme of leisure and recreation.
Norman Lindsay: Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 19 November 2005 to 12 March 2006). Norman Lindsay is one of Australia’s most notorious and prolific artists. Born in Creswick, Victoria, in 1879, he was an illustrator, cartoonist, writer, sculptor and painter, famous equally for his classic children’s book The magic pudding (1918) as for his erotic depictions of the female nude. The University of Melbourne holds an important group of works that were donated by the artist in 1969, including major works such as Homage to Venus and Crete, the largest painting Lindsay ever made.
A study in rhythm and design: Edith Alsop (1871–1958) (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 6 August to 13 November 2005). Drawing extensively from the University’s Edith Alsop Study Collection, this exhibition introduced the work of a relatively unknown Melbourne artist. Through early book illustrations, finished drawings, sketches and prints, the exhibition reflected the development of Alsop’s career, her European studies and commitment to modern art in the 1930s.
Utopian visions: Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack and Percy Grainger (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 6 August to 30 October 2005). Percy Grainger (1882–1961) and Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack (1893–1965) are key figures within Victoria’s cultural history. The Grainger Museum at the University holds an outstanding collection of items by Percy Grainger, a world pioneer of experimental music, including a number of terry-towelling costumes. The design of the costumes can be traced to the dominant modernist concerns of the early twentieth century. Similarly, paintings, prints and drawings by Bauhaus-trained artist Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack provide insights into the European modernist tradition. Drawing strong visual links between the patterning and colour of the towelling clothes and the colour theories of the Bauhaus, this display offered viewers opportunities to connect with contemporary music and colour theory and gain insight into Hirschfeld Mack’s and Grainger’s individual quests for utopian ideals.
Madhubani paintings from the collection and selected companion works (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 6 August to 30 October 2005). The University of Melbourne’s collection of 30 vibrant and unusual Madhubani paintings on paper from North India was given its first dedicated display at the Museum. Originally acquired in 1982 as an aid in teaching Hindu mythology by the then-Department of Indian Studies, the collection reflects the strong connections between the University’s cultural collections and its teaching programs. Companion works included Melbourne artist Louise Paramor's series of luminous head-and-shoulder portraits, with simply inscribed first names, depicting Indian artists she met during a three-month Asialink residency in 1995 at the Bharat Bhavan Multi-Arts Complex in Bhopal.
Highlights from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 6 August to 16 October 2005). The University of Melbourne Art Collection has a history that spans more than 150 years. Shaped by the various individuals who have donated, acquired and commissioned artworks over this time, the collection comprises a broad and fascinating range of items of diverse cultural significance. Largely composed of Australian art, the collection also incorporates other key areas of representation including antiquities, international indigenous culture, decorative arts and twentieth-century poster designs. For the first exhibition in a series that reintroduced the collection after the Ian Potter Museum of Art’s 18-month closure, this selection included the work of more than forty artists including Lina Bryans, John Brack, Nicholas Chevalier, Murray Griffin, Joy Hester, Linda Marrinon, Max Meldrum, Gareth Sansom and William Strutt.
Kelmscott: A Medieval Adventure in the Age of the Machine (June to December 2005), See also:
Brian Allison & Astrid Britt Krautschneider, Kelmscott: A medieval adventure in the age of the machine (exhibition catalogue, Information Division, University of Melbourne, 2005).
Recent Acquisitions: An Exhibition of New Material in Special Collections, the Grainger Collection and the University Archives (April to May 2005)
Peregrinations in Asia Minor: European Description and Cartography in the 16th and 17th Centuries (February to April 2005). See also:
Julieann Simpson & David Jones, Peregrinations in Asia Minor: European description and cartography in the 16th and 17th centuries: An exhibition of items from the University of Melbourne’s Ronald and Pamela Walker Collection of maps of Asia Minor, and the Special Collections (exhibition catalogue, University of Melbourne Library, 2005).
