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The Rt. Hon John Malcolm Fraser AC CH PC (1930-2015) was Prime Minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983.
5 portraits in the collection
The Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH, who died in Melbourne on 20 March, was the last surviving prime minister of Australia to have been sworn of H.M. Privy Council (in 1976)—hence the “Right Honourable”.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
Purchased 2012
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Lily Kahan 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Angus Trumble’s tribute to the late Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser.
Purchased 2015
Dawn Fraser AC MBE (b. 1937), swimming champion, had a stranglehold on the women's 100m freestyle from 1956 to 1964.
2 portraits in the collection
Noel Fraser Hickey (1921–2010) was born in Kensington, in Sydney, New South Wales, a stone's throw from the Royal Randwick Racecourse.
1 portrait in the collection
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO CBE (1931–2003), composer, was born in Sydney, and was educated at Barker College, Hornsby, and then at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he studied piano and French horn as well as composition under Sir Eugene Goossens.
1 portrait in the collection
Barrister and philanthropist Malcolm James McCusker AC CVO KC was born in Subiaco, Western Australia in 1938.
1 portrait in the collection
To celebrate his family bicentenary, Malcolm Robertson looks at the portraiture legacy left by his ancestors.
Purchased 1998
Purchased 2001
Gift of the artist 2021
Malcolm McCusker talks with artist Vincent Fantauzzo about starting out as a lawyer and becoming Governor of Western Australia.
Gift of Nigel Satterley AM and Denise Satterley 2022
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Diane Williamson and Marion Foote 2013
Malcolm Robertson tells the family history of one of Australia's earliest patrons of the arts, his Scottish born great great great grandfather, William Robertson.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
Sir Billy Snedden KCMG QC (1926-1987), politician, was elected as a federal member in 1955.
1 portrait in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2002
Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (1916-2014) was prime minister from the end of 1972 to the end of 1975.
12 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Paul and Wendy Greenhalgh 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
The Rt Hon Sir Zelman Cowen AK GCMG GCVO QC DCL (1919-2011), academic, writer and former Governor-General, was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne before serving in the navy in the Second World War.
3 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2019
Gift of David Crooke 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Clyde Cameron (1913-2008), Labor politician and historian, worked as a shearer and union organizer before serving as a Member for Hindmarsh between 1949 and 1980.
1 portrait in the collection
Tilman Ruff AO (b. 1955), infectious diseases and public health physician, was a founder of ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003
Dawn Fraser, Lionel Rose, Shane Gould and Cathy Freeman
Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Cast 1999 from terracotta donated by Paul and Wendy Greenhalgh 1999
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Shore 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Bryan Westwood (1930-2000) was a painter and printmaker who twice won the Archibald Prize, for his portrait of artist and critic Elwyn Lynn (1989) and of the then Prime Minister, Paul Keating (1992).
10 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Marc Besen AO and Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 2000
Angus Young (b. 1955), guitarist and songwriter, was a founding member of Australia's most successful ever band, AC/DC.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG (1932–2024), a Yankunytjatjara woman, dedicated her life’s work to advancing the rights and wellbeing of Australia’s First Peoples.
2 portraits in the collection
The Rt Hon Sir John Gorton GCMG AC CH (1911–2002) was the nineteenth prime minister of Australia and the only senator yet to have served in the office.
5 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of BHP Billiton 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Lady Primrose Potter 2006
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Gift of the Margaret Olley Art Trust 2002
The Hon Bill Hayden AC (1933‒2023) was Governor-General of Australia from 1989 to 1996 and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2015
Miriam Hyde AO OBE (1913-2005), composer, recitalist, teacher, examiner, poet, lecturer and writer of numerous articles for music journals, studied first with her mother and then with William Silver at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide.
1 portrait in the collection
One of the versions of thick, macho moustache strongly associated in the Australian visual lexicon with sportsmen of the 1970s and 80s.
This show, staged alongside the major exhibition Carol Jerrems: Portraits, spotlights the work of three contemporary Australian artists whose work sits in dialogue with Jerrems’ legacy.
