Museum of Modern Art Australia


The Museum of Modern Art Australia, alternatively named the 'Museum of Modern Art of Australia,' or, according to McCulloch, the 'Museum of Modern Art and Design', was founded by Australian art patron John Reed in 1958 in Tavistock Place, a lane-way off 376 Flinders Street, Melbourne, launched previously with a survey of Modernist Victorian women artists on 1 June 1956, organised by the Reeds who had taken on the then named Gallery of Contemporary Art. It held exhibitions of important contemporary Australian and international art of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Museum operated until 1966 and was formally dissolved in 1981.

Background

In July 1938 John and Sunday Reed were active in the formation of the Contemporary Art Society to promote modernist art in opposition to the prevalent conservatism of Australian art. Through the CAS John met Sidney Nolan, to whom the Reeds gave friendship and financial support, and from 1941, housing him until their estrangement in 1947 at their property, the former Bulleen dairy farm 'Heide' that they had purchased in 1934. Other artists in their circle were Albert Tucker and his wife Joy Hester, Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Danila Vassilieff and the writer Michael Keon.
John abandoned his legal practice in 1943 and by the end of World War II he and Sunday had become the major supporters of modern art in Australia, supporting several artists with regular stipends. They revived the Melbourne branch of CAS and its Gallery of Contemporary Art early in the 1950s, and their association with artists and writers—the Heide Circle—expanded to include Charles Blackman, Barrett Reid, Laurence Hope and Mirka Mora.
On 1 June 1956, after the Reeds had taken on the CAS and were transforming the space, their inaugural exhibition was opened by H. V. Evatt, Leader of the Federal Opposition whose wife, the artist and art patron, Mary (née Sheffer), had been an exhibitor in the first exhibitions organised by the Contemporary Art Society there in 1939. At the time of this opening she was a trustee of the New South Wales Gallery. The exhibition showcased Melbourne Woman Painters: with Joy Hester, Phyl Waterhouse, Lina Bryans, Guelda Pyke, Valerie Albiston, Ann Taylor, Dawn Sime, Dorothy Braund, Barbara Brash, Erica McGilchrist, Yvonne Cohen, Mirka Mora, Yvette Anderson, Christine Miller and Elena Kepalaite.
The show following was devoted to Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series, previously exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Reception

National Gallery of Victoria Director Eric Westbrook acknowledged that:

Exhibitions

163 works of art that the Reeds had collected themselves over 30 years, figurative, abstract, expressionist and realist, formed the basis of the Museum and was drawn upon for some of the exhibitions held there, many of which were landmark. The Museum's architect Peter Burns showed in 1959. Albert Tucker exhibited there 18 October – 4 November 1960, and in 1961 held 'The Formative Years, 1940 – 1945' with Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan and John Perceval, at which important Tucker works, his Modern Evil, No. 2, Figure 6, Modern Evil, No. 6, Figure 7, Modern Evil, No. 27 and Modern Evil, No. 28, Figure 8, were displayed with other iconic works including The Futile City. The Sydney Pop Art trio the 'Annandale Realists', Mike Brown, Colin Lanceley and Ross Crothall show of 13 February – 1 March 1962 was accompanied by a catalogue essay by Elwyn Lynn. While the trio were in the city Georges Mora commissioned from them a mural, the largest surviving example of the Australian Pop Movement, in his Balzac Restaurant, painted as individual panels in exchange for meals and accommodation.
Other exhibitions included:

Publications

  • Issued in August 1958, a catalogue of monochrome illustrations, with portraits of the artists, presented the works donated to the Museum by the Reeds to form the basis of its collection,, was put on sale for 21 shillings, and was reviewed in The Age by critic Arnold Shore.
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Closure

In the hope of accommodating larger shows and openings, the museum relocated to the Ball & Welch emporium in 1964. However, financial difficulties proved insurmountable and in April 1965 John resigned, and the Museum shut down a year later. The enterprise continued informally at Heide while its new, modernist buildings were completed in 1967 to become Heide II which, not long before both died in ten days of each other, the Reeds sold in 1980 to the Victorian Government for the establishment of a public art museum and park, Heide Museum of Modern Art. A meeting of the remaining members of the Museum of Modern Art Australia to formalise its dissolution was announced on 27 July 1981 at which its permanent collection was transferred to the National Gallery of Victoria The terms of agreement with the National Gallery of Victoria following dissolution and the transfer of its holdings specified that "within a reasonable time after the donation, the collection be exhibited at the recently established Heide Museum at Bulleen as a tribute to John and Sunday Reed who were primarily responsible for the establishment of the collection". The consequent exhibition was Forgotten treasures – works from the original Museum of Modern Art and Design Collection, 7–17 July 1994, at Museum of Modern Art, Heide.