Art Gallery of NSW

Since we had come to Sydney for an art + food tour, we had to visit the Art Gallery Of NSW first. We came here on a Sunday, so it was quite busy (which is a good thing to see!). I didn’t know what to expect, since a lot of my favourites were in storage (always the way!). But I was very impressed with the amount of modern Australian art on display — quite a bit of Grace Cossington Smith, Margaret Preston, Grace Crowley, etc. Great to see these female artists getting the recognition they deserve!
We came here when the 20^th Biennale Of Sydney was on, which was fantastic. One of the highlights was the amazing Fiona Hall installation, with body parts knitted out of video tapes. The video tapes themselves were all movies glorifying war … beautiful and disturbing at the same time.
There is a certain energy about this gallery — I can imagine there are new exhibitions quite often that generate a certain excitement. I was also pleased to see Ben Quilty’s ‘Fairy Bower Rorschach’ from 2012 … though being a Sydney boy, I think there should have been more of Quilty’s work on display!

Wonderful free permanent exhibition, with some european masters, free wifi and free guided tours. Embeded in a park environment.

Have been to several exhibits at this museum. Most recently went for The Greats. It was a treat to get to see these works in Australia. The only draw back is that the lighting on several of the paintings left a glare and made it hard to admire. As usual the crowds of people that have no idea how to act in museum somewhat detract from the overall ambiance but never enough to keep me away. Love that the local collection is all free to view and features many Australian artists. Worth a visit if you enjoy art museums.

Well, this seems to be the place where it all happens in the world of Australian Art. I note that Justine as made a comment that the older one gets, the more appreciative one becomes of Art Gallery space, and I have to say that I couldn’t agree more. This is the second time that I have visited the Art Gallery, and that second time I realised that I really need to give myself a lot more time to truly appreciate this space. The European space is by far and away my favourite area, though I also note that there is a decent amount of Australian art here as well. In fact this is where the major Australian art competitions are held, and the candidates place their works for display. When I was last here they had the Archibald Prize (and another that I can’t remember), though since you had to pay to enter the exhibit, I decided to stick with the European section (which is more than enough to keep me happy). I’ve really got to spend more time here the next time I go to Sydney.

Originally when I first visited the AGNSW, I wasn’t a big fan, due to the atmosphere inside the buildings. I’m still not a fan of the hollow concrete block ceiling. However, it’s grown on me over the years.
I’ve attended many of the paid and free exhibits, and recently have enjoyed coming here to re-​wander through the free permanent collections of 19^th and 20^th century art. It’s actually a nice spot to relax during the afternoon, in one of the quieter galleries where lounges are tucked away in different locations, it’s just a pity it’s not that close to most of the city.

Lovely venue. Have come here multiple times over the last couple of decades and love the ever changing nature of events and art pieces.
Highly recommended for both their free stuff and the paid venue, plus they have a nice couple of eating places onsite as well.

Okay, museum. Good to pass time if your in the area, it’s free so why not. They didn’t have anything I was super interested in. Not a whole lot of exhibitions. And it seemed quite empty. But maybe that’s just me comparing it to amazing museums in New York, Paris, London, and Milan.
If they have a cool exhibition I would go back.

Now in the very expensive city called Sydney, it’s quite welcome to discover something that’s free. Yep, free. The only asterisk is that their special exhibits are not free.
Their main collection is in a perfectly pleasant space. It’s respectable, but definitely not in the same league as any museum in a European capital, NYC, etc. They’ve got a mix of standard European fare (with a few good pieces) and a nice collection of local work.
When I was there, they had a fantastic special exhibit on Pop Art, although it was pretty far from free (more like $ 20/​person). Even though it was in a basement space, I loved seeing the Pop Art artists I knew and liked already (Warhol, Liechtenstein, etc.) combined with a number of Australian artists I’d never heard of… some of whom had fascinating works.
It’s not out of the way if you’re doing the standard tourist stroll through the Botanical Garden and by the Opera House, and as in our case, it was definitely a very good rainy day option. Definitely check what’s on for the special exhibit, as I don’t know that I would make a very big detour for their permanent collection.