Fiona Foley (b.1964), Badtjala artist, activist, curator and writer, grew up on Fraser Island and in nearby Hervey Bay before moving south to study art at the East Sydney Technical College.
2 portraits in the collection
Two of the music industry’s highest-selling performers originated in suburban Australia. The Bee Gees started out in Brisbane, for instance, and AC/DC played their first gigs at a nightclub in inner Sydney.
Hon Jim Carlton AO (1935-2015), a Liberal Party politician, represented the Sydney electorate of Mackeller in the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1994.
1 portrait in the collection
Commissioned with funds provided by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull 2003
Purchased 2003
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Love versus the law
Nolan Heads will focus on the portraiture of one of Australia's most original painters and one of the few to have achieved an international reputation
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Mungo MacCallum (1941–2020) was one of Australia's best-known political journalists.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of an anonymous donor 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Evert Ploeg began his career as a commercial illustrator in the mid-1980s.
7 portraits in the collection
Gift of the artist 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Bruce Spence (b. 1945), actor, made his film debut in the title role of Tim Burstall's Stork (1971), its title relating neatly, if coincidentally, to his 2.01m frame.
1 portrait in the collection
Colin Friels (b. 1952) arrived in Australia as an adolescent with his Scottish parents, both blue-collar workers.
1 portrait in the collection
Purchased 2011
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Patrick Ryan (d. 1990) and Tim Burstall set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.
1 portrait in the collection
Paul Taylor (1957-1992), critic and curator, graduated from Monash Univeristy in 1979.
1 portrait in the collection
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Sir Sidney Nolan AC OM CBE (1917–1992) was one of the most original and inventive Australian artists of the postwar decades, and one of few Australian artists to achieve an international reputation in the twentieth century.
7 portraits in the collection
In this exhibition Sydney based photographer Peter Brew-Bevan brings together an intimate collection of works that highlight his passion for the genre of portraiture over the last 10 years
Maggie Tabberer AO (1936-2024), designer, writer, editor, publicist and television presenter, is one of Australia's best-known personalities.
1 portrait in the collection
Professor Stephen Fitzgerald, Australia’s first Ambassador to China, traces the historical course from sino-australian cultural engagement to a maturing Australian identity.
Purchased with funds provided by Jillian Broadbent AC 2021
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Enid Hawkins 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Portraits from The Movement is the first comprehensive survey of photographs from the Juno Gemes archive, which has supported the Aboriginal struggle for justice in Australia from 1978 to the present day.
Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Estate of Stuart Campbell 2012
Judith Wright (1915–2000), poet, conservationist and Aboriginal land rights campaigner, was born at Thalgaroch Station, near Armidale, NSW, into a pastoralist family whose origins go back to the first settlement in the Hunter Valley in the 1820s.
3 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Tom Uren's family 2017
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Seventeen of Australia’s thirty prime ministers to date are represented in the contrasting sizes, moods and mediums of these portraits.
Nancy Menetrey (née Wilkinson) (1924-2024) was born in Sydney in 1924.
1 portrait in the collection
The exhibition Depth of Field displays a selection of portrait photographs that reflect the strength and diversity of Australian achievement.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001.
Born the year that Dawn Fraser won her first Olympic Gold medal, Shane Gould (b.1956) in her very brief international career, became one of the world’s greatest female swimmers.
Outsiders tend to give Canberra a bad rap: sterile, plagued by politicians, a comatose capital for professionals and academics. Nick Cave once said he didn’t like the city because there were too many punks.
Press releases and image downloads for media.
Purchased 2010
Malcolm (Mal) Meninga AM (b. 1960) is one of Australia’s most lauded rugby league players.
2 portraits in the collection
The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.
Rick Amor (b. 1948) is a Victorian-based painter, printmaker and sculptor.
27 portraits in the collection
Drawn from some of the many donations made to the Gallery's collection, the exhibition Portraits for Posterity pays homage both to the remarkable (and varied) group of Australians who are portrayed in the portraits and the generosity of the many donors who have presented them to the Gallery.
Commissioned with funds provided by Maliganis Edwards Johnson and Alan Dodge AM 2018
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.
