Art Gallery of South Australia facts for kids

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Art Gallery of South Australia

Established	1881
Location	North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia
Type	Art gallery
Visitors	780,000

The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) is a major art museum in Adelaide, South Australia. It started in 1881 as the National Gallery of South Australia. It holds nearly 45,000 artworks. This makes it the second largest state art collection in Australia. The gallery is part of the North Terrace cultural area. It is next to the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide.

The AGSA has a huge collection of Australian art. It also hosts the yearly Tarnanthi festival. This festival celebrates art by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. The gallery also shows many visiting exhibitions. It sends its own exhibitions to other galleries around the country. Its collections also include art from Europe, Asia, and North America.

History of the Art Gallery
Art Collection Highlights
- Australian Art
- International Art
Exhibitions and Special Events
Support and Art Prizes
- Ramsay Art Prize
  - Past Winners
Gallery
See also

History of the Art Gallery

How the Gallery Started

The South Australian Society of Arts began in 1856. It is the oldest art society still active today. This group held art shows and wanted a public art collection. In 1880, the government gave £2,000 to start buying art. The National Gallery of South Australia opened in June 1881. It had 22 artworks bought from the Melbourne International Exhibition. Other works were loaned by Queen Victoria and other important people. Prince Albert Victor and Prince George opened the gallery. It was in two rooms of the public library.

In 1889, the art collection moved to the Jubilee Exhibition Building. It stayed there for ten years. In 1897, Sir Thomas Elder left £25,000 to the gallery. This was a very large gift for an Australian gallery at that time.

The Gallery Buildings

Because of Sir Thomas Elder's gift, the government built a special building. This building is now called the Elder Wing. It was designed by C. E. Owen Smyth in a Classical Revival style. The building opened on April 7, 1900.

The building was updated in 1936. It got a new front with open columns. The gallery was made bigger in 1962, 1979, and 1996. These changes added more space for art, offices, and other facilities. The building is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register. This means it is an important historical place.

How the Gallery is Managed

In 1939, a new law changed the gallery's name. It became the Art Gallery of South Australia. It also became separate from the Public Library and Museum. It got its own board to manage it.

In 2018, Rhana Devenport became the director. She was the first female director in the gallery's history. She will leave her role in July 2024 after six years.

Art Collection Highlights

AGSA director Nick Mitzevich talking to people at a conference in 2012.

The AGSA collection has nearly 45,000 artworks. Only the National Gallery of Victoria has a bigger collection among state galleries. About 512,000 people visit the gallery each year.

A large sculpture by Lindy Lee is outside the gallery. It is called "The Life of Stars." It is 6 meters tall. The sculpture reflects its surroundings during the day. At night, it glows with light. Over 30,000 small holes in the sculpture look like a map of our galaxy.

Australian Art

Tom Roberts, A break away!, 1891. This painting shows a sheep escaping.

The gallery is famous for its Australian art. This includes art by Indigenous Australian artists. It also has art from the early days of Australian settlement (colonial art). The collection has many works from the 1800s. It is especially strong in Australian Impressionist paintings. These are often called Heidelberg School paintings.

The gallery also has many twentieth-century Modernist art works. These include art by many female artists. There is a large collection of art from South Australia. This includes 2,000 drawings by Hans Heysen. There is also a big collection of photographs.

Famous Heidelberg School works include A break away! by Tom Roberts. Other works are A holiday at Mentone by Charles Conder. The gallery was the first in Australia to buy art by an Indigenous artist in 1939. Today, it has a large collection of older and new Indigenous art. This includes the Kulata Tjuta art project. It was made by Aṉangu artists from northern South Australia.

International Art

The gallery has European landscape paintings. These include works by Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael and Camille Pissarro. Other European paintings are by Goya and Camille Corot.

There is a large collection of British art. This includes many Pre-Raphaelite works. Artists like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti are featured. Famous works include Circe Invidiosa (1892) by John William Waterhouse. The gallery also has British portraits. These are by artists like Anthony van Dyck and Thomas Gainsborough.

