DIRECTOR’S CHOICE
CHAU CHAK WING MUSEUM
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY David Ellis
INTRODUCTION The Chau Chak Wing Museum is home to over 450,000 cultural and scientific objects that for 170 years have informed and inspired students and their teachers at the University of Sydney. Spanning half a million years of human endeavour and creativity, these collections are an extraordinary legacy of expeditions, research, connoisseurship and the generosity of donors, forming a vital part of Australia’s cultural heritage. The Chau Chak Wing Museum replaces earlier museums and the University Art Gallery, which were dispersed around the campus. The Nicholson Museum, opened in 1860, is the oldest university museum in Australia. Named after its principal benefactor Sir Charles Nicholson, first Vice-Provost, Provost and Chancellor of the University, the collection was developed around his desire to provide a well-rounded education
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right: The Nicholson Museum was founded in 1860. The collection was housed in the Quadrangle of the University of Sydney, before relocation to the Chau Chak Wing Museum in 2020.
Below: The Chau Chak Wing Museum (2020), designed by Johnson Pilton Walker.
below: The Nicholson Museum in around 1954. Photograph: Max Dupain. Sir Charles Nicholson founded this teaching collection with artefacts spanning the ancient world.
INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION The Chau Chak Wing Museum is home to over 450,000 cultural and scientific objects that for 170 years have informed and inspired students and their teachers at the University of Sydney. Spanning half a million years of human endeavour and creativity, these collections are an extraordinary legacy of expeditions, research, connoisseurship and the generosity of donors, forming a vital part of Australia’s cultural heritage. The Chau Chak Wing Museum replaces earlier museums and the University Art Gallery, which were dispersed around the campus. The Nicholson Museum, opened in 1860, is the oldest university museum in Australia. Named after its principal benefactor Sir Charles Nicholson, first Vice-Provost, Provost and Chancellor of the University, the collection was developed around his desire to provide a well-rounded education
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right: The Nicholson Museum was founded in 1860. The collection was housed in the Quadrangle of the University of Sydney, before relocation to the Chau Chak Wing Museum in 2020.
Below: The Chau Chak Wing Museum (2020), designed by Johnson Pilton Walker.
below: The Nicholson Museum in around 1954. Photograph: Max Dupain. Sir Charles Nicholson founded this teaching collection with artefacts spanning the ancient world.
INTRODUCTION
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Man Reading a Newspaper, 1941 Russell Drysdale, 1912–1981 Oil on canvas, 61 × 76 cm Donated by Lucy Swanton, 1953 University Art Collection, UA 1953.8
This intriguing work is one of a series painted by Australian artist Russell Drysdale in 1941, as the young artist was starting to explore the Australian landscape and character. Drysdale had first studied in Melbourne with artist and teacher George Bell in the 1930s. He then made several trips to Europe where he experienced first-hand the work of European modernists, returning to Australia as the threat of war grew in 1939. By the 1940s his work was developing a distinctive, Australian flavour. Drysdale was attracted to the Australian outback and its desolate landscapes, rich in ochre hues and vast open skies. Painted in 1941, Man Reading a Newspaper is quintessentially Australian with its wide and barren expanses. Rather than being a literal rendition of a landscape, it evokes the feel of the rural outback, with its tree stumps and rusted corrugated iron sheets during a six-year period of drought, a theme to which the artist would later return. The low horizon gives prominence to the vast sky and to the figure, all enhancing the surreal, isolated qualities of the painting. The work is one of fourteen paintings by major Australian artists donated to the University by Lucy Swanton in 1953. Swanton was a friend of Drysdale and had organised his first solo exhibition at Riddell Gallery in Melbourne in 1938. Soon after she became a partner in the influential Macquarie Galleries in Sydney where, in 1942, Swanton arranged Drysdale’s second solo show to critical acclaim. Among the works exhibited was Man Reading a Newspaper.
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MAN READING A NEWSPAPER
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Man Reading a Newspaper, 1941 Russell Drysdale, 1912–1981 Oil on canvas, 61 × 76 cm Donated by Lucy Swanton, 1953 University Art Collection, UA 1953.8
This intriguing work is one of a series painted by Australian artist Russell Drysdale in 1941, as the young artist was starting to explore the Australian landscape and character. Drysdale had first studied in Melbourne with artist and teacher George Bell in the 1930s. He then made several trips to Europe where he experienced first-hand the work of European modernists, returning to Australia as the threat of war grew in 1939. By the 1940s his work was developing a distinctive, Australian flavour. Drysdale was attracted to the Australian outback and its desolate landscapes, rich in ochre hues and vast open skies. Painted in 1941, Man Reading a Newspaper is quintessentially Australian with its wide and barren expanses. Rather than being a literal rendition of a landscape, it evokes the feel of the rural outback, with its tree stumps and rusted corrugated iron sheets during a six-year period of drought, a theme to which the artist would later return. The low horizon gives prominence to the vast sky and to the figure, all enhancing the surreal, isolated qualities of the painting. The work is one of fourteen paintings by major Australian artists donated to the University by Lucy Swanton in 1953. Swanton was a friend of Drysdale and had organised his first solo exhibition at Riddell Gallery in Melbourne in 1938. Soon after she became a partner in the influential Macquarie Galleries in Sydney where, in 1942, Swanton arranged Drysdale’s second solo show to critical acclaim. Among the works exhibited was Man Reading a Newspaper.
