Xclusive tour

A few days back, casting aside the rigours of more de-cluttering and seeking comfort in an air-conditioned building, I took a tram into the city and walked across the bridge to the NGV International.

It was pleasantly cool inside the gallery, even in the open Federation Court area, which is currently home to Semicircular Space, a work by Jeppe Hein.  I stood for quite some time, watching people: old, young, tall, short, all wandering through this semi-circular installation. 

View from upstairs

View from ground level 

Figures appear and disappear, fragmented by the spaces between the polished aluminium uprights, whilst simultaneously reflected in other places.  Dizzying.  And highly entertaining.  I laughed along with a bystander at the antics of children as they ran and attempted to hide and they found the whole game great fun.  Fingerprints were all over the shiny aluminium uprights; children are not keen readers of notices and the notice, Do Not Touch, was being totally ignored.

The bystander turned out to be an NGV volunteer guide, waiting for interested parties to join her for a tour of a particular area of the Gallery.  No one else appeared, and as she was willing to do a shorter tour with one person, away we went. 

Along the way I made some new acquaintances including John Ashburnham, looking resplendent in his outfit of the day, the doublet with vertical slashes in the sleeves, the wide white collar and the gauntlet gloves.  Quite the man of fashion. Ashburnham was a prominent figure in the court of Charles 1; he has been described as a courtier, diplomat and politician and his portrait was painted by Daniel Mytens, a Dutch portrait painter. 

John Ashburnham (Daniel Mytens)

The 14^th to 16^th century gallery, often part of the tour, has a collection of religious icons and St Barbara was our first stop.  St Barbara, like any other woman of indeterminate years, appreciates the subdued lighting in this area. Of French origin,  a solid woman from the early 15^th century, carved from oak, she is showing some sign of the passing years. Nearby is a group of religious icons, representing art often found in early Orthodox churches.

St Barbara

Madonna & Child with Saints  (Agnolo
Gaddi)

We finished the tour near that well known painting, The Crossing of the Red Sea, a work by  Nicolas Poussin. This work is a depiction of Pharaoh's army being swept away just as the Israelites make the shore safely. Poussin preferred to paint grand scenes with crowds of people and, according to the guide,was much influenced regarding colours and form by his time spent  in Italy.

Detail from The Crossing of the Red Sea. 

This painting underwent  a twelve month restoration and was returned to public display in 2012.  Restoration is a lengthy process requiring great attention to detail; layers of dirt and varnish are stripped away, some areas damaged during earlier restorations needed careful research to ensure the colours used today were in keeping with the original and in this regard Poussin's works in America and Europe provided valuable information.

The painting was restored by  Carl Villis who kept an essay blog, in remarkable detail, of the work he carried out. The ornate gilt frame was also restored to dazzling splendour; dazzling by today's standards but when the original work was commissioned, rooms, even rooms in palaces, were gloomy and the lighting poor, so the frame would have had far less visual impact then it has under today's vastly improved lighting.


When the tour finishes I take the escalators upstairs to an exhibition of contemporary bamboo works. Bamboo is often used for building material, scaffolding, flooring, cooking utensils, bowls for food and nowadays clothing. 

Contemporary bamboo weaving

Here it is used in a display of beautiful woven sculptures.  Some pieces are woven from wide straps of bamboo and others from fine strips, the latter curved, twisted and turned into all manner of shapes. For further information on the history of bamboo and its weaving, click on this link and scroll down to the Essay heading and click on the READ MORE box.

Another few hours well spent, admiring artworks at the NGV International.