Rock’s raw potency made it the ideal medium for fomenting protest. The 1970s, 80s and onwards saw calls for social and environmental justice ring out through song.
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.
Eye to Eye is a summer Portrait Gallery Collection remix arranged by degree of eye contact – from turned away with eyes closed all the way through to right-back-at-you – as we explore artists’ and subjects’ choices around the direction of the gaze.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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.
Australian photographer Karin Catt has photographed world leaders, a host of rock stars and Oscar-winning compatriots Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, and Cate Blanchett.
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
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2002
Magda Keaney explores the symbolism in eX de Medici's portrait of Midnight Oil.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2001
Peter Garrett AM (b. 1953), musician, environmental activist and former politician, is the lead singer of the band Midnight Oil, which originated around Sydney’s northern beaches in the mid-1970s.
12 portraits in the collection
