National Gallery of Australia

For the second time this year I found myself at the National Gallery. The first time was having lunch with Dad, Anousha and her friend Jade in January.

Having packed up the Library in preparation for the move on Monday, we were asked to leave the office by 2pm. As this is the day that JSR comes home early, I took this as a sign that I could have some elusive "me" time, and check out the Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre. I arrived at the Gallery just a little past 2pm and could find no underground parking, so went to the open air parking and put in a plea to the parking fairy, after about five minutes of circling there was my park and I dived in.

If you check out the Egyptians link it will give you a good idea of what I saw. I enjoyed it, even if it was a little macabre - very focused on death, afterlife and the journey between the two. The display is mostly of artifacts, I wondered how much insurance they had to have to protect the material. Most of the display is from the stores and backrooms of the Louvre, and not usually seen, so we are doubly privileged. Of course there were at least two school groups going round, so I went a little quickly and then checked out the rest of the Gallery, which I have not seen for a long time. I revisited Blue Poles, one of my favourites, I remember the controversy over the cost and the fact that it was bought nine years before the NGA would even open. I went through Sydney Nolan's Kelly series (this link is to Pictures Australia rather than the NGA). I read his comments about each of his pictures. He never intended to create a series, it just evolved, I liked the idea of that - bit like writing books and suddenly realising that you have a seven part novel instead of one book. The other exhibition I checked out was Creeping through the jungle in the children's gallery, it finishes with a roar. It might keep MLR entertained for 10 minutes and AJR for a nanosecond.