Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery
Road, The Domain
1904-09 Walter Liberty Vernon (NSWGA)
1971 Edward Herbert Farmer (NSWGA)
1980s Andrew Andersons (NSWGA) (extensions)
At Sydney’s great International Exhibition of 1879-80, a building was set aside for a fine arts display. When the exhibition closed, the exhibits became the nucleus of a government collection. The Governor, Lord Carrington, opened the original building by WH Hunt just before 1885. It has since been demolished.
After Federation, the National Art Gallery (as it was then known) was rebuilt in The Domain by NSW government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon (1846-1914). This was the penultimate example of the long established, but by then overdone, use of the neo-Greek temple as a portico for a major public institution in Sydney (the final application of the Greek Temple front was the State Library of NSW). The conservative design demanded by the Sydney arts establishment must have challenged Vernon’s strong Arts and Crafts sensibilities.
The 1971 addition almost doubled the exhibition space, from 2000 to 4900 square metres. Flexible spaces were created using a system of moveable screen walls and lighting, relating to ceiling modules. A grey toned rough mixture of concrete was used to blend with the sandstone of the old building.
Completed in 1988, the Captain Cook Bicentenary Wing creates a sense of light-filled open space. Glimpses of the outside address the problem of museum fatigue by redirecting viewers’ concentration by momentarily distracting them. More recently, and as part of the Open Museum, sculptures have been positioned along the entry road.
Information appearing in this section is reproduced from Sydney Architecture, with the kind permission of the author, Graham Jahn, a well-known Sydney architect and former City of Sydney Councillor. Sydney Architecture, rrp $35.00, is available from all good book stores or from the publisher, Watermark Press, Telephone: 02 9818 5677.
Last Updated: Wednesday 12 December, 2007