Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Art Gallery of New South Wales – Government Domain – Sydney

The Art Gallery of New South Wales sits on the Domain overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay, on Gadigal land — that classical sandstone front most Sydneysiders mean when they say “the Gallery.” Public art exhibition in Sydney grew from the Academy of Art in the 1870s and a Fine Arts presence tied to the 1879 Garden Palace International Exhibition; after the Palace burned in 1882, pressure mounted for a permanent, fireproof gallery. Parliament confirmed the south-east Domain site in 1884.

Architect John Horbury Hunt first put up a utilitarian brick gallery with a saw-tooth roof (opened December 1885) — the press called it the “art barn,” and it lingered as a rear range for decades. Trustees knocked back Hunt’s later ornate schemes in favour of Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon’s classical “temple to art.” Vernon’s sandstone façade and courts rose in stages from 1896; the first Vernon galleries opened 24 May 1897, with the portico and southern suites continuing through the 1900s (old wing substantially complete by about 1909). Later wings — including modern extensions and the recent Sydney Modern project — grew behind and beside that landmark front.

This photograph set records the Domain building and collections displays.