Landmarks is a significant exhibition comprising works from some of the world’s most influential artists including Christo, Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy, as they explore and observe their relationship with the environment. The exhibition opens at the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery on January 21.
Presented by the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery and Art Gallery of NSW, Landmarks features works by some of the most prominent 20th and 21st century artists drawn from the John Kaldor Family and Australian art collections at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Showcasing works that are inextricably linked with landscape and the environment, Landmarks seeks to challenge the perception of the natural world while resonating with the wild, rugged and emotive terrain of the Blue Mountains.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with the Art Gallery of New South Wales in presenting this truly remarkable exhibition,” said Paul Brinkman, director of the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.
“Landmarks represents a unique and important exhibition for the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery which, now celebrating its five-year anniversary, is becoming recognised as a pre-eminent regional arts venue.
“It is also a great example of how regional galleries can collaborate with major art institutions and their collections to innovatively reinterpret works and present them in a new context,” he said.
Art Gallery of NSW director Dr Michael Brand said: “The realisation of the Landmarks exhibition has been a wonderful collaboration between the Art Gallery of NSW and the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, but also with John Kaldor whose family collection came to the gallery in 2011 and whose philanthropic generosity and generosity of spirit is greatly appreciated, and Anthony Bond, our former colleague and maestro of curatorial direction.”
The exhibition includes works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Long, Simryn Gill, Imants Tillers, Andreas Gursky and Perejaume. In addition to those from the John Kaldor Family collection, a new work by internationally renowned Blue Mountains’ artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro will feature. Cordeiro and Healy will create a large scale interactive installation that references a “lagerphone” – visually representing issues of human engagement with the land from Indigenous history to early European settlement.
Landmarks explores the shifting perception of landscape that occurred in the late 20th century and saw artworks move from that of framing an image to a more immersive experience, where deeper observations and ideas about relationship with the land were investigated.
“This exhibition highlights the way in which conceptual artists have sought to give us a sense of what it is like being in the landscape without necessarily representing its visual appearance,” curator Anthony Bond said.
“Each artist brings to their work their own interpretation and relationship with the natural world and through Landmarks we see the convergence of these varied and diverse insights.”
Landmarks is on at Katoomba until March 19. It will then tour to Tamworth Regional Gallery and Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) throughout 2017.
