Posted: July 19th, 2012 | Author: Michael Courtenay | Filed under: Art News | Tags: Art Gallery of NSW, Bulgari Art Award, Michael Zavros | No Comments »
Today, Dr Michael Brand, director of the Art Gallery of NSW, unveiled Michael Zavros’ new painting The new Round Room. Through the inaugural Bulgari Art Award – Michael Zavros Wins New Bulgari Art Award – the work of one of Australia’s finest artists enters the Gallery’s collection. Dr Brand said “The Bulgari Art Award has enabled the Gallery to acquire an exceptional painting by Michael Zavros for our permanent collection. With Bulgari’s assistance we now have one of Michael’s most ambitious paintings and one that will create great interest.”
The new work is a large-scale, meticulously detailed painting of an interior of the Grand Trianon in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. The painting is mesmerising in its beauty and complexity. It exhibits both Zavros’ extraordinary technical skill and his fascination with the cultural achievements of the European aristocracy and the French ancien régime – the buildings, gardens and interiors created with unlimited wealth and power.
The Round Room is an exquisite 17th-century vestibule to the Grand Apartment occupied by Louis XIV. Zavros has painted a view from inside the room looking out through a window to the famous and flower-filled formal gardens which surround the Trianon :: Read the full article »»»»
Posted: April 11th, 2012 | Author: Michael Courtenay | Filed under: Art News | Tags: Art Gallery of NSW, Bulgari Art Award, Michael Zavros | No Comments »
Brisbane-based artist Michael Zavros has won a new $80,000 art award which will see his work acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Bulgari Art Award comes out of a three-year partnership between the Italian jewellery house and the gallery, with the goal of adding a significant painting by a mid-career Australian artist to the state collection.
Zavros says he is excited to win the prize. ”It’s so good to have acknowledgment and support for something like this when entering that long, steady phase of mid-career in Australia,” he said. Zavros already has work held in numerous public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia and Queensland Art Gallery, but has described the Art Gallery of NSW as probably his “favourite” in Australia.
“For a long time I felt like a Sydney artist that just lived in Brisbane, so to be represented by this collection is probably the most exciting for me,” Zavros said. Read the full article »»»»
Posted: March 25th, 2012 | Author: Michael Courtenay | Filed under: ART, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gallery Opening, Pablo Picasso, Sydney | Tags: Art Gallery of NSW, Pablo Picasso | No Comments »
Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces have drawn more people to the Art Gallery of New South Wales – AGNSW – than ever before, breaking a record set in 1988. More than 339,000 tickets have been sold for the exhibition. The number of visitors is rivalled only by the Gold Of The Pharaohs exhibition which attracted 323,300 people in 1988.
The AGNSW has introduced timed ticketing to avoid queues. Bookings are essential and you must pre-purchase a timed-entry ticket through Ticketek as many times and dates are now sold out.
“With an average daily attendance of 2,700 people, it means Picasso is now well and truly the highest attended exhibition in our history,” gallery acting director Anne Flanagan said in a statement. Picasso: Masterpieces From The Musee National Picasso, Paris, closes today, March 25 2012. The gallery stayed open until midnight last night so that Sydneysiders could farewell the master’s 150 works today. Read the full article »»»»
