WILDCARDS: Bill Henson shuffles the deck

 

It was a honour to be involved in the opening of MGA’s new exhibition, WILDCARDS: Bill Henson shuffles the deck, on Saturday 8 February 2014.

For those not aware, MGA (short for Monash Gallery of Art) is Monash Council’s art gallery at Wheelers Hill (at the corner of Jells Road and Ferntree Gully Road).  It was opened in 1990 by the then Waverley Council and is located in a building designed by one of Australia’s most significant architects, Harry Seidler (now deceased, who also designed the Monash Civic Centre).

MGA specialises in Australian photography and its permanent collection – built up over the past couple of decades – is now widely considered to be the third best collection of Australian photography anywhere in the world after the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.  We are very proud of it.

This exhibition is a particularly special one for the MGA because it presents the wonderful diversity of the permanent collection and, for the first time ever, it features leading Australian artist Bill Henson in a curatorial role.

Bill has been one of the Gallery’s strongest supporters over the last decade and the MGA and Council are proud of the association which exists between him and MGA.  Bill has donated many works to MGA over the years for fundraising purposes and as a member of MGA’s independent Committee of Management he has played a role in influencing and shaping the collection.  Bill grew up in the local area and in the 1980s produced a number of striking works which focused on suburban life in and around Glen Waverley.

There has been significant interest in this exhibition because of Bill’s role as its curator.  The following is some of the articles which have  been published recently:

• The Australian Financial Review: Beauty, rich and rare
• The Age/ Sydney Morning Herald: Bill Henson sheds new light in photography exhibition at the Monash Gallery of Art
• Waverley Leader: Photographer Bill Henson’s new exhibition expected to attract big crowds to Monash
• Art Guide Australia: Interview with Bill Henson

I was pleased to introduce Bill at the opening.  The following is what I said:

It is a great pleasure to welcome Bill Henson today.

 

Bill is of course one of Australia’s pre-eminent artists.

 

His work is widely collected both nationally and internationally. He held his first solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria at the age of 19 and he has exhibited at some of the world’s greatest museums including the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

 

He was Australia’s representative at the 1996 Venice Biennale and in 2005 the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria staged a very popular and successful retrospective of his works.

 

Bill is a long standing friend of MGA.

 

He was a member of MGA’s Committee of Management for 11 years until last year.

 

He has also been a very generous supporter of the gallery, donating works to fundraising dinners and attending fundraising events for the gallery or the gallery’s membership group, the Friends of MGA.

 

We are proud that we hold one of the largest collections of Bill’s work anywhere in the world.

 

So, given the significant connection that exists between MGA and Bill, we were thrilled when Bill agreed to present an exhibition as part of MGA’s 2014 program.

 

This would, of course, not be an exhibition of his own work, but one drawing on our permanent collection of over 2,200 works and presenting Bill’s take on them.  Given the role he has played in the last decade in helping to shape and influence this collection, it is particularly fitting.

 

Bill has selected around 80 works which have been hung according to his very specific instructions – including the lighting, wall colour, the arrangement of the works, and ensuring the walls are relatively free of labels and other clutter!

 

This exhibition gives us a very rare, indeed privileged insight, into one of Australia’s greatest ever artists.

The exhibition runs until 30 March 2014.  Entry to MGA is free.