OUR COUNTRY Ed Kit

OUR COUNTRY: Australian Federation Landscapes 1900-1914 14 September - 18 November 2001 Galleries 23, 24, 25
EDUCATION PACK produced by Art Gallery Education Services Text: John Neylon

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School group bookings: Tel 82077033 Fax 82077070

School group Our Country entry: $20 per class size group.

Listed (Disadvantaged) & Country Schools free entry

OUR COUNTRY –
learning connections

Background notes for teachers

Things to discuss with your students prior to or after viewing the exhibition

Why the Our Country exhibition?

The Art Gallery of South Australia has a responsibility to research and to help to tell the story of Australian art. Most of these stories (about Australian art) are still being told and every time a new generation comes along a new spin or twist is put on events, styles and artists. In the area of landscape painting this is particularly true because for a variety of reasons many Australians strongly identify with the landscape and expect much of their landscape artists.

Art history models

When people listen to or tell stories about Australian art (or other cultural adventures for that matter) they are consciously or otherwise fitting them into a pattern, like adding chapters to a book or even applying a search pattern based on set selection criteria. It is almost like a default on a software application. The bottom line is that people want to make sense of what often looks like chaos. When art has just come out of the oven and is too hot to handle it is very hard to really understand what it is about. A great deal of so called ‘postmodernist’ art being made at present will eventually be understood as cultural analysts fit together all the pieces of the jigsaw to see how they acted on each other. Right now things look messy or puzzling.

Linear, evolutionary model

For the moment, to help move things along, people favour a linear evolutionary model or narrative. This is based on the idea that art like society is in a constant state of evolutionary growth and that each generation incrementally ‘improves’ on the previous. This was a very useful model to use in the revolutionary decades of the late part of the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth century because artist set out to shed the ‘old’ values and power relationships which shaped art to that point in time. But when one ‘ism’ was followed by yet another ‘ism’ this model started to look like a run away train running on a single track going nowhere.

Its problem was that it was simplistic, exclusive and wrong.

It was simplistic because it relied on being able to ‘pigeon hole’ different types of art. Artist tended to respond to this by regularly using the language of paradox or irrational behaviour to escape this kind of packaging (which was primarily designed for a consumer art market). In the early years of modernism it is possible to fix on particular artists, dates and even individual art works as ‘starting points’ for a fresh set of perspective about the nature and function of art. But to assume that things like ideas ‘start’ with some artist or art movement and then get superseded by something ‘new’ is – simplistic thinking.

It as exclusive because it assumed ‘centres’ such as London, Paris or New York; hot zones where the real action happened, and peripheries or edges where art copied (as best it could) art from the centres. It was exclusive mainly because it was a Western European cultural construct and not capable of recognising that art traditions in any number of non-European cultures had any contemporary relevance or integrity.

It was wrong because it was based on a quasi- scientific assumption about evolution being a process of ‘emergence of the fittest/richest’. It confused technological development (planes trains automobiles, telephones, TVs, computers etc) with superiority and ‘advancement’ of the human species. Geopolitical events of the late twentieth and early twentieth century have shown this assumption to be incorrect and that the richest and most ‘evolved’ nations must still come to terms with ethical or moral behaviour. Put simply, an ‘evolved’ society may have the technologies (and a very sophisticated art market structure) but is its values system up to the demands of what it takes to be human in the twenty first century?

How does this apply to Our Country?

Our Country is an invitation to revisit a period of Australia’s cultural and social history. Taking a retrospective view of history is now quite common. It is now realised that ‘master narratives’ written say thirty years ago were often very exclusive in terms of failing to recognise the achievements or even existence of (for example) women artists, Aboriginal artists, gay artists, regional communities, non-European cultures).

The need to revisit this period was based on the belief that this period (and its art) was ‘sandwiched’ between the Heidelberg Movement of the late nineteenth century and the Modernist movement of around and beyond the First World War (1914-18).

The curator of the exhibition, Ron Radford, considered that what is described as ‘Federation landscape’ painting has its own unique story to tell about Australian art and about Australian society of the period. It doesn’t totally challenge the linear evolutionary model of development but it does contradict the assumption of the master narrative that said that these artists were basically acting out Heidelberg Movement ideals and that the real interest lies in the adventures and work of Australian artists who went overseas or who adopted Modernist ideas styles.

Viewing Our Country

Our Country invites everyone to take a fresh look at an important period in the (short) life of European Australia. It does this by setting the art works within a social framework.

