QAGOMA

About

The Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, colloquially known as QAGOMA, is an art museum in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The state's premier institution for the visual arts consists of the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), and its neighbouring gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), situated 150 m (490 ft) away. Both are located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in South Bank. QAGOMA holds a collection of historical and contemporary Australian art and is a leading institution in the Asia-Pacific with a significant collection built through the exhibition ‘The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’.

The museum was established in 1895 as the Queensland National Art Gallery, and throughout its early history was housed in a series of temporary premises. In 1982, the gallery moved to a permanent location in the Queensland Art Gallery, designed by architect Robin Gibson.

In 2006 the museum's second building, the Gallery of Modern Art, was opened, and was awarded the 2007 RAIA National Award for Public Architecture.

The art museum is colloquially known as QAGOMA. It consists of the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) as its main building and the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), which houses the Australian Cinémathèque. Both buildings are located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in South Bank in Brisbane, and they are 150 m (490 ft) apart.

Visitor numbers for the 2019–20 year were at 1,146,277, a marked decline from recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. QAGOMA is the home of the Australian Centre of Asia Pacific Art and is also the host of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. [ citation needed ]

QAGOMA holds a collection of more than 20,000 artworks from Australia and around the world, with an internationally significant collection of contemporary Asian and Pacific art. It has extensive collections of Asian, Oceanian, Australian and Indigenous Australian art. [ citation needed ]

The gallery's historical Asian collection spans from the Neolithic period through to the 20th century, and highlights the artistic developments influenced by social change, philosophy and technique. The department aims to show the importance of cultural exchange in the region and its continuing role in the development of Asia's decorative traditions, and helps to contextualise the contemporary Asian collection. The works include painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, metalware, lacquerware, photography and furniture.

- Neolithic jars from Japan's Jōmon (3000–2000 BCE) and Yayoi (400–300 BCE) cultures and Kuan (storage jars) and an amphora from China's Neolithic Yangshao culture (3500–3000 BCE)

- Burial ware from the Tang dynasty (618–907), celadon from the Yuan (1279–1368) and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties, blue and white wares from the Kangxi period (1662–1722) and porcelain including imperial works from the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).

- Tsubo (lidless jars) from Japan's Six Ancient Kilns, dating from the Muromachi (1333–1573) and Azuchi–Momoyama (1573–1603) periods

- Ceramics by Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791–1875) Japanese Painting

- Screens from the Hasegawa school (1600–1868)

- Scenes from the Genji Monogatari The Tale of Genji by Tosa Mitsuatsu (1734–64)

- Birds and flowers of the four seasons by Kanō Yasunobu (1613–85) Japanese Prints

- Ukiyo-e works by Hiroshige (1797–1858)

- Works by early masters such as Utamaro (1753–1806)

- Works by late masters such as Toyohara Chikanobu (1838–1912) and Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) Historical South and Southeast Asian Art

- Bronze sculpture of the Orissan and Later Chola period (c.860–1279)

- Miniature paintings of Mughal and Rajput courts (18th–19th centuries)

- Ornamented weaponry from Indonesia and Malaysia QAGOMA's contemporary Asian art collection is among the most extensive of its kind in the world, with over one thousand works dating from the late 1960s to the present, documenting modern historical trends of social change and changing patterns of artistic production. The collection demonstrates the contributions of Asian artists to global contemporary art, and the influence of traditions, philosophies and techniques. The collection includes leading artists from all parts of Asia, as well as the Asian diaspora with strengths in contemporary Chinese art, contemporary Japanese art, contemporary Indian art and a major collection of Southeast Asian art. Some of the artists represented include Xu Bing, Atul Dodiya, Nam June Paik, Yayoi Kusama, Lee Ufan and Ai Weiwei.