View the catalogue (Pdf - 2.57 Mb)
Treason, Tichborne and Tait: Trials from the Legal Resource Centre and the University of Melbourne Archives (Legal Resource Centre, University of Melbourne, 2005)
2004
From life: Works by early generations of students at the National Gallery Art School (exhibition of works from the VCA Art Collection, held at the Victorian College of the Arts, 28 October to 13 November 2004)
Rush to rebellion: Victorian gold rushes 1851-1854: A Baillieu Library exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Rebellion, drawing on the Baillieu Library Special Collections and the University of Melbourne Archives (Baillieu Library, 1 November to 10 December 2004)
Mad Monks, Sham Ruins and Damsels in Distress: Aspects of Medievalism from the University of Melbourne Collections (Baillieu Library, August to October 2004)
Performing Revolution: France 1789-1945, drawing on material from the Robert Brécy Collection, Special Collections (Baillieu Library, 7 June to 30 July 2004, to coincide with the XIVth George Rudé Seminar of French History)
Treating the Past: How Medical Melbourne Came of Age (May to September 2004)
In the privacy of their own Holmes: An exhibition of private press and limited edition Sherlockiana, a Baillieu Library exhibition (Baillieu Library, 5 April to 28 May 2004)
Burning clouds & leaping glaciers: An exhibition on volcanoes, drawing on the Rare Books collection of the Earth Sciences Library and the Baillieu Library Special Collections (Baillieu Library, 16 February to 26 March, 2004)
2003
The faculty reflects: 150 years of medical history, exhibition held at the Medical History Museum (2003-2004)
The Grimwade effect (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 22 October to 14 December 2003)
Curiosity: 150 Years of Collecting at the University of Melbourne (brochure - pdf 814Kb)
The baker of Maldon: A Baillieu Library exhibition commemorating the centenary of the George McArthur Bequest, 1903 (Baillieu Library, 22 September to 7 November 2003)
Nature's instrument: 150 years of amateur choral music in Melbourne: Royal Melbourne Philharmonic and Royal Victorian Liedertafel - a Grainger Museum exhibition (Baillieu Library, June to July 2003)
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 22 May to 22 July 2003). A selection of works drawn from the University of Melbourne Art Collection including contemporary Australian artists Matthys Gerber, James Gleeson, Ian Howard, Stieg Persson, Gareth Sansom and Vivienne Shark LeWitt.
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 1 May to 20 July 2003). A selection of works drawn from the University of Melbourne Art Collection including artists Ralph Balson, Peter Booth, Ian Fairweather, Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack, Roger Kemp, Godfrey Miller, John Olsen, Mike Parr, John Passmore and Tony Tuckson.
What a Place for an Education! (April to May 2003)
Susan Reidy, Michelle Hall & Lesley Caelli, What a place for an education!: 1853 to 2003 - the University of Melbourne: A Baillieu Library exhibition celebrating the University's 150th anniversary (exhibition catalogue, Information Division, University of Melbourne, 2003).
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 27 February to 18 May 2003). This selection of works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection focussed on artists’ depictions of work-orientated environments and experiences. Images of people at work presented a counterpoint to the depiction of people engaged in leisure pursuits, which was a popular subject for artists in the early part of the twentieth century. Artists included Edith Alsop, Muirhead Bone, Rupert Bunny, Murray Griffin, George Lambert, Norman Macgeorge, Max Middleton, Jan Senbergs, Lesbia Thorpe and James Wigley.
From Bologna to Melbourne: Universities and the World of Learning (Baillieu Library, February to March 2003)
Electrifying the Past, Engineering the Future: An Exhibition by the University of Melbourne Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (2003)
2002
Eric Thake: 'Christmas greetings from Thake's Flat' (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 19 December 2002 to 23 Mar 2003). From 1941 to 1975 Australian artist Eric Thake produced 36 different linocut designs for personal Christmas cards to send to family and friends. From relatively humble and thrifty beginnings, these cards quickly became collectors items and are now considered unique examples of Thake’s artistic skill, quick eye and clever wit. The University’s collection of Christmas cards shows compositions with clean lines and silhouetted forms, demonstrating Thake’s training as a graphic designer.
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 26 November 2002 to 26 February 2003). Works by Norman Lindsay, one of Australia’s most notorious and prolific artists. Born in Creswick, Victoria, in 1879, he was an illustrator, cartoonist, writer, sculptor and painter, famous equally for his classic children’s book The magic pudding as for his erotic depictions of the female nude.