This framework is centred on how people identified with the idea of being or feeling Australia – at the time. The exhibition proposes that landscape painting of the period was a very powerful and popular expression of national sentiment. Within this education pack there are a number of references to symbols and subjects used by the artists to communicate ideas based on a new sense of national identity and promise.

Taking a social & environmental perspective

Regardless of whether the intention to research Our Country is from a Visual Arts or a Society/Environment perspective it is necessary for student to have a compact working knowledge of some of the events and developments which helped to shape Australian society’s entry into Federation and into the twentieth century. The Federation sites listed in the Research Resources can assist here.

Particular things to focus on would be visual material such as banners, cartoons, flags, photographs as well as popular media stories, reported events, photographs connected in some way with the Federation mood of the day. Other clues would be popular songs, poems and community art events such as parades.

It would also be useful to do a little bit of research on the emergence of what today is called the conservation movement, expressed at the time in the establishment of state and national parks. This is all relevant to the sensitivity and commitment the Our Country artists display to their subjects. There is an underlying sense that encountering nature and responding to ‘it’, teaches people something about where everything fits in.

City v Bush

An important subtext to Our Country is the idea of the ‘Bush’ being different to the ‘City’. The city is the symbol of technological, social development. The bush is the place where the foundations of nation were laid by the sacrifices and toil of worker-heroes. To get a better understanding of this mind set it would be useful to introduce students to some Banjo Patterson (Man from Snowy River) and Henry Lawson. Anthologies of Australian poetry will provide additional material. It is important for students to realise that it was not just about bushfires and chasing brumbies. There is a lot of poetry and writing of the period which is poetic, about quiet, introspective moments, about feelings of sadness (melancholy) for pioneering days coning to an end, love for someone else, feeling a sense of spirit in the bush and regret about the destruction of forests.

Make connections with contemporary contexts such as:

Who has travelled ‘inland’? Look at some of the family snapshots and postcards. What do they show? Why take a photograph of this or that? Why did you buy that postcard?

Collect tourist brochures or advertisements about ‘discovering Australia’. Ask students to think about what this might mean. What images are used and why? When images of people are included in the location shots, what kind of people are they?

Personal response; are there parts of Australia you’ve been to which you really like and would like to return to? Why?

Do you ever take time out in the country (outside) somewhere- just on your own – and look at things like the way the light reflects, shadows fall, clouds drift and grass sways? (Perhaps it is time to try)

Art frameworks

Students unfamiliar with art styles would benefit from some general ‘looking at’ at work in the Impressionist style (eg Monet, Roberts, Streeton, Heysen). Look also at the idea of artists setting up groups to support each other and establishing artists camps to enable them to work outside of the city. What matters is giving students the looking and language tools to be able to attempt some of the style analysis tasks (see Investigation 4:Art Styles) included in this Pack. Use some of the points of focus (colour, pattern etc) included in these notes as a starting point.

Related points for discussion:

Why work en plein air (in the open)?

Why be so particularly interested in light?

How can you ‘say something’ by doing a landscape painting?

Doesn’t a city have enough suitable subjects?

Art students familiar with Impressionism could undertake extended research:

Compare landscapes of the Heidelberg artists of the late 1880s- early 1990s period with a number of Federation landscapes. Are there any real differences in choice and treatment of subjects? (as the exhibition contends).
The Australian landscape re-emerges as a primary area of focus for a younger generation of artists (including Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Russell Drysdale) around and after the Second World War. Investigate and compare how these artists viewed and interpreted landscape.

OUR COUNTRY –
Art-historical background

The Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901 was the catalyst or starting point for a new nationalism in Australian landscape painting. While many artists around this time left Australia to become figure and portrait painters in Paris and London, those who remained at home were inspired to paint distinctly Australian landscapes.

A new national spirit

Federation landscapes are generalised scenes—no longer identifiable local scenes, but often majestic vistas. They are typical, even iconic landscapes, meant to inspire the public with strong feelings of admiration and a unique sense of being Australian. Some artists gave their paintings grand Federation titles reflecting the new bouyant spirit of a unified Australia. Among them are, Australia Felix, Lord of the Bush, Land of the Golden Fleece, Red Gold and The Golden Splendour of the Bush.

