Peter TULLY<br/>
<em>Early flight attendants vest</em> 1990 <!-- (front view) --><br />

retrospectra graphic plastic, lamé, metallic thread, cotton<br />
48.5 cm (centre back) 48.0 cm (waist, flat)<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased from Admission Funds, 1991<br />
CT1-1991<br />
© Courtesy of the copyright owner, Merlene Gibson (sister)
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Spectrum

An exploration of colour

Free entry

NGV International

Level 2, Decorative Arts Passage

19 Dec 20 – 26 Jun 22

Colour is central to humankind’s being. It functions at a subliminal level to define the way we perceive the world and the way we feel. Colour is innate to artistic practice and its power to communicate can evoke visceral responses. Artists have experimented with colour since the first pigments were extracted out of the earth. The manufacturing of colours and their natural or synthetic makeup, be it artist’s pigments, ceramic glazes or textile dyes, has evolved over time but the fundamental emotive power of colour remains. It resonates with our senses, visually, intellectually and emotionally.

Spectrum is an exploration of colour through the NGV Collection, taking the magnificent sparkling cut-glass ceiling of the Great Hall as the inspiration for the colour palette. The exhibition is drawn from across the Collection, from antiquity to the present, and presents a broad selection of works across a range of media. The exhibition investigates the history and artistic use of twelve different colours. Each of the exhibition’s showcases explores a single colour, the selection of works chosen to illustrate the history of the colour, from its exotic origins and trade, to its manufacture and symbolism across time and culture. Three breakout cases look at artist’s paints and the raw pigments used to produce them. One case focusses on oil paint in the NGV’s jewel-like fifteenth-century Flemish Virgin and Child, one explores the watercolour medium used in eighteenth-century Indian miniatures and the third case investigates pastels through an exquisite selection of eighteenth-century works. Displayed alongside the works will be samples of pigments used to create the colours, including lapis lazuli, vermilion and Indian Yellow – an intensely-coloured pigment extracted from the urine of cows fed on mango leaves.

The exhibition design has been conceived by Melbourne-based designer Danielle Brustman.

Exhibition labels

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CHINESE
Wine vessel, Jue 11th century BCE
bronze
20.5 x 18.1 x 9.7 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of H. W. Kent, 1938
3663B-D3
Josef HOFFMANN (designer)
WIENER WERKSTÄTTE, Vienna (retailer)
MEYR'S NEFFE, Adolfov (manufacturer)
Vase, from the Gallia collection (c. 1915)
glass (uranium)
12.2 x 18.1 x 18.2 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Samuel E. Wills Bequest, 1976
D176-1976
© Estate of Josef Hoffmann
WORCESTER PORCELAIN, Worcester (manufacturer)
Plate (c. 1770)
porcelain (soft-paste)
4.0 x 16.3 cm diameter
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1938
3800D-D3
EGYPT
Ushabti figure 380 BCE-343 BCE (detail)
faience
16.1 x 3.9 x 2.8 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Mr P. Chaldjian, 1996
1996.462
David BIELANDER
Blue python, necklace (2011) (detail)
(Würgeschlange)
titanium, silver
5.1 x 219.4 x 6.6 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2012
2012.35
© David Bielander
ENGLAND
Bottle (c. 1690)
glass (nipt diamond waies, applied decoration), brass, cork
(a-b) 25.1 x 11.3 cm diameter (overall)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
William and Margaret Morgan Endowment, 1973
D169.a-b-1973
Robert BAINES
Redline no. 2, neckpiece (2001)
powder-coated silver
7.6 x 4.7 x 3.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds from the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2005
2005.497
© Robert Baines
Odawara Nobuko
Red vase with handle (c. 1989)
lacquer on wood
43.0 x 15.0 cm diameter
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Presented by Sir Roderick Carnegie AC through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2014
2014.2312
© the artist
Anthony BENNETT
Yellow reptile-man, bowl (c. 1979)
earthenware
8.0 x 16.4 x 9.5 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with the assistance of the Crafts Board of the Australia Council, 1981
D161-1981
© Anthony Bennett/DACS, London. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
(ENGLAND)
Shoes (1720-1730s)
leather, kid, silk, metal (thread)
(a-b) 11.5 x 7.0 x 23.5 cm (each)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2017
2017.203.a-b
MIALALOTAR (attributed to)
Maharana Bhim Singh with Asuaji Santidas (1788)
opaque watercolour and gold paint on paper
23.4 x 29.1 cm (image) 29.0 x 24.5 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1980
AS220-1980
François BOUCHER
Madame de Pompadour 1754
pastel over sanguine and light grey-blue washes
36.5 x 28.1 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Everard Studley Miller Bequest, 1965
1482-5
Robert FOSTER (designer)
F!NK & Co. Queanbeyan, Canberra (manufacturer)
F!NK water jug – satin pink 1993 {designed}; 2013 {manufacturer}
anodized aluminium, powder-coated aluminium

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Supporters of Decorative Arts, 2013
2013.88
© Robert Foster/Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
PACO RABANNE, Paris (fashion house)
Camille UNGLIK (designer)
Sandals (c. 1972)
leather, plastic, rubber
(a-b) 12.0 x 8.5 x 23.5 cm (each)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Mary Lipshut, Member, 1995
1995.490.a-b
Peter TULLY
Early flight attendants vest 1990
retrospectra graphic plastic, lamé, metallic thread, cotton
48.5 cm (centre back) 48.0 cm (waist, flat)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased from Admission Funds, 1991
CT1-1991
© Courtesy of the copyright owner, Merlene Gibson (sister)