Melanesian Art Redux: Art Gallery of New South Wales

Significant works of art from the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Pacific collection are on display, some for the first time in four decades. The first works of Pacific art entered the Gallery’s collection in 1962, at the instigation of the Gallery’s deputy director Tony Tuckson. Four years later the groundbreaking exhibition Melanesian art, curated by Tuckson, opened at the Gallery, with over 370 works from public and private collections. One of the most comprehensive exhibitions of Pacific art held in an Australian gallery, it featured work from Papua New Guinea, Torres Strait, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Western New Guinea. To celebrate Tuckson’s achievement, a selection of works he acquired for the Pacific collection is on display, coinciding with a major exhibition of his own artworks, Tony Tuckson: the abstract sublime.