Beyond Heidelberg

Melbourne-based artists of the later nineteenth century, particularly Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, (The North Wind, 1891) and Arthur Streeton ( Fire’s On (Lapstone Tunnel), 1891) produced significant images which had strong national sentiment. Robert’s series of paintings; woolshed scenes ( Shearing the rams, 1888-90, The Golden Fleece, 1894), droving ( A break away!, 1891) and bushranging (Bailed up, 1895) were deliberately historical. They were intended to acknowledge characteristic aspects of Australian working life and pioneering history. They had their origins in a number of things; an Australian community focus on nationhood as the Federation debate intensified, a sense that the pioneering days were drawing to a close and a belief that outback life truly characterised what it meant to be an Australian.

This group of artists (including Charles Conder ( Holiday at Mentone, 1888)) left Australia before the turn of the century

Roberts – 1903 and did not return until 1919 and not permanently until 1923

Arthur Streeton, 1897 ( but returned twice, 1906-07 and in 1914)

Charles Conder, 1890

The absence of these artists in particular suggested that the national landscape trdition established around the idea of the ‘Heidelburg School’ had come to an end.

In the shadow of Modernism

Histories of Australian art have emphasised the emergence of Modernism within Australia in the period leading to and beyond the First World War. The principal story was built on the debate between progressive ‘Moderns’ ( eg Roland Wakelin, Roy de Maistre, and conservative traditionalists, among them landscape painters such as Streeton and Hans Heysen. In this story, landscape painting was visualised as a natural continuation of the Heidelberg tradition. Interest shifted to the portrait and figure painting of a number of expatriate artists working in Britain and France. These included: David Davies, E. Phillips Fox, Rupert Bunny, Bertram Mckennal, George Lambert, Ambrose Patterson, Hugh Ramsay and Max Meldrum

Features of Federation landscapes

Synthetic and unifying.

This means that the landscapes you see are not meant to be taken (or seen) literally. Edited would be a good term to use. The time of day, the size of the work, the emphasis in colour, the viewpoint and deliberate lack of details such a human habitation were designed to appeal to the imaginative spirit in the viewer. This approach involved emphasising features or aspects which are present in the subject but likely to escape notice in a more ‘realistic ‘depiction. The landscapes of Eugene Piguenit are a good example. His Mount Kosciusko is given a great sense of presence by the mist which hints at the massiveness of the mountain and the depth of the valleys. His seascape (Roller) uses the dramatic contrast of white foam and dark rocks to capture the menace and loneliness of a distant coastline.

Bigness, tallness, emptiness, vastness

Sometimes dramatic features provided the most inspiring subject matter – soaring mountain ranges, wide meandering rivers, tall forests and ultimately the iconic giant gum. The Australian gum tree becoming the triumphant Australian statement of the Federation period.

Nature and spirit

These city-based artists and public audiences shared a growing belief that the land had a spirit of some kind which artists could ‘capture’ in some way. This was teamed with another idea, of the land being a woman or feminine ( an extension of the idea of ‘Mother Earth’). So in this exhibition look for symbols which express these ideas in some way. Here are some:

Blossom ( particularly wattle) – new life, promise, celebration

Colour – particularly green and gold ( blossom, regeneration), (gold) linked to traditional symbols for ‘otherworldliness / preciousness, halos, heaven

Nature women - symbol of ‘Mother Earth’, the indefinable/mysterious, spirit of the bush, youth

Beach and open sky – freedom, endlessness of Australian landscape

Forest – last frontier, a place of enchantment, threatening enclosure

Eucalypt ( gum tree) – time, endurance, expression of the feminine nature of the landscape

Light

Bright Australian light returns in landscape painting particularly from about 1907-8, which had been an absent theme in Australian landscape painting since the mid 1890s. Golden sunlight is found in the colourful beach scenes, bustling city and industrial subjects celebrating progress and advancement.

This renewed interest in the portrayal of radiant light around 1910 coincided with a revival in watercolour painting – a medium which allowed artists a greater freedom in capturing the effects of sunlight. J.J. Hilder’s delightful atmospheric and lyrical watercolours were among many produced for sale to an expanding domestic market.

Monumental moody landscapes mark the birth of a unified nation while optimistic sunlit scenes dominate landscape painting to the time of the First World War in 1914.

INVESTIGATION 1:
Artists speak

Here are some comments by artist in this exhibition. See if you can match any with works in the exhibition

"…the Australian Artist can best fulfil his highest destiny by remaining in his own country and studying that which lies about him..."