A consummate collector: The botanical passions of Russell Grimwade (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 26 September to 15 December 2002). The Grimwade Collection was bequeathed to the University of Melbourne in Sir Russell Grimwade's will of 1949 and presented to the University after the death of Lady Grimwade in 1972. Russell Grimwade was a person of diverse interests; the subject of botany was to hold lifelong appeal for him. His activities in this area encompassed patron and collector of art and books, chemist and author. This exhibition brought together works of diverse media including paintings, watercolours, books and furniture that highlight Russell Grimwade’s botanical interests.
Through lens and speculum: Views of medical student life, exhibition held at the Medical History Museum (2002)
Bounty of the sea: Selected works from the Leonhard Adam collection of international indigenous culture, exhibition held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art (2002)
The Full Majesty of Nature: The Collection of Dr Samuel Arthur Ewing (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 21 September to 24 November 2002)
‘Daring depredations on the St Kilda and Brighton Road’: William Strutt’s 'Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia' 1852 (1887) (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 12 September to 1 December 2002). Works by William Strutt, Nicholas Chevalier, De Gruchy & Leigh, Robert Havell and Robert Dale, Arthur Essam, Samuel Gill, Goodman Teal, Nathaniel Whitlock. William Strutt’s Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852 is one of the most significant works in the University of Melbourne Art Collection. This exhibition aimed to provide a context for the painting by displaying colonial works showing artists' interpretations of the social, political and environmental concerns of the time. The display also included infra-red research and three studies for Bushrangers that show the complexities of picture-making.
Judging by their covers: A Baillieu Library exhibition of fine bindings from the 16th century to the present in the Special Collections (Baillieu Library, 19 August to 4 October 2002)
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 6 July to 8 September 2002). A selection of works focusing on the theme of landscape painting and the work of abstract artist Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack. Artists included Sidney Nolan, Joseph Brown, Danila Vassilieff and Norman Macgeorge, among others.
Inscribing the Daily: An exhibition of and about diaries (June to August 2002)
The Waverley operas: Musical adaptations of Sir Walter Scott (Baillieu Library, 1 May to 14 June 2002)
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 18 April to 4 August 2002). A selection that provided a generational context for the work of Australian artist Peter Kennedy. Artists included contemporaries such as Mike Parr, Robert Rooney, Ian Howard and Gareth Sansom.
The Accidental Wunderkammer: Decorative Arts and Curiosities from the Grainger Collection (April to October 2002)
Brian Allison, The accidental Wunderkammer: Decorative arts and curiosities from the Grainger Collection (exhibition catalogue, Grainger Museum, 2002).
Fashion: The cultural imagery of clothing (Baillieu Library, March to April 2002)
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 10 February to 28 April 2002). A selection of works from the late 19th century through to the 1950s which illustrated the range of the University’s holdings of Australian art. Artists included John Ford Patterson, Roi de Maistre, George Lambert, Lina Bryans and Ralph Balson, among others.
Perspectives: Conservation and the Art of Investigation (November 2001 to February 2002)
2001
'Don't spit!' The control of TB in Victoria, exhibition held at the Medical History Museum (2001-2002)
The rise of technology in the practice of medicine, exhibition held at the Medical History Museum (2001)
Norman Macgeorge: Man of art, exhibition held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art (2001)
Half a painter's nature: Percy Grainger as designer - a Grainger Museum exhibition (Baillieu Library, September to November 2001)
The Macgeorge Bequest: Artists-in-residence: Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 23 August to 18 November 2001). This exhibition drew on extensive research by Macgeorge Fellow Dr John Pigot to present an important, but overlooked, period in Melbourne’s cultural history - the 1920s and 1930s. The development of Norman Macgeorge’s artistic practice was examined as was the modern design of Macgeorge’s home, ‘Ballangeich’ at Fairy Hills (Ivanhoe), designed by architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear in 1911. A unique feature of the exhibition was the reconstruction of a 1920s exhibition room featuring works from major collections across Australia by contemporaries such as Penleigh Boyd, George Lambert and Mervyn Napier Waller.
Classical influences: Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 16 August to 30 September 2001). Coinciding with the opening of the new Classics and Archaeology Gallery, this display from the University of Melbourne Art Collection highlighted the depiction of classical motifs and mythological themes in Australian art. Artists included Napier Waller, William Strutt, Rupert Bunny, Norman Lindsay and Thea Proctor.
