Bendigo Art Gallery, Central Victoria, Australia: Introduction
The city flourished with the discovery of gold and became the wonderful multi-cultural community it is today. If you are thinking of visiting please check out the City of Greater Bendigo Multicultural Calender for 2024 to learn more about the amazing diversity of cultures which call this place home.
I love the photo shown above especially as our iconic poppet head stands tall behind the gallery representing the importance of the discovery of gold in the area and how this wealth sowed the seeds for the wealth which flowed through the city in the early days.
The gallery has however undergone several face-lifts since its birth...
You can check out a little more about the Bendigo Art Gallery by clicking here and also following the bookmark link below.
As already mentioned, the gallery houses some remarkable exhibitions and in recent years, Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits and Elvis: Direct from Graceland are examples which thrilled many visitors.
Julie has provided us with some snapshots from her experience of going down memory lane with Elvis in Bendigo.
To reflect on what she saw, Julie relaxed in one of the outdoor areas and as you can see it was autumn and believe me, the best time to visit Bendigo and the Greater Central Victorian area is in autumn.
Recently Rowdy Wylie and his partner Suzanne Benson visited the Bendigo Art Gallery to see the Paris: Impressions of Life 1880 - 1925 and soon after Julie also took the 2 hour trip up the highway to also see the same exhibition. Over the next few days come with us as we explore the wonderful art works that are on show till the end of July 2024.
But before taking in the Parisian works, Rowdy took time to check out some of the paintings in the rest of the gallery.
The painting below The Arab Blacksmith by English artist Thomas Sheard (1866-1921) and purchased by the gallery in 1906 brought back such strong memories of my childhood standing in front of this painting and feeling the heat rising off the sand and drifting into the gallery.
The gallery also owns one of the highly contentious sculptures by Patricia Piccinini...
And to conclude this introductory post on the Bendigo Art Gallery, Rowdy was attracted by the works of Australian artists John Olson (1928-2023) and Clarice Beckett (1887- 1935) representing two extreme contrasts in style - from the modern back to the past.
If you are interested and have time please follow the link below to some videos on the Bendigo Art Gallery.
Tomorrow, Rowdy and I will take you to Paris to learn more about the artistic period from 1880 to 1925 - the age of Impressionism.