Acclaimed Australian modernist artists celebrated.
Following updated guidelines from the Victorian Government, Heide Museum of Modern Art is reopening on 28 November 2020, after its second temporary closure due to COVID-19 restrictions. The museum is implementing the physical distancing, increased hygiene measures, and capacity limits in accordance with State Government guidelines. Heide will reopen all its galleries, including two major exhibitions, Joy Hester: Remember Me and Carolyn Eskdale: Memory Horizon.
Artistic Director Lesley Harding said, “It has been a long wait, but we are delighted to now be able to welcome the public back to Heide’s galleries. And we are thrilled that we have been able to secure extended loans from public collections and many generous private lenders from across the country to present this remarkable exhibition of Joy Hester’s work – one of Australia’s most important modernist artists – in the centenary year of her birth.
The Joy Hester exhibition is accompanied by contemporary artist Carolyn Eskdale’s celebrated intervention in Heide Modern and Archie Barry’s beguiling video work, Fistimuff, in the Kerry Gardner and Andrew Myer Project Gallery. In accordance with the Victorian Chief Health Officer’s guidelines, we’ll be implementing public health and physical distancing measures including timed-entry online ticketing, queue management systems, increased deep cleaning of facilities and hand sanitiser stations to keep our community safe.”
On display until 14 February 2021, Joy Hester: Remember Me celebrates the centenary of the birth of Australian modernist artist Joy Hester (1920–1960) with a major survey of her distinctive oeuvre. The exhibition is the first solo exhibition of Hester’s art in almost twenty years and brings together more than 140 significant works from public and private collections, including seldom-seen impromptu studies that shed light on Hester’s unique style and creative process.
Carolyn Eskdale: Memory Horizon, which received critical acclaim in the short period that it was open in March, is an exhibition of new work by Australian artist Carolyn Eskdale will be presented until 21 February 2021. Featuring a series of room-scaled site-specific sculptures, the exhibition responds to the unique modernist architecture of Heide Modern and animates the former residence as its own cast object. For the first time, previously inaccessible parts of this iconic building have been opened to the public.
Archie Barry: Fistimuff by contemporary artist Archie Barry will be on display in the Kerry Gardner & Andrew Myer Project Gallery until 14 February 2021. Inhabiting a space between filmic artwork, devotional poetry, performance, and music video, Fistimuff is presented as a long-form self-portrait. Barry destabilises commonplace experiences of domesticity and the human body to propose an altogether more open-ended, fluid, and multifaceted understanding of self. As the latest iteration of their cyclical working method, Barry will produce a new performance work for Heide to be shown on the closing weekend of the exhibition.
Continuing in the Albert & Barbara Tucker Gallery until 14 March 2021, Albert Tucker: Marking the Past explores connections between acclaimed Australian modernist artist Albert Tucker’s images of scarred landscapes, wounded soldiers, explorers, and biblical figures.
Heide continues to offer experiences of its collection, exhibitions, and key programs online through the Heide At Home platform.
Exhibition Details:
Joy Hester: Remember Me
28 November 2020 – 14 February 2021
Photo in article: Installation view, Joy Hester: photographed by Christian Capurro
Carolyn Eskdale: Memory Horizon
28 November 2020 – 21 February 2021
Archie Barry: Fistimuff
28 November 2020 – 14 February 2021
Albert Tucker: Marking the Past
28 November 2020 – 14 March 2021
House of Ideas
28 November 2020 – 7 February 2021
Heide Museum of Modern Art
7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen, Victoria 3105
Museum opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 10 am–5 pm. Closed Mondays
Admission fees apply: Members free |Adult $20 |Concession $15 |Children (16 and under) free
For more information visit: www.heide.com.au
About Heide
Set on sixteen acres of parkland with Yarra River frontage, Heide Museum of Modern Art, or Heide as it is affectionately known, is one of Australia’s most important cultural institutions. Once a significant Wurundjeri gathering place, the property was later a dairy farm before becoming known as a hub for Australian modernist art and writing after it was purchased by art patrons John and Sunday Reed in 1934. The Reeds opened their home to the most progressive artists of their era, including Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, John Perceval, Charles Blackman and Danila Vassilieff. Nolan’s famous Ned Kelly series (1946–47) was painted in the dining room of the Heide farmhouse. Continuing this spirited legacy, today Heide works to inspire creative talent, collaborating with emerging and mid-career artists as well as celebrating those who have made major contributions to Australian and international art.
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