Scotch College

Year twelve art interstate

Just after lunch on Friday afternoon August 18th, the Year Twelve Art and Studio Art classes departed for the airport. Twenty students took part in the study tour, supervised by Mr Chris Taylor, Head of Art, and Mr Mark Mason.

The group finally reached the Sydney hostel, 'Y on the Park' at six thirty pm, that evening. The boys changed into casual clothes, went out for a meal and to take in a film. After breakfasting at seven am on Saturday morning, the boys packed their luggage, and it was shipped back to the airport and stored for the day.

The first stop was the N.S.W. War Memorial in James Park, which is an excellent example of art deco design. Walking on through the park, the boys made their way to the National Gallery of New South Wales. Here we were able to view an outstanding exhibition, 'Australian Icons', a wonderful display of twenty major artists over the past century. At lunchtime we left for Circular Quay, and spent the early part of the afternoon at the Museum of Contemporary Art looking at work by Lin Onus, a Scottish and part Aboriginal artist, who produced a mix of paintings and sculpture based on his experiences.

Next was Brett Whiteley's Studio in Surry Hills, where the boys found that looking at Whiteley's paintings and sculpture was a very powerful experience. The remainder of the afternoon was spent around the Paddington area stopping off at the Barry Stern Galley, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Photography, before heading for the airport and Canberra. Overnight we stayed at the Ridges Motel in excellent shared villa units.

After the morning intensive study session, the first stop was the National Gallery of Australia. Here we viewed Uncommon World, an exhibition of contemporary works, as well as the permanent collection. After lunch, we took in Paul Uhlmanns' 'Absence of Light' show, and went on to look at the Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial and flnally the National War Memorial before fiying home to Melbourne.

The study tour provided the students with a unique chance to view and experience a wide range of art works at first hand.