Filmmaker and photographer Tracey Moffatt is one of Australia's most nationally and internationally successful artists, having held around 100 solo exhibitions of her work in Europe, the United States and Australia.

Her films Nightcries – A Rural Tragedy (1989) and BeDevil (1993) have screened at the Cannes Film Festival and other prominent festivals around the world. In 2017 Moffatt was selected to take part in the Venice Biennale with her exhibition MY HORIZON.

In this clip from the 1988 documentary Boomalli: Five Koori Artists, Moffatt talks about art and politics. We see some of her photographic work and her short experimental film Nice Coloured Girls (Tracey Moffatt, Australia, 1987). Moffatt talks about growing up as 'the only Aboriginal kid in the school photograph' in the suburbs of Brisbane. She says:

In the different mediums I work in, photography and film, I'm basically concerned with contemporary Aboriginal society. Be it people living in a traditional way or living in the cities and ... I'm wanting to depart from a documentary or ethnographic mode. I just feel that nowadays people tune out when they think 'here we go again, another predicable documentary about Aborigines. 

Moffatt shows photographs from her recent collaboration with women practising the art of basket weaving in Arnhem Land. She says the future for herself and other Aboriginal artists is 'brilliant, especially for those who don't expect the world to come to them, simply because they're Aboriginal and it's owed to them'. 

Moffatt defends her right to mix art and politics and talks about her opposition to flying the Aboriginal flag on First Fleet reenactment ships. Moffatt was in Portsmouth, England with an Aboriginal arts festival at the time the ships were setting forth to sail to Australia. We see news footage of her talking to media while she is being arrested by English police.

Excerpt from Boomalli: Five Koori Artists, 1988 – Film Australia Collection.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Sidney Nolan speaks in detail about the paintings from his famous Ned Kelly series (1946–1947) on show at his Retrospective at The Royal Dublin Society, Dublin in 1973. He provides background stories to the paintings with wit, humour and humility describing the scene of one painting 'like a Charlie Chaplin film'. 

Talking about the painting Policeman in a Wombat Hole (1946) he says that he 'tried to make it quite comical, but it’s really not all that funny in a way'. He goes on to define the deathly loneliness of the Australian bush depicted, 'you’ve got a rather sinister bird magpie perched up there, and this crops up in a lot of the paintings, it crops up in Mrs Fraser paintings, it crops up in the Burke and Wills paintings, um, and you often get the feeling that if you were to die in Australia, I have it myself this feeling, and I have a certain amount of sympathy for oneself dying in this way, but you feel if you were out in the bush and died, that your last, the last thing you would hear would be some magpie or crow, probably a crow, just telling you, y’know, you had ten minutes to go, two minutes to go.'

Notes by Tara Marynowsky

A profile of the Australian artist Margaret Olley AC (1923–2011) introduced by journalist Jana Wendt on the occasion of her 83rd birthday in 2006. Catherine Hunter produced the segment.

One speaker at the opening of her exhibition at the Lismore Regional Gallery refers to Olley's 'remarkable life of inspired persistence'.

Other interview subjects in this piece include Olley herself, Edmund Capon AM OBE (1940–2019), Olley's biographer Meg Stewart and Clive James AO CBE (1939–2019).

This excerpt from Sunday was broadcast on 16 July 2006. The program ran from 1981 to 2008 on the Nine Network.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Emily Kame Kngwarreye (approximately 1910–1996) was an Anmatyerre artist and elder. She is one of Australia's most important contemporary artists.

She began painting when she was 79 years old having already worked with sand, ceremonial body painting (Awelye), song, ceremony and batik designs on silk. Over a period of eight years she went on to create more than 3,000 individual paintings. In 2007, Kngwarreye's Earth's Creation became the first work by a female Australian artist and the first Aboriginal artwork to be sold for more than one million dollars.

Although she spent her adult life in Utopia in the Northern Territory, her clan Country was Alhalkere. Her Dreaming and the Law from this Country was the source of her creative work and her knowledge. Whenever she was asked to explain her paintings she would describe her work as 'whole lot', regardless of the style:

Awelye (my Dreaming), Arlatyeye (pencil yam), Arkerrthe (mountain devil lizard), Ntange (grass seed), Tingu (Dreamtime pup), Ankerre (emu), Intekwe (favourite food of emus, a small plant), Atnwerle (green bean), and Kame (yam seed). That’s what I paint, whole lot.