The Australian of the Year Awards have often provoked controversy about who is selected and whether their achievements are remarkable.
The considered matching of artist to subject has produced an amazing collection of unique and original works in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery
The acquisition of David Moore's archive of portrait photographs for the National Portrait Gallery's collection.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
Tim Burstall (1927-2004) set up Eltham Films in the early 1950s, when the local film industry was moribund.
2 portraits in the collection
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
This sample of 56 photographs takes in some of the smallest photographs we own and some of the largest, some of the earliest and some of the most recent, as well as multiple photographic processes from daguerreotypes to digital media.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2016
Rick Amor, noblest yet most unaffected of contemporary Australian portraitists, is also a painter of enigmatic, ominous landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes that haunt the viewer like dreams, dimly-recalled.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Malcolm Robertson in memory of William Thomas Robertson 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.
Commissioned with funds provided by Jim and Barbara Higgins, Sir Roderick Carnegie AC, Rupert Myer AO and Annabel Myer, Louise and Martyn Myer Foundation, Peter and Ruth McMullin, Diana Carlton, Professor Derek Denton AC, Harold Mitchell AC, Peter Jopling AM KC, Andrew and Liz Mackenzie, Patricia Patten, Tamie Fraser AO, Bruce Parncutt and Robin Campbell, Lauraine Diggins, Steven Skala AO and Lousje Skala 2017
When did notions of very fine and very like become separate qualities of a portrait? And what happens to 'very like' in the age of photographic portraiture?
Purchased 2023
In 2021 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Peter Brew-Bevan's portraits of athletes Turia Pitt, Leisel Jones OAM and Ellie Cole OAM.
Penelope Grist unpacks photographs by David Parker, who captured the phenomenal emergence of the 1970s and 80s Melbourne music scene.
Sarah Engledow casts a judicious eye over portraits in the Victorian Bar’s Peter O’Callaghan QC Portrait Gallery.
The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
Peter Wilmoth’s boy-journalist toolkit for antagonising an Australian political giant.
Certain European leaders (needless to name) had the effect of making certain styles of facial hair decidedly undesirable in the years immediately after World War 2.
In its second year at the National Portrait Gallery, and for the first time touring to other venues, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 continues to present surprising perspectives on the nature of contemporary portrait photography.
Commissioned with funds provided by Maliganis Edwards Johnson and Alan Dodge AM 2018
One of the chief aims of George Stubbs, 1724–1806, the late Judy Egerton’s great 1984–85 exhibition at the Tate Gallery was to provide an eloquent rebuttal to Josiah Wedgwood’s famous remark of 1780: “Noboby suspects Mr Stubs [sic] of painting anything but horses & lions, or dogs & tigers.”
The exhibition will include works of art from the NPG Canberra's permanent collection with some inward loans and aims to highlight the achievements of notable Australians.
Sarah Engledow explores the history of the prime ministers and artists featured in the exhibition.
In 2022 the Annual Appeal was focussed on Mayatjara by Robert Fielding, a series of 24 photographs of Elders of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara community.
This exhibition showcases portraits acquired through the generosity of the National Portrait Gallery’s Founding Patrons, L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC.
Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.
The exhibition Portraits for Posterity celebrates gifts to the Gallery, of purchases made with donated funds, and testifies to the generosity and community spirit of Australians.
Dr Sarah Engledow examines a number of figures in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery who were pioneers or substantial supporters of the seminal Australian environmental campaigns of the early 1970s and 1980s.
Rebecca Harkins-Cross considers Carol Jerrems’ portraiture against the backdrop of social change in the 1970s.
This edited version of a speech by Andrew Sayers examines some of the antecedents of the National Portrait Gallery and set out the ideas behind the modern Gallery and its collection.
In his speech launching the new National Portrait Gallery building on 3 December 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set the Gallery in a national and historical context.
Australian character on the market by Jane Raffan.
Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.
Long after the portraitist became indifferent to her, and died, a beguiling portrait hung over its subject.
Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.
Sarah Engledow chronicles Rick Amor's work and accomplishments in this extensive essay in conjunction with the exhibition Rick Amor: 21 Portraits.