European Masters QAGOMA

Being in Brisbane this week for appointments and meetings, we went down on Sunday afternoon to take in the Sunday night after hours viewing of the European Masters exhibition of sixty-five paintings from The Met, New York at QAGOMA.

After the first two sections, pictured above, the is an “intermission” – an engaging, fun space where you can draw costumed models or still-life compositions.

Watch as the paintings from the exhibition come to life. Listen as the musicians strum their instruments within their paintings, their fingers animated on digitised screens while keeping the image intact. (An interesting side benefit for me was noticing that although these musicians came from unrelated works, painted in different periods in divergent styles, they seemed to have something in common; their expressions of wrapt concentration, which is so much part of being engrossed in music making.)

From here, move though to a theatre space with a video about The Met, the genesis of the exhibition, and commentary on some of the works.

The intermission works well, as the final section of the exhibition Revolution and Art for the People, begins with Turner ushering in the modern era. In this space, the gallery design has a more contemporary feel.

I actually didn’t intend to do a post on the design of this exhibition. However after visiting several times and taking these photos on Sunday night, I came to appreciate just how much thought and work has gone into it – definitely worthy of acknowledgment. So the actual works will just have to be the subject of another post.