In this clip from the documentary Art + Soul: Dreams and Nightmares, Kngwarreye paints the roots of the kam, or pencil yam. She is named after 'Kam', saying 'I am kam now'. Art curator Hetti Perkins says her batik work shows all the hallmarks of her later work with paint, showing a 'gestural, spontaneous and even accidental freedom of expression'.

Linguist Jenny Green, who knew and worked with Kngwarreye, says that she believed that the painting had helped protect her country from threats such as uranium mining. Green says Kngwarreye 'felt that by exercising this right to make images related to that place, perhaps in the same way as you would sing the songs or do the ceremonies, that was being a good citizen in her country terms – being a good custodian. She thought that one of the reasons that her work was so popular was because it was from that country. She thought that was one of the keys to the extraordinary success that she had.'

Notes by Beth Taylor

The visual diary of John Olsen (1928–2023), preserved in the National Library of Australia, documents his progress on the biggest commission of his career, the Sydney Opera House mural Salute to Five Bells (1973).

Spanning 10 years from 1972, Olsen’s diary follows the evolution of his famous mural, which was inspired by Kenneth Slessor’s epic poem Five Bells (1939), a tribute to a friend who drowned in Sydney Harbour. Slessor’s own 1937 notebook sits alongside Olsen’s diary, detailing the gradual process of constructing an epic poem.

Olsen guides Betty Churcher through the creation of his mural, and the marine world of Sydney Harbour, to reveal another treasure – a hidden corner of the painting rarely seen by the public.

This is an episode of the series Hidden Treasures – Inside the National Library of Australia (2008). In Hidden Treasures, Betty Churcher presents an insider’s guide to some of the little known and rarely displayed art treasures held by the National Library.

A Film Australia National Interest Program in association with Early Works. Produced in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. With special thanks to the National Library of Australia.

The first Australian public viewing of Blue Poles (Number 11, 1952) by American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), 1974. The painting was purchased by director of National Gallery of Australia (NGA) James Mollison for $1.3 million in 1973 with approval from Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Mollison is seen here with director of AGNSW Peter Laverty. The painting was a controversial purchase of the time and still a topic of debate today. This is an excerpt from The Australian Movie Magazine No. 7415: Blue Poles.

Rosalie Gascoigne (1917–1999) was interviewed by Robin Hughes for the Australian Biography series when she was 82 years old. Originally from New Zealand, Gascoigne spent much of her adult like in the Canberra/Monaro region. In this interview excerpt she describes her love for the Australian landscape and her process of discovering objects and materials. She fossicks for 'weathered, battered old things' to use in her artistic practice, finding the countryside 'confirming and exciting'. 'Anything could happen you see. It's marvellous. It's a wonderful freedom.' She explains that she's on the look out for vitality - the source of life - in the things she finds. She talks about how past experiences get woven into each work - 'It's not about how it looks it's about how you feel about it'. 

Beginning her artistic career when she was in her fifties, Gascoigne is best known for her poetic assemblages of mostly found objects. She was the first woman to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1982.

Gascoigne speaks about the pursuit of being an artist and how to avoid the trappings of vanity and egotism. Nature constantly reminds her of her place - 'You see things out in the countryside that are better than anything you can produce.'

Elsewhere in the interview Gascoigne says 'I never considered myself an artist. I did what I did because I had to do it. Because I wanted to do it because I wanted something to look at.'

Excerpt from Australian Biography: Rosalie Gascoigne, 1999 - Film Australia Collection © National Film and Sound Archive. Buy a copy at the NFSA shop.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Australian comedian Barry Humphries recites an ode to painter Arthur Boyd at the opening of a Boyd retrospective exhibition. Humphries mentions Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts, Hans Heysen, Elioth Gruner, Rupert Bunny, George Lambert, Norman Lindsay, Lloyd Rees, William Dobell, Russell Drysdale and Lawrence Daws in his 'affectionate doggeral by BH'. It is called 'A new ode to Arthur Boyd'. 
 

In 1964 the prize money for the Archibald Prize for portraiture painting was £900, but the coveted prize was dramatically not awarded that year. It was the 44th year of the prize and the first time the finalists failed to impress the judge trustees. In this newsreel, paintings by Judy Cassab and Frank Conner are singled out as well as Joshua Smith’s painting of laconic Australian actor Chips Rafferty.

