The National Gallery of Australia, founded in 1967, is the premier art gallery and museum in Canberra. One of the first promoters of the idea of a national art gallery back in the early 20th century was the renowned Australian artist Tom Roberts. In 1912, the Australian Parliament established the Historical Memorial Council, which decided to assemble a collection of portraits of of Australian governors-general, politicians and other fathers of the nation. Responsible The Commonwealth Advisory Council for the Arts was appointed to be responsible for this major endeavour, which remained in place until 1973. The first collections assembled were exhibited in the Australian Parliament House, because the Great Depression and the world wars for many years did not allow funds to be found to build a dedicated building. Only in 1965 it was decided to build the National Gallery, but construction didn't begin until 1973 and lasted almost 10 years. In 1982, the National Gallery of Australia was inaugurated in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
The 23,000 metre gallery was built in a Brutalist style: surrounded by a sculpture garden, the building is characterised by angular shapes and the rough texture of concrete contrasting with lush tropical greenery. Interestingly, the concrete on the exterior of the building is not finished with plaster, panelling or painting, while the interior walls are only recently been planked.
On the main floor contains extensive exhibition rooms housing collections devoted to the Australian Aboriginal people, as well as European and American collections. The core of the Aboriginal collection is the so-called "Aboriginal Memorial" - 200 painted logs that Aboriginal people used to mark graves. The memorial is dedicated to all Aboriginal people who died between 1788 and 1988 defending their lands from foreigners. European and American art is represented by the works of such artists as Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and others. The lower floor is dedicated to the exhibition of Asian art (Iran, Japan, Thailand and China) from the Neolithic to the present day - numerous sculptures, miniatures, a collection of Chinese woodblock prints, ceramics and textiles. Finally, on the top floor, you can see Australian art itself - various objects created in Australia from the time of European settlement to the 20th century. These include paintings, sculptures, furnishings, photographs and more much more. In total there are over 120,000 pieces of art in the gallery.