Frederick McCubbin, c1915

"the drover, the shearer, the bullock driver, and even the bush-ranger...seems to be all that is needed as a keynote for Australian landscape, but yet to me the background calls for something that will better express the lonely and primitive feeling of this country"

Sydney Long, 1905

"The sun—its light and its warmth—is my religion"

Hans Heysen, 1912

"In all Australia there is nothing so Australian as a gum tree, nothing so Australian and nothing quite so true"

Blamire Young, 1908

"Our flora which has to resist the fierce rays of a burning sun, and thus possesses a somewhat wan faded appearance, which in a grey light suggests something subtle, vague and ghostlike, was a thing beyond their [pre- Federation] ken."

Frederick McCubbin, c1915

"The other morning the sunrise on the Mount, the rosy fingers of dawn, the soft tender violet gold grey of the gums, like Mendelssohn’s Nocturne in The Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the wildflowers of spring and the spring shoots of the gums before summer."

Frederick McCubbin, 1903

"The Gum Tree, with its changes from silver to brilliant yellows and flesh tones, will yield its story, and the flowers and the birds, so quaint and different from those of the old world, will provide graceful and original fancies for the creation of an imaginative school that will be truly Australian."

Sydney Long, 1905

"There is something immensely exhilarating when tall white gums tower into the blue heavens – the subtle quality of the edges where they meet the sky – how mysterious."

Hans Heysen

INVESTIGATION 2:
Advance Australia

Advance Australia Fair contains many visual images. See if you can select a different painting from the Our Country exhibition to match or express the idea behind any lines of the anthem.

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free,
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;

Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.

In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;

For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.

In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

INVESTIGATION 3: Themes

The content and layout of Our Country lend themselves to an exploration by students built on a few specific themes.

Building the nation

There are a number of images, which pay tribute to the hero-worker/pioneer. Foremost is the pioneer as depicted in McCubbin’s The Pioneer. Include in this group some of the pastoral scenes by Hans Heysen and images of timber workers, coachmen and drovers.

McCubbin’s Lost is also a comment on the human cost of this development.

Investigation

The question to ask is: ‘Why did Federation Australia feel the need to pay such a tribute or honor to these anonymous workers?’ ‘What does this say about social values at this time?’

The archetypal or symbolic landscape.

When you look at the large landscapes by Piguenit, Heysen, Streeton and some others you are looking at archetypal or symbolic landscapes. This means that the image is meant to act at a symbolic level. It is meant to say something about Australia and being Australia.

Investigation

The question is: ‘How do these images work in this way?’ Another way of dealing with this is to investigate why Federation Australians felt the need to have such images. This question deals more with the idea of a society needing to have some images or icons, which confirmed inner beliefs and hopes.

A question of spirit

Sydney Long’s The West Wind shows a spirit-like figure piping magpies into a dance. Perhaps it looks corny or over-sentimental by today’s standards. But there are a number of other paintings in which the artists have incorporated the idea of the bush inspiring a sense of awe, wonder, spiritual experience or magic. Why for example did Heysen title one work, Mystic Morn?

Investigation

Identify works, which appear to be concerned with a sense of spirit and discuss/analyse how effective the artists have been in expressing this idea.

Retreat of the forest

The forest represented the last stronghold for nature as settlement spread. In the half-light or the balance of shadows and shafts of light a sense of mystery could still be captured. But the felling of old forest stands was a symbol that the wilderness was in retreat and the dream of boundless plains of prosperity could be realized. Some artists appear to celebrate this as an achievement and others see it as a sad state of affairs. Out of this dialogue with the forest emerges the gum tree as the essential icon of nature and perhaps of the hardy pioneers fading away as the modern twentieth century got underway.

Investigation

Many artists have depicted forest subjects in this exhibition. But each artist’s interpretation has been guided by personal agendas or mindsets about the relationship of society to nature, the need to celebrate the achievements of settlement or simply the need to make a good work of art. Perhaps it is a mixture of all three. Compare and discuss.

Light

Heysen declared; " The sun is….. my religion’. But he wasn’t alone in fixing on sunlight and the behavior of light as something uniquely Australian and even symbolic of a young nation on the move.

Investigation

Study the way in which artists have used light to create a sense of atmosphere or mood in selected works. Consider as you do this the preference for different times of the day, the direction of light, intensity of light and coloration. There may be reasons for example for the light to be soft, hazy or sparkling clear.