Smith’s portrait presents Chips as an Aussie bushman – an archetype he had previously embodied in his roles in films such as Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940) and The Overlanders (1946). Chips wears an Akubra hat, leather vest, chequered shirt and neck scarf, a stock whip is thrown over his shoulder and a cigarette burns in his hand.

Notes by Tara Marynowsky

Indigenous paintings are maps of the artists’ country. They trace the land’s topography, but also contain personal history, mythology and Dreaming tracks. Aboriginal paintings feature maps of a specific area, mythology, personal history and storytelling. Summary by Damien Parer.

Olive Cotton is a key figure in the development of contemporary Australian photography. Olive exhibited internationally in the 1930s and ran the Sydney studio of long-time collaborator Max Dupain during the war years.  The pair, who were briefly married, are seen in this 1990s clip from Light Years viewing and discussing Cotton's cityscapes, still lives and her portrait of a young Dupain. 

We see Cotton in her home at Spring Forest and strolling the city streets with her Rollieflex camera, looking for subjects.

She quotes photographic pioneer Léonard Misonne who maintained 'light is everything’.

You can buy a copy of the film from Ronin Films.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Artist William Dobell is seen here in the studio with fellow artist Margaret Olley and his 1948 Archibald winning portrait painting of her. Dobell explains his reason for painting Olley in Edwardian costume and her interest and connection to Edwardian ideals: at the time she 'liked to dress that way at parties and I thought that was part of her character'. 

Dobell discusses his portrait studies of poet and feminist Dame Mary Gilmore and his preference for painting ordinary Australians rather than commissioned portraits. 

This is an excerpt from Painting People, 1965, Film Australia Collection © NFSA. Buy a copy at the NFSA shop.

The NFSA YouTube Channel has the whole film in full. 

Notes by Beth Taylor

Martin Sharps’ first solo art exhibition titled 'Art for Mart’s Sake' at Clune Galleries, 59 Macleay Street, Potts Point, Sydney in 1965. The sell-out show features pop art paintings, photo-montage, collage and sculptures. Sharp, also a founding contributor to OZ magazine, was 23 years old at the time and the exhibition helped to fund his travels to London in 1966. Sharp later founded Yellow House at the same venue in 1970 after spending several years in London. The newsreel's narrator seems bemused by Sharp's work cheerfully exclaiming 'Young Martin Sharp is a man with something to say. But what?!'.

Notes by Tara Marynowsky

In this excerpt from Art + Soul Episode 3: Bitter and Sweet, Mervyn Bishop talks about his most famous photograph – Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically pouring sand into the hand of traditional landowner Vincent Lingiari in 1975.

The episode is narrated by Hetti Perkins and was directed by Warwick Thornton.

Mervyn Bishop: The Exhibition was on display at the NFSA in Canberra from 5 March to 4 October 2021.

Sculptor Norma Redpath (1928–2013) talks about the inspiration she derives from Australia's 'vast spaces and unique forms'. We see her creating works including the fountain for the Commonwealth Treasury in Canberra, which was modelled and cast at her studio in Milan, Italy. Redpath worked primarily with bronze and wood. The NFSA's YouTube Channel has the whole film Sculpture Australia 69 in full.

Other artists featured include: George Baldessin, Steven Walker, Lyndon Dadswell, Matcham Skipper, David Tolley, Margel Hinder, Colin Lanceley, Ron Robertson-Swan, Michael Kitching, Ken Reinhard, Tim Berryman, Asher Bilu, Robert Klippel, Clement Meadmore and Vincent Jomantis.

Excerpt from Sculpture Australia 69, 1969 - Film Australia Collection © National Film and Sound Archive. 

Notes by Beth Taylor

Sir Sidney Nolan, Australian painter and printmaker, interviewed by Binny Lum in Paris, France in 1964.

The photograph on the cover:

Sidney Nolan 1964

by Axel Poignant (1906-1986) 

Gelatin silver photograph

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

Purchased 2003.

Image courtesy Mrs Roslyn Poignant.

This clip features home movie footage taken by Gerty Anschel (c.1953-1954) with audio commentary by film director Philippe Mora. Part 1 of 3 features scenes of Melbourne, The Mirka Café and Joy Hester and Gray Smith’s property. Philippe reflects on his childhood and identifies key figures of the Melbourne art scene.

