Australian Sketchbook the Colonial Life and Art of S.T Gill
The National Library is amazing at documenting and exhibiting important features of Australian history. The current exhibition is awesome on both of those. S.T. Gill sketched and painted Australian cities and countryside.during the second half of the 1800s.
The works record society – both the wealthy and and the poor. The artist creates a sympathetic record of the indigenous population. Gill has created a vivid picture of the built form of the goldfield settlements as they were growing. There are vibrant portraits of social life, sporting events and other elements or colonial society.
The guy has a fun sense of human foibles and is able to show the flaws in all human beings. It is not a quick pop in type of exhibition, rather there is lots of details to absorb in both the images and the text on the wall. There are over 200 images that demonstrate Gill’s insight into his society.
There is a prohibition on photography in the room so I have included the website link below on which are embedded several sections and several of the pictures in each section.
http://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/australian-sketchbook
There is a great page for the National Museum of Australia on Gill with lots of pictures.
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/highlights/australian_sketchbook