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MAN READING A NEWSPAPER
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Major Mitchell’s cockatoo (Lophochroa leadbeateri ), c.1880 Collected in Murrumbidgee area, New South Wales 41.2 × 39 × 14 cm Macleay Collections, NHB.1649
Australia has a huge diversity of spectacular parrots and cockatoos, among which is the Major Mitchell’s cockatoo, which inhabits the drier interior regions of all the mainland Australian states. Among its many indigenous names is widyagala from the Wiradjuri lands, from where this specimen was collected. The species made quite an impression on its colonial namesake, Sir Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792–1855), who wrote of the species in his 1839 report on the three expeditions he led as surveyor-general into the interior of New South Wales: The smaller bird of this genus with a scarlet and yellow crest, and pink wings [Plyctolophus Leadbeateri], was rarely noticed, and it appeared to come from a distance, flying usually very high. The pink-coloured wings and glowing crest of this beautiful bird might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region; and, indeed, from its transient visits, it did not seem quite at home on the banks of the Darling. Although Mitchell met with Wiradjuri leaders and exchanged gifts with them, the expeditions became violent and ultimately the land Mitchell surveyed became settler farm country. Populations of this species have declined with habitat loss of extensive woodland, consisting of conifers, sheoaks and eucalypts. This individual was collected around 1880 from the Murrumbidgee area in New South Wales. Like other members of the cockatoo family (Cacatuidae), this species has an erectile crest on the top of its head. The brightly coloured crest may be raised to communicate with other members of the species, or to appear larger to alarm a potential predator. This specimen is one of over 9,500 birds, their eggs and nests in the University’s collections.
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MAJOR MITCHELL’S COCKATOO (LOPHOCHROA LEADBEATERI)
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Major Mitchell’s cockatoo (Lophochroa leadbeateri ), c.1880 Collected in Murrumbidgee area, New South Wales 41.2 × 39 × 14 cm Macleay Collections, NHB.1649
Australia has a huge diversity of spectacular parrots and cockatoos, among which is the Major Mitchell’s cockatoo, which inhabits the drier interior regions of all the mainland Australian states. Among its many indigenous names is widyagala from the Wiradjuri lands, from where this specimen was collected. The species made quite an impression on its colonial namesake, Sir Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792–1855), who wrote of the species in his 1839 report on the three expeditions he led as surveyor-general into the interior of New South Wales: The smaller bird of this genus with a scarlet and yellow crest, and pink wings [Plyctolophus Leadbeateri], was rarely noticed, and it appeared to come from a distance, flying usually very high. The pink-coloured wings and glowing crest of this beautiful bird might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region; and, indeed, from its transient visits, it did not seem quite at home on the banks of the Darling. Although Mitchell met with Wiradjuri leaders and exchanged gifts with them, the expeditions became violent and ultimately the land Mitchell surveyed became settler farm country. Populations of this species have declined with habitat loss of extensive woodland, consisting of conifers, sheoaks and eucalypts. This individual was collected around 1880 from the Murrumbidgee area in New South Wales. Like other members of the cockatoo family (Cacatuidae), this species has an erectile crest on the top of its head. The brightly coloured crest may be raised to communicate with other members of the species, or to appear larger to alarm a potential predator. This specimen is one of over 9,500 birds, their eggs and nests in the University’s collections.
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MAJOR MITCHELL’S COCKATOO (LOPHOCHROA LEADBEATERI)
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This edition © Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd, 2020
Text: David Ellis, Dr Paul Donnelly,
Text and photographs © Chau Chak Wing Museum, 2020, except as
Dr Ann Stephen, Dr Jude Philp,
follows: p. 12 © William Dobell/Copyright Agency, 2020; pp. 34–35
Katrina Liberiou, Rebecca Conway,
and cover © Estate of Russell Drysdale; p. 47 © Joe Dhamanydji,
Matt Poll, Dr Craig Barker,
Milingimbi Art and Culture; p. 61 © Estate of Grace Cossington
Kelsey McMorrow
Smith; p. 74 © Bridget Riley 2020. All rights reserved; p. 77 © Hiroshi Sugimoto; p. 79 © Estate of Jeffrey Smart.
Project manager and copy editor: Claire Young
Every effort has been made to acknowledge correct copyright of
Graphic design: Nigel Soper
images where applicable. Any errors or omissions are unintentional
Photography: David James,
and should be notified to the Publisher, who will arrange for
Tina Fiveash (p. 50)
corrections to appear in any reprints.
Printed and bound in China
First edition published in 2020 by Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd 10 Lion Yard, Tremadoc Road, London SW4 7NQ, United Kingdom www.scalapublishers.com In association with the Chau Chak Wing Museum The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN: 978-1-78551-113-4 (English paperback edition)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the Chau Chak Wing Museum
front cover: Russell Drysdale, Man Reading a Newspaper, 1941 (see pp. 34–35)
and Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd. Director’s Choice ® is a registered trademark of Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd.
back cover: Dasakon, Shield, made before 1974 (see pp. 38–39) frontispiece: Giant African swallowtail (Papilio antimachus), before 1799 and 1782 (see pp. 62–63)
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