Inge King

Now in her 99th year, Inge King is one of our most senior artists. This exhibition presents the most complete survey of Inge’s remarkable career to date.

Since arriving in Australia in 1951, Inge King has been a major contributor to the development of abstract sculpture in this country. She has exhibited her work consistently in solo exhibitions and has participated in many group exhibitions. Her work is held in all major national collections and through her numerous public commissions she has become one of Australia’s best known and most prominent sculptors.

Inge and her late husband, Australian painter and printmaker Grahame King, built their home and studio in the outer Melbourne suburb of Warrandyte in 1952. Designed by Robin Boyd, the building served as a creative haven where Inge and Grahame could work and support each other’s art practices. Their careers were inextricably interwoven from when they met in 1948 at the Abbey Arts Centre in Hertfordshire, UK, continuing until Grahame’s death in 2008.

This major survey of Inge King’s work is installed in the foyer spaces over three levels at NGV Australia and includes work produced over an extraordinary period of almost 70 years. In addition to sculptures from the NGV and other public and private collections, the exhibition includes many works drawn from Inge’s personal collection. It presents her recent sculptures alongside many of her early works, some of which have never been on public display.

The exhibition celebrates Inge King’s outstanding contribution to Australian art. With the inclusion of some of Grahame’s work it also recognises the unique and significant artistic collaboration that existed between the two of them.