Monday 19 March 2012

IAN POTTER MUSEUM - SCULPTURE MURAL

The Ian Potter Museum of Art has gone through a number of name changes and has been housed in different locations on the University of Melbourne's Parkville campus. First established as the University Art Gallery in 1975, it was located in the centre of campus in the Old Physics Building. Additional accommodation was found on Swanston Street for it in the Physics Annex in 1988. This space housed both the Ian Potter Gallery and the Art Conservation Centre and together with the University Gallery were known as The University of Melbourne Museum of Art.

In 1998 a purpose-built art museum designed by Nonda Katsalidis and named The Ian Potter Museum of Art, opened to the public and is now considered one of the leading university art museums in the country. The Potter, won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects ‘Project of the Year’ award on its completion in 1999.

Bursting through Katsalidis’s sleek facade is the immense 1993 sculptural mural, "Cultural Rubble", by the Australian-born sculptor Christine O’Loughlin, now based in Paris. She used fragments of classical statuary, architecture and pottery cast in white fibreglass from plaster moulds of originals in the Louvre to evoke the tension between Australia’s European heritage and its future.

This post is part of the Monday Murals meme.

13 comments:

  1. What a stunningly beautiful place, Nick! And I love sculpture! Fantastic! I love the way you have captured it from so many angles that give us such a terrific, "up close and personal" look at it! Hope your week is off to a great start!!

    Sylvia

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  2. Fabulous facade!! This is very special. And I also the colorful street view of the last one, Nick.

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  3. Nice interpretation of a mural Nick! It is not always 2-D!

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  4. This is wonderful Nick. A collision of sculptures.

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  5. A wonderful post and great photos- what a place!

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  6. Great sculptures! This is a museum worth visiting!

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  7. that is incredible.

    www.ewok1993.wordpress.com

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  8. Those are really incredible...I'd love to see them in person. You photos really capture the feeling of all that sculpture emerging from the facade of the building!

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  9. This is amazing! I especially love the last photo. What a find!

    www.berkeleytoday.wordpress.com

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  10. Wonderful photos of the mural!

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  11. These are so new to me ! amazing.

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  12. This is so cool. What better subject for a museum? I wonder if she actually got to cast the sculptures or used a source from the Louvre that had already done it? Really like the way the wall is barely containing the pieces. Thanks, Nick, for participating in this week's Monday Mural.

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  13. WOW! These are truly original! Fantastic concept.

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