The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) last week announced its 2020 exhibition program revealing a diverse mix of art from a companion for the Skywhale hot air balloon in Skywhalepappa to Van Gogh’s Sunflowers 1888.
NGA Director Nick Mitzevich said 2020 would be a defining year in the Gallery’s history beginning with an ambitious program of exhibitions and events aimed at elevating Australian women artists and concluding with the largest group of works to travel outside of the United Kingdom from the National Gallery, London.
The art of Australian women spanning two decades will be featured in exhibitions such as Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now and The Body Electric, a large-scale installation by the Tjanpi Desert Weavers, Club Ate’s digital project In Muva We Trust and Patricia Piccinini’s anticipated new work Skywhalepapa, commissioned as part of the Balnaves Contemporary Series.
Audiences will also have a rare and exclusive chance to see works from the European masters – most have never previously travelled to Australia – in Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London, which opens in November 2020 and presents more than 60 works by some of Europe’s most revered artists. Highlights include Rembrandt’s Self-portrait at the age of 34 1640, Vermeer’s A young woman seated at a virginal c 1670 and Van Gogh’s much-loved Sunflowers 1888.
Also new in 2020 will be the introduction of Art Weekends and a late night Friday Gallery opening at the end of each month.
For a full run down of the 2020 program visit nga.gov.au