School of Art - Theses
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ItemThe impact of the Biennale of Sydney on the collecting habits of the Art Gallery of New South Wales( 2019)The aim of this research is to examine the impact of the Biennale of Sydney on the collecting habits of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. While there is research within the area of Biennales and their impact on local economies, there is little research into their impact on how local (in this context, Australian) art is collected by public (State or Federal) institutions, whose role it is to keep safe the culture of the locality they are meant to represent. Biennales are often researched in the context of the Global internationalisation of art, with the ‘type’ of art shown being known as ‘biennale art’ - often spectacular, internationalising, and heeding little attention to the context in which the art is being shown. It can be argued that eventually, artists in the areas where Biennales have become either a source of civic pride or a tourist destination for global visitors, tend to adapt their artistic styles to mimic the work of those artists shown in such arenas. In Australia, this raises questions on how Australian artists see themselves in an international context and how this impacts on national narratives. With this in mind, I am examining, as a case study, the collection of contemporary art in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in correlation with art exhibited in the Biennale, from six years prior to the Biennale’s inception through to Australia’s Bicentennial year of 1988.
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ItemAn examination and assessment of the Dame Mabel Brookes Family Records of Napoleon( 2004-11)The Dame Mable Brookes Family Records of Napoleon, perhaps Australia’s most significant collection of Napoleonic memorabilia and containing over 380 items, has been partially inventoried twice but not properly catalogued and never properly researched. Although a selection of its contents is currently on display at Dame Mabel’s ancestral family home on the Mornington Peninsula, The Briars, its positioning within the complex of public collections in Victoria has remained tendentious ever since Dame Mabel Brookes gifted the collection to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) at her death in 1975. The present thesis - which is divided into two volumes - aims to assist the current custodians in dealing with Dame Mabel’s remarkable Napoleonic collection and the peculiar issues concerning display and interpretation that it presents. Volume one opens with an historical account of Dame Mabel’s family and their relationship with Napoleon in order to uncover the special character of the collection and its formation. I then examine the particular nature of her collecting practice, applying narrative theory as a tool by which to make sense of the collection in its entirety: the stories that it tells about Dame Mabel’s family history, her ancestors’ relationships with the fallen emperor, and her motives as a collector. Finally, the narrative dimension provides a framework for analysis in subsequent chapters of the thesis, where I discuss the fate of the collection after it was bequeathed to the people of Victoria, and propose some recommendations for its future display. Volume two comprises an illustrated catalogue of the Dame Mabel Brookes Family Records of Napoleon. This catalogue details the bulk of the collection, from books and publications to documents and manuscripts, art works, decorative arts objects, furniture, musical instruments and relics. This catalogue provides a significantly more comprehensive listing of material than has been compiled previously. Through this dissertation, I intend to make a case for the collection’s significance and suggest future possibilities for it. The hope is that this study will highlight the important place this collection has as a part of Australia’s cultural heritage; and furthermore it will suggest prospects for realising The Briars’ potential as a dedicated museum space for housing Dame Mabel’s collection.