Gravity defying sculpture landing in Nowra
Next time you are in Nowra take a mosey along Berry Street, outside the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery. You will be treated to the sight of Broken obelisk, the seven-metre, three-and-a-half tonne sculpture by Barnett Newman that is the latest major loan under the Federal Government’s Sharing the National Collection program.
Minister for the Arts, The Hon Tony Burke MP, will be among those attending the unveiling of Broken obelisk in Nowra on Friday 16 February, 12-12.45pm. “Most of the pieces involved in Sharing the National Collection are works that were otherwise being held in storage – but not this one,” he said.
“The Shoalhaven Regional Gallery will have the distinction of displaying the sculpture that has been in pride of place at the front of the National Gallery of Australia for years.”
Barnett Newman. Broken obelisk, 2005-2006. Given by the Barnett Newman Foundation to the National Gallery of Australia, 2018.
Sharing the National Collection is part of Revive, Australia’s new national cultural policy, with $11.8m over four years to fund the costs of transporting, installing and insuring works in the national art collection so that they can be seen across the country for extended periods. Dr Nick Mitzevich, National Gallery of Australia Director, said he was thrilled to share the statement work by Barnett Newman with new audiences.
“Sharing the national collection with people in regional Australia is something close to my heart. I started my career in a regional gallery and I want to see as many people as possible, regardless of where they live, experience and enjoy the national collection.”
There are four editions of Broken obelisk, three produced during Newman’s lifetime (1905-1970) with a further edition fabricated in 2005. It is this final edition that was gifted to the NGA in 2018 by the Barnett Newman Foundation, and now on loan to Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, Nowra for 5 years.
Barnett Newman, Broken obelisk 1970, dedicated to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. In front of the Rothko Chapel, Houston Texas.
Art critic Robert Hughes, writing on Broken Obelisk in 1971, said, “Newman’s pursuit of the sublime lay less in nature than in culture. This enabled him to pick ancient, man-made forms and return them to pristine significance without a trace of piracy. One index of that ability was his sculpture.”
“Broken Obelisk, perhaps the best American sculpture of its time, is Newman’s meditation on ancient Egypt: a steel pyramid, from whose apex an inverted obelisk rises like a beam of light. Here, Newman bypassed the Western associations of pyramids and broken columns with death, and produced a life-affirming image of transcendence.”
Barnett Newman, Broken obelisk 1971. University of Washington, Seattle.