Sculptures include works by Rodin and Henry Moore.

The Asian art collection started in 1904. It has art from all over Asia. It focuses on early Japanese art, Southeast Asian art, Indian art, and art from the Middle East. The gallery has Australia's only permanent display of Islamic art.

{{Wide image|Battle scenes from the Tale of Heike (Heike Monogatari) - Google Art Project.jpg|700px|The Tale of the Heike, a Japanese artwork from around 1700.]]

Exhibitions and Special Events

The AGSA shows its permanent collection. It also hosts the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. It displays many visiting exhibitions each year. It also sends travelling exhibitions to other galleries.

Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art

The Adelaide Biennial is a major art show. It is the only big show focused only on new Australian art. It is also the longest-running show of its kind. The Biennial happens every two years. It is part of the Adelaide Festival. It is shown at AGSA and other places like the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

The Adelaide Biennial started in 1990. It aimed to show the best new Australian art. It wanted to make sure Australian art was seen by visitors from around the world.

Past Biennial Events

2014: Called "Dark Heart." It showed art by 28 artists.
2018: Called "Divided Worlds." It explored differences in ideas and places. It attracted over 240,000 visitors.
2020: Called "Monster Theatres." It looked at our relationships with each other and technology. It featured 23 artists. The gallery closed for a while due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Some exhibits were shown online.
2022: Called Free/State. It featured artists like Hossein Valamanesh and Shaun Gladwell. The theme was inspired by South Australia's history as a "free colony."

Tarnanthi Festival

Since 2015, AGSA has hosted Tarnanthi (pronounced tar-nan-dee). This is a festival of modern Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. The first Tarnanthi exhibition in 2015 was the biggest ever for the gallery. The festival happens every two years. In the years between, there is a special exhibition at the gallery.

Other Important Exhibitions

1906: The Light of the World

In 1906, a famous painting called The Light of the World was shown. Over 18,000 people came to see it in less than two weeks.

Support and Art Prizes

Diana Ramsay (1926–2017) and her husband James Ramsay (1923–1996) loved art. They gave a lot of money to the gallery. By 2021, the gallery had bought over 100 artworks thanks to them. These included paintings by Clarice Beckett and Camille Pissarro.

Diana started the Ramsay Art Prize in 2016. The James & Diana Ramsay Foundation helps the gallery's programs for children and families. Over 300,000 children and families have visited AGSA since these programs started in 2013. In 2019, the Ramsays left a huge gift of $38 million to AGSA. This money is used to buy major artworks. It was one of the largest gifts ever given to an Australian art gallery.

Ramsay Art Prize

The Ramsay Art Prize is a national art award. It gives $100,000 to an Australian artist under 40. Artists can work in any medium. It is the richest art prize in Australia. It is awarded every two years. All the final artworks are shown in a big exhibition at the gallery. There is also a People's Choice Prize of $15,000. This is chosen by public vote.

Past Winners

2017: Sarah Contos won with her work Sarah Contos Presents: The Long Kiss Goodbye.
2019: Vincent Namatjira won with his painting Close Contact, 2018.
2021: South Australian artist Kate Bohunnis won with her moving sculpture edge of excess.
2023: South Australian artist Ida Sophia won with her video art witness. Zaachariaha Fielding won the People's Choice prize.

Gallery

Selected Australian works

John Glover, A view of the artist's house and garden, in Mills Plains, Van Diemen's Land, 1835
H. J. Johnstone, Evening shadows, backwater of the Murray, South Australia, 1880
Charles Conder, A holiday at Mentone, 1888
Florence Fuller, Mother and Child, c. 1890
John Russell, A clearing in the forest, 1891
Frederick McCubbin, A ti-tree glade, 1897
Hugh Ramsay, The four seasons, 1907
Clarice Beckett, Motor Lights, 1929