Coast

The beach or coastal subjects were popular images of the Federation landscape period. As you move through the exhibition, be selective and note and compare different artist’s interpretations of these subjects.

Investigation

What do these images ‘say’ about the attitudes of artists and society of the time? Why for example do you think these paintings were made in the first place? If there are people in them, what are they doing and why did the artist put them in? Are some of the ideas being expressed different in any way to those expressed in ‘inland’ paintings?

The city

There are images of the city in the exhibition

Investigation

Find and compare them. What might they be saying about people’s sense of being city-dwellers? Do these images for example express civic pride? If so, how? Can you see any other messages in these images? Are there any particular images in which the city and the bush seem to be deliberately placed alongside each other? Why is this?

Can you see appreciate why a number of images might really appeal to city people, then and now?

Lifestyle

If Our Country is a celebration or revelation of people’s attitudes of the period are there any particular images, which speak of people looking at their contemporary and future possibilities. It is a question of how people of the time saw themselves.

Investigation
Look for images which use depictions of people to express hopes for the future

Then and Now

Investigation
This is an open-ended process. It’s about asking questions connected to any of the above themes – or others, which come to mind.

For example:

Do Australians today still look at or buy Australian landscape paintings? Are there reasons for this?

Do Australian landscape paintings (contemporary) look similar in style to Federation landscapes?

Do Australians today need symbols for their nation or a sense of being Australian? Find and discuss examples.

How do Australians today feel about or regard the pioneering days?

Do all Australians feel the same way about this period?

Is there still an Australian type (e.g. pioneer battler)? Is this type a myth or based on truth?

Artists today- what’s their role in society? Can they still say something to many about what it means to be Australian?

In an age of globalization, isn’t the idea of nationality a bit irrelevant?

Do you consider that Australian artists have said all there is to say about the Australian landscape?

Many visitors to the Art Gallery regard Aboriginal land-subject paintings to be ‘truly Australian’ and other forms (even Federation period landscapes) to be essentially European. What would be your reaction to this comment?

Aboriginal (Indigenous) styles of land-based art use a very different system for showing the land. Can you think of reasons why this is so and why European and Aboriginal styles have developed very different traditions?

INVESTIGATION 4: Art Styles

These activities are designed for art students familiar with general process of visual analysis. They invite the students to consider and compare the various styles of landscape painting used by different artists. This analysis can be undertaken individually or in small groups.

First of all – what do think style means or refers to?

Here are some options:

The way an artist does things

Something that many artists share in common

The way different elements such as line, texture and pattern are used.

The tendency of an artist or artists to use certain things in a certain way

The way an artist prefers to communicate an idea

It’s a kind of language

Identifying style

Think about the different things, which give a work of art its special ‘look’

In pictorial works these can be summarized as:

Color, use of patterning, surface or paint qualities, brushwork, attention to detail, modeling, sense of depth or exploration of space, rhythm or sense of movement, preference for certain kinds of composition, preference for shapes, line work, outlines, balance between light and dark, use of shadows and highlights, tonal range.

Visual analysis

Here are some questions to get you started.

Color

Do you know the names of some of the colors in this work?

When you stand a long way away, what color stands out or is the easiest to see?

Which picture has the brightest/darkest colors?

Which picture has most of your favorite colors?

Which picture uses the most (different) colors?

Which picture uses the least?

Can you find a picture where the artist has used tones of colors?

Surface

Find a picture, which has a very smooth surface

Find one, which has lots of rough paintwork or paint standing up from the surface

Find anywhere the artist has left lots of brush marks.

Do some works have the brush marks arranged into patterns? Why has the artist done this?

Patterns and rhythms

Can you see any patterns?

Do you think the artist wanted us to see them as patterns?

Do you think that these patterns are’ accidental’? (i.e. you have made them up by looking for similar or the same things near each other?

When things are repeated do they jump around a bit or take your eyes on a bit of a ride?

Composition

Name all the things you can see in this picture

Describe where everything is in the picture. Use reference words to do this (up, down, near, far, in front of, behind, to the left/ right, near the top/bottom, around the middle)

When you’ve done this take your eye on a journey from top to bottom, left to right, near to far, corner to corner.

Sketch the main composition and use emphasis lines to show the ‘eye paths’ or directions your eyes tend to follow.

What are the most important ‘bits’ of the picture?

What do you think the artist wants you to look at?

Where does the artist want you to look?

Space

Which pictures take your eyes a long way off into the distance?