This place is located near one of my favourite places in Sydney (Mrs Macquarie’s Chair), and also one of the most pleasant surprises in this awesome city. I had some low expectations for museums in a city like Sydney, but I decided to walk inside on a whim.
The art collections here are impressive and the paintings are beautiful, especially the Australian paintings. They also have a pretty good collection of nice European paintings, that gave me the feeling that I was not in an art gallery in Australia, but somewhere in a sophisticated old city. The modern art inside and the gallery itself also gave this nice vibe that I felt like I was in the 21^st century.
Probably the best thing about this place is that the admission is free, so no need to buy any tickets to go inside the main exhibition. It’s at a great location near the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Overall, if you are looking for a place during the day to keep yourself preoccupied and if the weather is actually not that great in Sydney, then this place is an excellent choice.

We traveled into the City as a family to look at a bit of the art gallery on the last day of Archibald Prize. We bought two tickets for our two teenagers to peruse through together as both enjoy art, one of them being a budding artist herself.
I can’t remember having gone there before so maybe I did as a child. The place is open and has a clean appearance. The art work is quality stuff but don’t point your walking stick if you have one or you’ll receive a warning. Like I did. hahaha
Easy to get to from Hyde Park. Walk it or bus it. You can buy something to eat there and shove your kids in a little play area so they can run off their pent up energy from being dragged around to look around. Let’s face it, little kids are only into their own finger paintings. heheheh
Nice free activity for the family.

I had an excellent time looking at the art during a rainy Sydney afternoon. The majority of art on display was free to view. I especially liked the contemporary art sections.

Solid, the Head of a Pheasant by Van Gogh was my favorite. Also loved one of the picassos and the San Marco piazzo who I forget who painted.

Words cannot describe the beauty of this place! This place holds more traditional art but every room was a treat! The contemporary art side was really cool. I cannot say enough about this Art Gallery! Exquisite art and sculptures! I could almost live in a place like that! If you come to Sydney this should be on the must see list!

Love the AGNSW and some of the current pairings: Quilty’s Margaret Olley next to Dobell’s for example.
Kaldor’s ‘this is so contemporary’ dance piece I did not like. At all.
That said, as much as I didn’t like it, I wasn’t one of the poor staffmembers hearing the refrain again, again and again.

So awesome! First time I came I went into the European art section and I thought that was it. I spent like over an hour in there and thought that was the whole gallery — nope that was about 10% of it! It has such a great variety and the building is beautiful.
And to bring them over the top, they have free tours at set times. The people that lead the tours are so articulate, knowledgeable, concise and enthusiastic. I HIGHLY recommend this, and be engaged — they respond well to it.

You must visit here. I’ve been to various museums around the world this year, but the art here impacted me the most. And it was free!
This museum has a certain hip factor which is balanced w/​great collections from Australia and Buddhist and Asian art.
Some of the placards were lacking in the lower level (modern?), which made one room of many a tad too mysterious, but were generally informative. I also adored the (much smaller) contemporary museum near the circular quay station.
The lowest floor was my favorite. This place has one of the best compilations.

Amazing museum and it is free!
This museum contains a ton of different types of galleries. When I visited, there was Asian art, Australian artwork, Aboriginal, Contemporary, and a special exhibit.
There are four different floors. The lowest consists of the Contemporary arts exhibit, which was fascinating. I’m not the biggest Contemporary arts fan (and lack the background to completely understand it), but I enjoyed this exhibit more than the actual Contemporary Arts Museum in Sydney.
I really enjoyed seeing the artwork done by Australian artists. It really exuded Australian pride and was different than what is exhibited in other museums.
The special exhibit had a lot of video art, which was interesting to see.
There is a café and a restaurant in the building. We ate at the café, which got really full at 1 p.m. (almost didn’t find a seat). I got the Penne with Spinach and Semi dried tomatoes and it was really good. It was a really big portion size. I called it American sized.
Also, take advantage of the free bag/​coat check. I saw tons of people carrying their umbrellas, but why bother when you can check it.
This is a must see if you are in Sydney.

