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COLLECTION STRENGTHS
Tamworth Regional Gallery is home to the Tamworth Textile Biennial which showcases the best of textile art from across the country every two years. Guest curators devise a theme based exhibition from artists working in the fibre textile medium.
Tamworth Regional Gallery has a long held association with fibre textile art dating back to the 1970’s. For more information on the Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial visit the gallery website at www.tamworthregionalgallery.com.au
Early 20th century Australian and European works are another strength of Tamworth Regional Gallery with two significant bequests establishing the gallery in the early 1900’s.
The John Salvana Collection (1919) contains over one hundred paintings and works on paper. The Burdekin Bequest (1961) is a significant collection of works collected locally by the Burdekin family and includes works by Hans Heysen, Nora Heysen, Will Ashton, Elioth Gruner and Sidney Long.
In 1963 the Lyttleton Taylor family of Tamworth donated the Regan Silver Collection, which contains some of the best known examples of early Australian silver. Significant works by Evan Jones, Christian Ludwig Quist and HS Steiner are included. This collection is on permanent display in the gallery foyer.
The Utopia Collection Bequest
Like many other public galleries in Australia Aboriginal art had no part in the earliest history of the Tamworth Regional Gallery collection. Therefore the Utopia Collection Bequest which was received in 1999 is not only a unique collection of historically and culturally important works from Utopia, but also a significant development for the gallery.
The Utopia Collection Bequest consists of thirteen batik silks, four acrylic paintings on paper, five silk screen prints, six etchings and acquatints, and six wooden carved ceremonial figures.
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From the Collection
Nora Heysen AM
Born 1911, Hahndorf, South Australia
London 1934 -1937
Died 30 December 2003, Sydney Australia.
Camellias 1930
Oil on canvas (detail above) image below.
Bequest of Mr. & Mrs. N. W. Burdekin 1961
“Camellias” is an excellent example of Heysen’s exquisite still life flower paintings. The grey curtain background, plain black vase and earth tones of the table are a somber contrast to the brilliant and lustrous colours of the rich flower forms - each petal meticulously painted. Although painted when Nora Heysen was only 19 years of age, this work displays her mature technical skill and perhaps the influence of Henri Fantin Latour (French realist painter 1836 – 1904), whom she greatly admired.
Her early drawings and paintings established her talent as a draughtsperson. Heysen’s smooth classical manner of painting gave way to a freer use of colour and more painterly approach after she met post-impressionist painter Lucien Pisarro and studied the work of Cézanne. .
1938 Heysen becomes the first female artist to win the Archibald Prize. In 1993 she was awarded the Australia Council’s Award for Achievement in the Arts and in 1998 the Order of Australia (AM) for her service to Art as a painter of portraits and still life subjects.
Image above, image below Lou Farina, Farina Fotographics
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Fibre Textile Collection
Aadje Bruce
Born 1934 Holland
Never, never, never give up 2005
Knitted recycled wool, old shoelaces, gift wrapping, string etc
detail above image below
Fibre Textile Collection
Tamworth Regional Gallery
Aadje Bruce grew up during the Second World War and was 12 when it finished. She said “During the last two winters we had no gas, no electricity and no water. Those winters were harsh, lengthy, freezing and snowy. We scrounged for wood, twigs, little coals from the railway track. We had a tiny stove in which we burnt all that to help us keep warm and to cook. We collected and kept EVERYTHING useful. We unraveled old clothes and jumpers to remodel or reknit them.”
“I have for years and years kept any piece of string, rope, shoelace, ribbon, twine and thread.
“My grandmother was the one who knitted. She knitted strange inventive garments that we loved to wear. When they wore out she would take them apart and remake. For her I have knotted together all the knittable material I have ever found and possessed.”
In the World: head, hand, heart is the theme of the 17th biennial and this work is particularly relevant to the theme, dealing with issues of the intimacy of textiles that have been recycled, re-imbued with meaning. As one of humanity’s oldest expressive media, textiles have a long history and familiarity with the everyday. The power of this work by Bruce lies in its aesthetic composition and juxtaposition of textures and colour, but the story behind the work adds another level of meaning, and experience for the viewer.
This work was recently purchased by the gallery and is currently on tour with the 17th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial. Readers may have viewed this work while on exhibition at Tamworth in September last year.
Aadje Bruce is represented in the Art Gallery of WA, Holmes a Court Collection, Bunbury Art Gallery and private collections. She received a BA and MA from Curtin University in 1990 and 1995 respectively.
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Regan Silverware Collection
Jochim Matthias Wendt
Born 1830 Denmark, arrived in South Australia 1854 – died 1917 Adelaide
Ewer circa 1880
Silver,
Marked on the foot ring:- “J.M.Wendt”, “Adelaide”, a crown, and the lion passant. Jochim Matthias Wendt, Adelaide circa 1880.
Weight 675 grs, height 40 cm.
Donated by Mr and Mrs J.C. Lyttleton Taylor in 1970
TRG 1970.06 ( detail above and image below.
This week’s feature work Ewer, is one of two pieces of silverware crafted by Jochim Matthias Wendt in the gallery’s Regan Silverware Collection.
Jochim Matthias Wendt was the son of Jochim Matthias Wendt Sr and his wife Christina, nee Schlichting. Wendt, was born in the village of Dageling, near Itzehoe in Denmark on 26 June 1830.
Wendt completed his apprenticeship with the village watchmaker, having learning the crafts of watch making and silver smithing. He immigrated to South Australia arriving in Adelaide in 1854. Within a year of his arrival, Wendt had established his business as J.M.Wendt, watchmaker and jeweller in Pirie Street, Adelaide and later became a naturalised British subject.
Wendt’s natural talent, good training and delicate craftsmanship led him to become an internationally recoginsed jeweller, watchmaker and gold / silver smith. In 1864 and 1865 his silverware and jewellery gained first prizes at the Dunedin Exhibition in New Zealand, whilst also receiving awards and medals in Australia.
In 1867 he was appointed Jeweller to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh and gained two gold medals for his work from South Australia. By this time he had moved his business to Rundle Street, Adelaide and had employed 12 silversmiths as well as watch makers, jewellers and shop assistants.
Wendt also submitted a pair of prize-winning epergnes to the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878. Wendt's silverwork included extravagant naturalistic creations, stylish Edwardian domestic designs and pieces which showed restrained Regency taste which is evident in Ewer. His pieces rank amongst the finest produced in Australia during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Wendt married in1869 to Johanna Maria Caroline, late Koeppen, née Ohlmeyer, a widow with four children, to whom he had a son and two daughters. Wendt retired in 1903 when his son Julius and stepson Hermann Koeppen-Wendt became partners in the firm and took control of the business. Wendt died in his in Wakefield Street, Adelaide on 7 September 1917, survived by his wife and children.
Image above, image below by Lou Farina, Farina Fotographics, Tamworth
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