Are there any, which show things very near and very far (i.e. in the same picture)?

Are there any which make it hard for your eyes to travel very far into the distance?

Why do you think this is so?

What things has the artist done to help you believe that you are looking into space of some kind?

Do you think that artist wanted you to imagine that you are very close to or maybe a long way away from the place or things in the picture?

Things in space
Has the artist tried to make things look very real / a bit real / not very real?

How has the artist caused this to happen?

Has the artist used highlights and shadows to help make things look solid /real?

Can you find a work, which shows the artist using shades or tones of a color to make things look more solid?

Is there any obvious source of light?

Themes

How and why do artist show the same thing (subject) in different ways (styles)?

In Our Country some themes could be;

The beach, the forest, clearing the land, sunlight, pioneering days, work, children, people, animals.

One way of getting started is to choose and compare two works, which show much the same kind of subject. Refer to some of the different elements (e.g. colour, space etc) to help describe how each artist has interpreted the subject.

Big questions

If time allows try some of these.

Why do you think this work was made?

Who was it made for?

Did working in this style offer any advantages to the painter or the viewer or the person who ends up owning the work?

Do you think this style is/would have been effective in terms of what the artist was setting out to do?

INVESTIGATION 5:
Imagine that …

You are an historian writing about the way Australians viewed Federation. You decide to use some of the Our Country works to support your writing. What works will you choose and why?

You are writing a brief history of the conservation movement in Australia and some images catch your attention because they look to be saying something about how people at that time felt about the clearing of native vegetation. What images were you looking at? What could you say about them?

You get curious about the idea of nature or Australia being a woman. You now have to find out where that idea came from and if it is still around ( in some form) today.

You are an art historian writing about the theme of light in Australian landscape painting. Choose a number of different artists’ works to illustrate the different attitudes and techniques used.

You have become involved in a debate about the skills of artists of the period painting the coast or the inland. Take one side ( ie artists were better at painting the sea and beaches because they are harder to illustrate) and find someone to debate with.

As an Indigenous Australian or someone who is very concerned to make sure that Indigenous/Aboriginal perspectives about the land are included, write a brief addition to the exhibition catalogue which contrasts attitudes of the period with traditional owners sense of relationship with the and and attitudes to settlement.

You begin to think a bit more about the old pioneering days coming to an end. You get curious about this being something that keeps happening in society. Ask some adults in your family about their sense of seeing ‘old ways’ go. – ( and how they feel about it).

You look more closely at McCubbin’s The Pioneer and decide to draw/paint a modern day version of this tribute to ‘Aussie battlers’. ‘Modernise’ it as much as you like but see if you can ‘hang onto’ the original idea.

You are a multi-media artist designing a presentation which includes the words of Advance Australia Fair. You are going to use a selection of works from Our Country as visuals. You may even use more than one detail of the same work. Which works or details of work would you choose. See words of Advance Australia Fair attached.

You are editing the Gallery’s website and need to put on site up to six mages from Our Country which will give people visiting the site some idea of what the exhibition is about. What works would you choose? What kind of accompanying text would you include?

You could travel ( by sea, air, land or in time) to visit one of the places illustrated in one of the Our Country paintings. Where would you choose to go and why?

Your interest in some of the themes and subjects in Our Country works gets you curious about the literature of the period, things such as short stories, poems and even songs and ballads. See where your curiosity takes you.

Some of the people shown in Our Country paintings stop and have a conversation with the artist. What kind of things get said?

You become one of the charatcers shown in one of the paintings. What thoughts are going through your head?

As a newly arrived migrant to Australia you come to the Gallery and see Our Country, the first ‘Australian’ exhibition you have seen in your life. What are your impressions or feeelings?

You could turn up the volume control on one of the paintings. What can you hear?

You try this idea. A number of the large landscapes have been described as ‘generalised’ in that they are not meant to be taken literally but are there to suggest a type of scene which appeals to the imagination and a sense of being proud of being ‘here’. This is an idea which you could apply to your own location ( in city, suburb or country). See if you can edit ‘bits and pieces’ of your local street, suburb, town into one complete ‘scene’ which acts as an introduction to where you live and how you feel about it.

OUR COUNTRY – additional research

To view Our Country within a wider social-political context visit the Centenary of Federation – Timeline of the nation site and focus on the 1891- 1920 period.

http://www.centenary.gov.au/resources/history/timeline_nation.php