While you’re in Brisbane between 30 May and 20 September 2009, be sure to take a trip to the Queensland Art Gallery and see ‘American Impressionism and Realism: A Landmark Exhibition from the Met’, curated by Dr Barbara Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). 

The exhibition displays a selection of 71 paintings from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, including many of the Metropolitan’s best examples in the American Impressionist and Realist traditions which have never before been displayed together and are not likely to be lent again as an ensemble. 

This cultural presentation features works by 34 painters, some famous and some lesser-known. Some of the leading figures — such as Impressionists John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, and William Merritt Chase, and Realists John Sloan and William Glackens — are represented by several of their works. Also on display throughout this exhibition are 30 iconic Australian paintings, showing how Australian artists responded to key artistic developments of the 1900’s.  Some of these Australian artists include Tom Roberts, Charles Conder, Frederick McCubbin and Rupert Bunny.

‘American Impressionism and Realism’ includes light-filled landscapes and seascapes, magnificent portraiture and images that reflect aspects of modern life — leisure, cities, and intimate depictions of women and children.  Whilst many of these works of art are flooded with light and colour, the paintings are also flooded with connotation.

The exhibition was organised by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in collaboration with the Queensland Art Gallery and Art Exhibitions Australia.

Queensland Art Gallery is located in Stanley Street, Southbank, and is open 10am to 5pm Monday-Friday, and 9am to 5pm Saturday -Sunday.  Entry to the general gallery area is free but special exhibitions may incur a fee.

For more information about the exhibition or the Queensland Art Gallery, visit www.qag.qld.gov.au

For more information about the Metropolitan, visit www.metmuseum.org