David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


10 January 2022

Light & Darkness




Light & Darkness

Opening on 10 January 2022

This evocative theme unites 70 artworks from the Power Collection, exploring luminosity, colour, movement, race and politics across three decades of late modernism.

Light & Darkness is a major exhibition drawing on the University of Sydney’s Power Collection. It spans the luminal, op and kinetic works of the 1960s by major artists such as Jean Tinguely and Bridget Riley; the political and conceptual art of the 1970s with Ed Kienholtz, Joseph Beuys and On Kawara; and Australian and New Zealander artists in the 1980s, including Peter Tyndall, Jenny Watson and Colin McCahon. The exhibition and accompanying book are the first projects from the University’s extensive collection of international contemporary art in its new home at the Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
‘Light works’ are a major feature of the early Power acquisitions in the late 1960s. Significantly, a planetary grammar of solar discs, spheres and orbs is a common vocabulary for many artists who employ light, whether literally or in abstraction. Other kinetic works, such as those by Julio Le Parc and Lucio Fontana, have a lightness, moving according to air currents. As the utopian dreams of the 1960s soured, many artists turned to language; the darker side of the collection features major text paintings by New Zealanders McCahon and Maori artist Ralph Hotere, alongside a multiple by Kienholtz who spotlights a horrific race crime, and Beuys who is represented by ‘a hair shirt masquerading as a felt suit’. Today the Power Collection, spanning 25 years, appears like a time-capsule.

Entry is free and no bookings are required.

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
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