YEAR 9 NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA CANBERRA EXCURSION
On Thursday, July 25th 2019 the Year 9 Visual Arts class attended the Monet: Impression Sunrise Exhibition at The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. As part of their current unit of work on ‘Remaking a Masterpiece’, this exhibition allowed students to develop their knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the painting techniques of the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet. Through these experiences students were supported to develop critical and creative thinking skills through responding to works of art.
At the gallery, the students were given a guided tour of Monet’s artworks. Featuring Claude Monet’s pioneering painting Impression, Soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise) 1872, from which Impressionism takes its name, this exclusive exhibition brings together works from the impressionist master and other significant artists to examine the founding of an art movement—a defining moment in art history.
Impression, Soleil levant, is significant as it rarely leaves the museum walls in Paris. It is accompanied by some forty Impressionist and related paintings from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, the Tate, and Australian and New Zealand collections.
Alongside Monet’s masterpieces are key paintings by JMW Turner, whose early works inspired Monet, James McNeill Whistler, Alfred Sisley and Eugène Boudin, among others. The works reveal the formative characteristics of Impressionism—depiction of light, purer colour and capturing the momentary view—by a new generation of artists who abandoned their studios for the world outside.
Additionally, students explored Australia's history, and cultural and national identity through our Australian art collection, which includes the largest collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in the world. In particular, they viewed the artworks of Australian Impressionist artists who were influenced by the artmaking practice of Monet.
A favourite with the students was ‘Infinity Room’ by cult Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama. Itis an immersive installation of endless reflection, yellow pumpkins and black dots and has been acquired for the national collection.
Thank you especially to the staff who attended the excursion; Mrs. Fenessy and Mrs. Hume. Thank you to all the parents who organised their children to get to school so early to catch the bus. A final thank you to our students, whose behaviour was exemplary throughout the day.