Bon voyage: Selected works from the Gerard Herbst Poster Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 9 August to 16 September 2001). The posters in the exhibition were selected from the many travel posters held in the Gerard Herbst Poster Collection within the University of Melbourne Art Collection. They are evidence of the immense growth of tourism and air travel after World War II, but also of the persistence of 19th-century colonialism and romanticism within the mentality of the tourist.
Sanctity and mystery: The symbolist art of Rupert Bunny (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 2 June to 29 July 2001). Guest curator Barbara Kane presented a re-assessment of this popular artist’s work, focusing on the little known literary, religious and mystical themes of his symbolist period. Based on extensive research undertaken in the University of Melbourne’s considerable holdings, this exhibition paired preparatory drawings with major paintings on loan from public and private collections, allowing viewers to trace the development of Bunny’s symbolic language.
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 24 May to 19 August 2001). This display focused on the theme of abstraction, highlighting the development of non-figurative representation within Australian art practice from the mid 1940s to the late 1990s. Artists included Ralph Balson, John Passmore, Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack, Lesley Dumbrell, Robert Hunter and Robert Jacks among others.
Victorian gold: The gold rush and its impact on cultural life (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 28 April to 24 June 2001). This exhibition celebrated the 150th anniversary of gold discovery in Victoria. Through the work of key artists of the goldfields, the exhibition focused on this significant period in our State’s history as well as exploring the impact of gold discovery on the growth of Melbourne from town to major city. The exhibition drew extensively from the University of Melbourne Art Collection and included works from the private collections of Denis Joachim, many of which were exhibited in Australia for the first time.
Australian life in the Federation years, 1890–1914: A University of Melbourne Library exhibition, drawing on the Baillieu Library Special Collections and the University of Melbourne Archives (Baillieu Library, 2001)
Secret Passages: Moriarty in the Baillieu: An exhibition of student work from the Faculty of Architecture, Building & Planning together with sundry objects (Baillieu Library, 9 April to 25 May 2001)
The Director’s choice: Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 1 February to 20 May 2001). A selected rotation of the earlier Director’s Choice subtly reoriented the themes and mood of the room. New works explored the artist’s studio, with paintings of the working space in which art is made. A particular aspect of the artist’s labour - observation - was shown in the works focusing on people observed by artists. Artists included Dale Hickey, Ralph Balson, Hugh Ramsay, Jon Campbell and Stephen Bush, among others.
2000
Mercury rising: Thermal themes from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 16 December 2000 to 11 February 2001). From old master prints to 20th-century painting, this exhibition traversed the many senses of heat: summer beaches, the fires of hell, intense passion and blazing colour. Artists included Tim Jones, Peter Booth, Murray Griffin, William Strutt and E Phillips Fox, among others.
John Brack: Art in focus (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 12 Dec 2000 to 04 Feb 2001). Presented as an adjunct to the exhibition John Brack: Inside and Outside, this display featured paintings, prints and drawings by John Brack from the University of Melbourne Art Collection.
2000 x Christmas: A University of Melbourne Library exhibition (Baillieu Library, 10 November 2000 to 5 January 2001)
Other healers: 150 years of complementary medicine in Victoria, exhibition held at the Medical History Museum (2000)
The Director’s choice: Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 1 October 2000 to 28 January 2001). This exhibition presented groupings of paintings that featured urbanism, abstraction and body imagery. How do triggers such as style, practice and period frame our interpretation of artworks?
A collection and a cottage (Selected works from the Russell and Mab Grimwade Bequest, The University of Melbourne), exhibition held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art (2000)
Significant others: The representation of women in early printed books (Baillieu Library, 8 September to 31 October 2000)
Selected works from the University of Melbourne Art Collection: Founding Donors exhibition (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 6 July to 24 September 2000). This exhibition drew on works from two of the University of Melbourne’s most significant art collections, the Grimwade and Ewing Collections. The paintings and works on paper were selected around the themes of landscape and domestic interiors. Works by Louis Buvelot, Frederick McCubbin and Rupert Bunny were some of the artists included in this display.
Sensational tales: Australian popular publishing 1890s-1990s (Baillieu Library, 27 January to 24 March 2000)