He was the world-famous artist partial to a bowler hat. Groundbreaking surrealist painter Rene Magritte created some of the most iconic paintings of the 20th century including Golconda, featuring men dressed in the retro fashion item floating a la Mary Poppins. Rene Magritte’s Golconda (Golconde) , 1953, from The Menil Collection, Houston.
Credit: Paul Hester Now the first retrospective of the Belgian artist ever held in Australia is coming to the Art Gallery of NSW in October. Magritte is one of three summer blockbusters announced as part of the Sydney International Art Series that will bring the works of three internationally renowned artists exclusively to Sydney. Funding for the next instalment of the series, which has run for more than a decade, had been under question until this week.
Its confirmation comes as a Treasury audit has pointed to the Art Gallery’s lack of ticketed shows and shortfalls in forecasted commercial revenues since the fanfare opening of its new $344 million building 18 months ago. Cao Fei’s video work Nova (2019). Credit: Spruth Magers Alongside Magritte, the art gallery will showcase Cao Fei, described as one of the most innovative young Chinese artists to have emerged on the international art scene in the past decade.
Across town, the Museum of Contemporary Art will present the first Australian solo exhibition of Ethiopian American visual abstractionist Julie Mehretu from November 30. MCA director Suzanne Cotter said Mehretu was one of the .