SUMMARY: Black-and-white footage begins with Mirka Mora and Klaus Anschel standing on the front steps at Gerty and Klaus Anschel's home. Children play in the front yard including Danny Anschel and Philippe Mora (with hammer). Mirka, children and friends are seen at the fence. Colour footage begins with a shot of a Fintonia street sign, a head shot of Gerty Anschel and a shot of Klaus Anschel asleep. Georges and Mirka Mora (Miriam Anschel seen at Mirka’s side) are playing the card game canasta.

There is a shot of the Mora family home - Grosvenor Chambers, 9 Collins Street (Melbourne) and footage of the Mirka Café on Exhibition Street (Melbourne). John Perceval is seen at the window followed by a shot of Gerty Anschel in the window reflection.

We see footage of Joy Hester and Gray Smith’s property, with Mirka Mora and Joy Hester in the garden and carrying picnic food and a picnic scene with Gray Smith, children and friends: Mirka Mora with Philippe Mora and Miriam Anschel, baby William Mora, Georges Mora sitting in a deck chair, Joy Hester breast feeding and Charles Blackman. The end shot is of Philippe Mora eating a baguette.

You can read more about these home movies in our blog.

Australian artist Brett Whiteley says that he was born with a 'powerful gift’. Whiteley points out that many 'gifted people shipwreck’. He talks of his addiction to drugs and says it is a way of testing his gift as a painter. Summary by Damien Parer.

Banduk Marika walks amongst the Sydney population. She speaks about the use of Dreaming symbols and the restriction that occurs as a result of each family member being responsible for different symbols and stories. Summary by Romaine Moreton.

British art historian Sir Kenneth Clark presents a speech in honour of Sidney Nolan at his Retrospective exhibition opening at the Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, 1973. Clark announces Nolan as 'a great painter … he started life with a desire to be a poet, to be the Australian Rimbaud'. 

The song 'Click Go the Shears' is overlaid with footage of Sidney Nolan and gallery workers unpacking and installing his show of 4230 pictures. Included is the install of Nolan’s ambitious large-scale mural Snake (1970–1972), a work that consists of 1620 individual artworks and measures at approximately 46 metres long.

The use of 'Click Go the Shears' adds a recognisable colonial Australian flavour to the story for an Irish audience. The song is a popular example of a traditional Australian bush ballad and tells the story of sheep shearing in the late 1800s. At the end of the clip a forklift has been edited using jump cuts in time with the 'click, click, click' of the lyrics. The pairing of song and subject matter is appropriate to the overall film given that Nolan's works tell stories from the Australian bush, most notably that of the iconic bushranger Ned Kelly.

Notes by Tara Marynowsky

This story from NITV News in 2016 shows Northern Territory artist Harold Thomas, the designer of the Aboriginal flag, receiving the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award for his work 'Tribal Abduction'.

Thomas explains that the work represents the removal of children from country and that it reflects his own experience and that of his family.

Guest writer Cheree Toka, Kamilaroi yinarr (woman), entrepreneur and activist reflects on the story: 'While the painting was incredibly well received, this recognition was also tinged with sadness for our people. That we should win a prize for a portrait of our lives that was laced with sadness and cruelty is a raw reminder of why we still feel so strongly about our past.'

Other artists featured include Betty Kuntiwa Pumani and Ishmael Marika. The bulletin was broadcast live on 5 August 2016 from Darwin Museum and Art Gallery for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

The reporter is Ella Archibald-Binge. Anchorperson is Natalie Ahmat.

Notes by Beth Taylor

Brett Whiteley, Australian avant-garde artist, is interviewed by Binny Lum in London, England in 1964.

Whiteley talks about his upcoming solo exhibition at Marlborough Galleries and the figurative works he's been doing. He shares his thoughts about art schools: 'I was subjected to this absolutely antiquated, old-fashioned idea of what art can be. The only way that a young painter can organise himself and find himself is to get himself into a studio and just shut the door and quietly work out as best he can what gestures and marks he makes on the canvas are different and distinguish him from all the other marks that have been made by other men...'

In spite of all the attractions of Australia, Whiteley says that he lives in London so that he can get an 11 penny bus ride over to the National Gallery to see Piero della Francesca's pictures which he says is 'the greatest work that man has ever produced'.

He says he likes the beaches in Australia but that 'I am just basically more interested in art than I am in aquatic sports'. 

At the end of the interview Binny Lum says that Whiteley is one of our great artists to which Whiteley makes a mocking 'la-la-la' sound in the background. She concludes saying that one day this is probably going to be quite an historic tape.

