In the Gallery’s 125th anniversary year, this exhibition celebrates the first major work to enter the collection in 1900: Frederick McCubbin’s A bush burial (1890).
The painting was purchased with funds raised through a donation drive at the turn of the 20th century and the purchase kicked-off the amazing collection Geelong Gallery has today.
Possibly the gallery’s most iconic piece, A bush burial, is just one of many iconic McCubbin works that feature in this current exhibition. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see so many of his works in the gallery as they have been loaned from national and state institutions, regional Victorian galleries and other private collections for a short time. The exhibition runs till February 2022.
The exhibition title, Frederick McCubbin—Whisperings in wattle, acknowledges the inspiration McCubbin took from the poetry of Adam Lindsay Gordon, the unique beauty of the Australian bush and the rich stories that emerge from it.
This in-focus exhibition will also include portraits by McCubbin of some of the subjects—often family and friends—that populate his enduring great narrative pictures.
We caught up with Geelong Gallery senior curator, Lisa Sullivan, to talk about the exhibition and the man himself….Frederick McCubbin. Listen to the full interview below.
We even recalled the 1980s Kit Kat commercial that featured the McCubbin painting On the Wallaby Track – you can watch the ad below.
Image:
Frederick McCubbin
A bush burial 1890
oil on canvas
Geelong Gallery
Purchased by public subscription, 1900
Photographer: Andrew Curtis
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