Museum of Modern Art Australia facts for kids
The Museum of Modern Art Australia (MOMAA) was a special art museum in Melbourne, Australia. It was started in 1958 by a kind art supporter named John Reed. The museum showed important modern art from Australia and other countries in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was open until 1966 and officially closed down in 1981.
How it Started
In 1938, John Reed and his wife Sunday Reed helped create the Contemporary Art Society (CAS). They wanted to promote modern art because many people in Australia still liked older, more traditional art. Through the CAS, John met famous artist Sidney Nolan. The Reeds became great friends with Nolan and even let him live at their farm, 'Heide', from 1941 to 1947.
Other artists who were part of their group included Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, and Danila Vassilieff. John Reed stopped working as a lawyer in 1943. After World War II, he and Sunday became the main supporters of modern art in Australia. They gave money to several artists regularly. They also helped restart the CAS in Melbourne in the early 1950s. Their group of artist and writer friends, known as the Heide Circle, grew to include artists like Charles Blackman and Mirka Mora.
The Museum's Home
In 1958, the Reeds, with help from friends and other art supporters, changed the CAS gallery into the Museum of Modern Art (and Design) of Australia (MOMAA). They used mostly their own money and also raised funds. The museum was like the famous MoMA in New York. John Reed became its director.
The museum was on the top floor of an old, three-story building in Tavistock Place, Melbourne. In 1956, architect Peter Burns helped turn it into an art gallery. The main gallery was a long, rectangular room. It had dark grey carpet and a dark blue ceiling. One wall was made of colorful plastic panels. The other walls were white and had a special wire system to hang the artworks. Bright lights helped show off the art.
The first exhibition showed artworks that the Reeds' artist friends had given to the museum. In 1962, the museum moved to a new spot. It went to an empty floor in the Ball & Welch department store on Flinders Street. The museum strongly supported modern Australian artists. For example, in 1958, a painting by Charles Blackman called Dream was given to a museum in Paris.
Amazing Art Shows
The museum's collection started with 163 artworks that the Reeds had collected over 30 years. These artworks included different styles like figurative (showing real things), abstract (shapes and colors), expressionist (showing feelings), and realist (showing things as they are). Many of the exhibitions held at the museum were very important.
The museum's architect, Peter Burns, showed his own art there in 1959. Albert Tucker had an exhibition in 1960. In 1961, there was a show called 'The Formative Years, 1940 – 1945'. It featured important works by Tucker, Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, and John Perceval.
In 1962, the museum showed works by the Sydney Pop Art group called the 'Annandale Realists'. This group included Mike Brown, Colin Lanceley, and Ross Crothall. Georges Mora, a close friend of the Reeds, asked them to paint a large mural in his restaurant, Balzac. This mural is one of the biggest examples of Australian Pop Art still around today.
On June 1, 1956, before the museum officially opened, the Reeds held their first exhibition in the transformed CAS space. It was opened by H. V. Evatt, a political leader whose wife, Mary, was an artist. This first show featured Melbourne Woman Painters. It included artists like Joy Hester, Mirka Mora, and Lina Bryans. After this, the museum showed Sidney Nolan's famous Ned Kelly series. This series had already been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Other exhibitions included:
- 1958: Modern Australian Art, a collection of paintings and drawings.
- 1958: A show of 94 paintings and 11 sculptures by Danila Vassilieff.
- 1958: Exhibitions by Leonard French and Mirka Mora.
- 1958: Ian Fairweather and John Perceval's Angels exhibition.
- 1959: Drawings by Margaret Olley and paintings by Peter Upward.
- 1961: Picasso: series of ceramics from the Vallauris Potteries.
- 1961: Laurence Hope: Antarctic Paintings.
- 1962: Annandale Imitation Realists (the Pop Art group).
- 1963: A large survey show of paintings from galleries across Australia.
- 1963: Joy Hester, commemorative exhibition of her drawings.
- 1964: The Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly paintings 1946-47.
- 1964: Arthur Boyd : retrospective exhibition of paintings 1936-62.
- 1965: New generation 1965, showing works by young painters from Sydney and Melbourne.
Why it Closed
The museum moved to the Ball & Welch department store in 1962 or 1964. They hoped to have bigger shows there. However, they faced many money problems that they could not solve. In April 1965, John Reed left his role, and the museum closed down a year later.
The Reeds continued their art activities at their farm, Heide. New, modern buildings were finished there in 1967, becoming Heide II. In 1980, just before they both passed away, the Reeds sold Heide to the Victorian Government. This was so it could become a public art museum and park, known as the Heide Museum of Modern Art.
In 1981, the remaining members of the Museum of Modern Art Australia officially closed it down. Its art collection was given to the National Gallery of Victoria. The agreement said that the collection should be shown at the Heide Museum. This was to honor John and Sunday Reed, who were so important in starting the collection. A special exhibition called Forgotten treasures was held in 1994 at the Heide Museum, showing works from the original Museum of Modern Art collection.