The cover image for this interview is a frame from Don Featherstone's documentary Difficult Pleasure: A Portrait of Brett Whiteley (1989).

A Sydney pottery factory uses new mechanisation processes and techniques to produce beautiful new works for the market place. The workforce draw on their cultural backgrounds for artistic inspiration.

From the Film Australia Collection. Made by the National Film Board 1959.

Artist Jeffrey Smart observes that he doesn’t like viewing his finished work as 'every picture is a defeat’. At work in his studio he reflects on being inspired rather than daunted by the work and achievements of the 'old masters’ who he suggests he cannot hope to emulate. Summary by Damien Parer.

Jeffrey Smart corresponds with fellow artist Margaret Olley about painting her for the Archibald Prize. As Margaret Olley poses for a photograph which will be the basis for Smart's portrait she asks the film crew whether they have seen the Arthur Boyd exhibition. She says playfully and provocatively 'I think the myth has gone before the man' and takes issue with him being billed as the greatest Australian painter. She says 'I tell you what - if you have to have Kings it'll be Lord Smart who'll be the next one. At least he's painting what's going on today'. We see Smart's study of Olley which he is going to transfer onto a bigger canvas. 

Home movie footage taken by Gerty Anschel (c.1954-1955) with audio commentary by artist and filmmaker Philippe Mora. Part 2 of 3 features the property of Roger de Stoop, artist friends and Arthur Boyd at work on his 1956 Melbourne Olympic statue. Philippe reflects on his childhood identifies key figures of the Melbourne art scene.

Summary of shots: Footage begins with shots of the home and property of Roger de Stoop; artist friends stroll across the property. Guests are seen picnicking in the bush: Alan Wynn, Georges Mora, Laurence Hope, Sally Wynn, Simon Wynn, Mira Mora, Gerty Anchel. Mira Mora is seen preparing food; we see John Perceval, Mary Perceval (now Lady Nolan), Matthew Perceval, Neil Douglas and Hernia Boyd in the garden.

A shot of a Neil Douglas painting. Arthur Boyd’s ceramic sculptures on display at the Herald Outdoor Art Show (Melbourne). Arthur Boyd working on his (commissioned) ceramic sculpture for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in his studio at Murrumbeena. Mirka Mora and Georges Mora assisting Arthur Boyd with ceramic pieces. A shot of Jamie Boyd followed by a large group of artists children (including Philippe Mora and Danny Anschel) making ceramic works in Boyd’s studio. End shots of Arthur Boyd working on site at the Olympic stadium.

You can read more about these home movies in our blog.

Home movie footage taken by Gerty Anschel (c.1954-1955) with audio commentary by filmmaker and artist Philippe Mora. Part 3 of 3 features the Moras, the art gang at a balcony party and late American actor Melvyn Douglas. Philippe reflects on his childhood, parents and identifies key figures of the Melbourne art scene.

Summary: Mirka Mora dancing the can-can. Georges Mora giving Philippe Mora a haircut. Mirka with candle (Gerty seen in window reflection). Mirka, Georges Mora and Klaus Anschel learning ballet from Miriam Anschel. Guests at balcony party: American actor Melvyn Douglas, Charles (?), Mirka Mora outside the balcony bannister, Laurence Hope, Gray Smith, baby William Mora, Georges Mora, Mary Perceval (now Lady Nolan), Mirka Mora, Melvyn Douglas, Arthur Boyd, Joy Hester, Yvonne Boyd, Julius Kane, unknown American friends, David Boyd, Mandy Boyd, John Perceval drawing.

You can read more about these home movies in our blog.

Australian artist Brett Whiteley is drawing in the back of a London taxi, explaining that this is his image of London. He draws his view from the back seat, including the legs of his companion Janice Spencer, seated in the cab next to him. As it is a sunny day, he has arranged for a hose to provide the effect of rain on the windscreen to help produce London’s ‘zen melancholia’. Summary by Damien Parer.

If you were to nominate one painting as Australia’s greatest, what would it be?

Curator Barry Pearce of the Art Gallery of New South Wales explains why Tom Roberts’ Bailed Up would be a contender.

Warren Brown ponders the extraordinary lengths to which Roberts went to complete his famous artwork and how close we once came to losing this national treasure.

Investigating National Treasures with Warren Brown is also available for purchase from the NFSA Online Shop.