One of the world’s most famous impressionist masterpieces is the last thing you would expect to find in a landscape of cattle and cane fields surrounded by mountain ranges in a small rural town in northern NSW.
Just across the Queensland border a plume of steam rises from the sugar mill on the banks of the glassy Tweed River. And on a hill across town, in what was once a cow paddock, Claude Monet’s Meules, milieu du jour (Haystacks, midday), painted in 1890, shimmers in its own gentle pastel light on a wall of the Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre at Murwillumbah.
The $174 million painting, a jewel in the crown of the national collection, arrived at this incongruous setting last November as part of the National Gallery of Australia’s Sharing the National Collection program.
This stunning Monet will reside for the next two years in what must be the most spectacular surrounds of any art gallery in the country.
The gallery was built on land donated by Margot and Doug Anthony, former leader of the National Party. The view from its hilltop perch is across verdant hills that drop gently to the Tweed River, winding through the pastoral perfection of the paddocks.
If you are feeling energetic you can descend steep steps from the gallery garden to the Rail Trail, which runs 24km from Murwillumbah to Crabbes Creek, through lush subtropical country.
Although from different centuries and continents, Monet shares star billing with much-loved Australian artist Margaret Olley who has her own wing of the gallery, where you can view a recreation of Olley’s Sydney home studio. One wonders what they would have made of each other.
Lifted from her cluttered house in Paddington, Sydney, after she died (she was known for her aversion to housework), the only thing that is missing is the cloud of cigarette smoke that enveloped her as she painted. There is definitely authentic accumulated Olley dust on her sofas and chairs though, as she famously said, “if the house looks dirty, buy another bunch of flowers, is my advice”.
For now the Monet looks a bit lonely all by itself on its wall. But at the end of this month it will be joined by three more paintings from our national collection; Giorgio Morandi’s Natura morta and three works by Olley.
According to gallery director Ingrid Hedgcock that will mean “it all makes sense”.
Paintings from the gallery’s permanent collection are rotated and in March comes the exhibition A Delicate Terrain featuring artists such as Rue Hanks, Michael Cook and Monica Rohan.
“We like to explore the collection and reframe it in different contexts,” Hedgcock says. “One of our collecting profiles is what we call regional relevance. That could be artists from the region but also artists from outside the region exploring the area.”
In autumn comes synergy: identity, portraiture and the moving body, a group show with Atong Atem, Gerwyn Davies, Tim Georgeson and Sue Healey, exploring personal and cultural identity, through dance, sound and movement.
In winter the touring show from the NGA, Know My Name, aims to elevate the profile of female artists in the national collection and their contribution to Australia’s cultural life.
Hedgcock has worked at the Tweed Regional Gallery for 10 years – alongside previous director Susi Muddiman – before becoming director.
“I’ve just really enjoyed the diversity of programming here all these years,” she says.
It is a gallery that never feels crowded despite the fact that last year 140,000 people came through the place. This art gallery, a burst of beauty and culture in a farming community, draws people from near and far.
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Murwillumbah, once a working-class country town, is slowly gentrifying. For those visitors who want to elevate their visit with food there are two, two-hatted restaurants in town – Tweed River House and Bistro Livi.
In recent years Murwillumbah has been rebranded as an arts town, with the M’bah arts precinct, an old garage that has been converted into studios for artists who make and sell their work from containers. In the heart of town, it is both a social and arts hub.
Still, Murwillumbah remains an authentic country town, a country community. And that is the most beautiful thing of all.
gallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au
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