80/80. Eighty Years of SAM. The Collection

80/80. Eighty Years of SAM. The Collection opens this Saturday 6 February.

In 2016, SAM reaches a milestone, celebrating 80 years since the early beginnings of the Collection in 1936. To mark this significant point, the permanent collection has been rehung in the Museum’s downstairs galleries. This enables us to showcase some of the significant works and delightful treasures in SAM’s now sizeable collection, and reveal some of the trends that have emerged over its 80 year history.

This exhibition has been developed around a number of themes, including place and country, identity and representation. These include colonial images from Shepparton’s own past, such as Eugene von Guerard’s The Goulburn River, Near Shepparton (1862), or senior Yorta Yorta artist Don Briggs’ Sacred Battle Site (1990), a pictorial representation of a battle between two local tribes over tribal boundaries. Richard Lewer explores geographic borders, in I Wish I Was As Lucky As You (2013), a painting on a repurposed classroom map of Australia. Explorations of identity similarly range from traditional academy portraiture by John Longstaff, Rupert Bunny and other notable 19th century artists, to more contemporary explorations of gender and identity such as the uncanny photography of Pat Brassington, Fiona Foley’s Self-depiction Native Blood (1994), or Tony Albert’s portraits of Aboriginal youth, We Can Be Heroes (2012).

 Also included are key works from SAM’s significant ceramics collection, which dates from the 1890s to the present day. Works featured include decorated platters and domestic wares by Merric Boyd and others in the Murrumbeena Circle and one of John Perceval’s slightly demonic looking angels. The exhibition also includes vessels by winners of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Awards such as Palm Valley Muster, (2008), by Rona Rubuntja of the Hermannsburg Potters. Winning works from the Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran and Stephen Benwell rethink ceramics as a contemporary art form, enabling it to engage in broader cultural and artistic dialogues.

Image: Bendigo Pottery, Triangular Lidded Cheese Dish, c. 1895, Shepparton Art Museum Collection