Reviews on Inside Out Upside Down Gallery Site
European Masters, from The Staedel Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Australia
This exhibition is a welcome relief from the constant bombardment by French based exhibitions in Australia.
Design wise the exhibition is layed out in five areas, the logic of the arrangement is a little lost on me but it no doubt makes sense to someone. Hanging and lighting are excellent, with only a small area being arranged to make the viewing of the painting surfaces difficult, but the surface treatment of the paintings concerned is not a matter of any great revelation so I'll not complain bitterly about this slight failing.
The first area is concerned with pre-Barbizon works by both German speaking and French artists. The major work that sticks in my mind in this area is the portraite of Geothe, more because it reminds me of the his theory of colour which is evident in the none French works in the later galleries.
The second gallery is full of French works, with a large Manet placed at the entry point, perhaps to ensure the viewer is comfortable with well known works being represented. Or perhaps the intention is to enable viewers to compare these relatively well known works with those of the unfamiliar German masters in the later galleries. For myself I would have preferred to see the French and German works interspersed in a more chronological order.
In the third gallery we encounter the less well known German, Belguine painters of the late 19th and early 20th century. Many of these paintings are Symbolist works, a pictorial approach that is little exposed in Australia and when presented without a context that the audience can identify with is a little dull. There are a number of real master paintings (if not works of art) in this gallery, any painter will gain a great deal from seeing these works close up. The painting by Thoma is a wonderful work, a master peice of economy and colour managment, poor old Manet looks rather over laboured when compared to this work.
author: Neil Miley