Open 21 May 2011
The Art Gallery of New South Wales unveils a new floor for contemporary art,
featuring the John Kaldor Family Gallery. With the inclusion of the Kaldor
Collection, the Gallery now holds Australia’s most comprehensive
representation of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present day.
In 2008 John Kaldor and his family announced their intention to give the John
Kaldor Family Collection to the state of NSW. This was the catalyst for the
government to provide funds to the Gallery to build a state-of-the-art offsite
storage facility to allow space within the Gallery to display the collection.
The Kaldor Family gift, valued in excess of $35 million, is the largest single
art donation to an Australian public gallery and includes over 200 works of
art.
This extraordinary gift, together with funds generously donated by
the Belgiorno-Nettis family, enabled the re-development of the Gallery’s
old storage area and existing display space to create an entire new floor of
3300 square metres of exhibition space. The floor comprises the John Kaldor
Family Gallery, a suite of contemporary and modern galleries, a dedicated
photography gallery and a study room for the Gallery’s works on paper
collection.
There are a number of commissioned and newly installed, site-specific works of
art, including five vast drawings by Sol LeWitt, a major wall work by Richard
Long and a new installation by Ugo Rondinone on the large stairwell that
descends into the John Kaldor Family Gallery.
Open Weekend
Saturday 21 & Sunday 22 May 2011
The Gallery will hold an open weekend to celebrate the launch of the new
contemporary galleries. Events include keynote talks by leading international
and Australian artists, floor talks by Edmund Capon and John Kaldor, and an
extensive performance and film program.
Full media
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