My husband & I were walking around the Botanical Gardens and noticed that we were close to the Art Gallery, and that it was opening soon. So, we decided to check it out. We got there a few minutes before it opened and hung outside with the growing crowd.
Once it opened, everyone calmly entered and spread out. We were excited that it was free admission and I was impressed with how large and beautiful a space it is.
We immediately went downstairs and made our way up. The contemporary art was a bit too avant-​garde for my taste (lots of «dead body» sculptures), but I LOVED the Aborigine works on the main floor.
This was also one of the few places in all of Sydney that has free wi-​fi! That was a huge plus.

Yep, it’s got lots of art, and most of it is free to look at.
It’s a pretty grand building. Everything is appropriately housed: the classical art is in the old worn wood halls, and the modern art is in the industrial contemporary rooms. Whether you like what they have on display (some you will, some you won’t) is entirely a matter of taste. This is, after all, art.
One weekend afternoon when I was here (a Sunday, I think) there was a concert of classical pieces being put on by young people in the older class art section. It felt very cultured.

An excellent museum, and not what I was expecting at all. The permanent collection is free! as all museums should be.
There’s a ton of world class art here, and very little of it from NSW or even from Australia. Lots of European masters, Reubens, Rodin, Picasso, Pissaro, Monet, Van Gogh to name a few. Some incredible sculptures, lots of classical portraits of dead rich people, several giant canvases of battle scenes. On the lower levels there is an extensive modern art collection, and even further down there is a decent aboriginal art exhibit.
There’s also an excellent section on Buddhist and Hindu sculpture from around Asia, from Pakistan to the Phillipines. Also lots of pottery from ancient China, and samurai swords from Japan, in a pretty good collection of Chinese and Japanese art. There are some Papuan masks as well, although not that many.
When I was there, there was an incredible Picasso exhibit — all the best works from the National Picasso Museum in Paris, which are on loan to the AGNSW while the Picasso museum is being renovated. They charge $ 25 for the Picasso exhibit and you have to get a ticket for a specific time. I used my Canadian student card to get in for $ 18, and it wasn’t very busy on a Wednesday evening, so I was able to get in right away.
*** There be ranting here ***
The only thing that’s bad about the AGNSW are the people. Apparently there are these things called «mobile phones» in Australia and you can use them to call anyone in the world, anywhere you may be, at any time. And what better place to make these calls than in an art gallery? One guy was using his $ 25 Picasso ticket to yak to his girlfriend about what they were going to have for dinner.
Also, a lot of people snapping A LOT of photos, and many guards shouting at people not to use flash. Look, it’s ON DISPLAY. You don’t need to take a picture of it. The level of recursion here makes my brain want to explode. Someone ought to take some pictures of the people taking pictures of the pictures.
I also came across people TOUCHING THE 200-​YEAR-​OLD SCULPTURES. I was stunned, and by the time I had worked up enough indignation to yell at them, they were gone. And anyways I don’t work at the museum, so who am I to yell at them except someone who knows that YOU DON’T TOUCH 200-​YEAR OLD SCULPTURES. Argh.
On the cafeteria level there was a very drunk, very shabbily dressed guy in his late 30s haranguing a group of 20-​something girls who didn’t speak English very well and had no idea what he was going on about. Some random guy was trying to escort him away while museum guards, who very reasonably are not trained to handle drunk art gallery patrons, looked on. I hope that kind of thing doesn’t happen often.
****
Anyways, great museum, full of excellent art and a few entertaining/​frustratingly insane museum-​goers. Worth spending an afternoon there.