Margaret Olley: A Generous Life

Margaret Olley: A Generous Life is a major free exhibition at GOMA featuring more than 100 works by one of Australia's best loved artists.

The multifaceted exhibition is a celebration of Olley’s extraordinary life as an artist, mentor, muse, passionate collector and donor, taking  audiences on a colourful journey through her life and legacy.

‘A Generous Life’ highlights Olley’s formative years spent in Brisbane, explored through a number of early post-war paintings featuring Farndon, her family home in Brisbane’s Hill End, and iconic landmarks such as St Paul’s Terrace (Spring Hill) 1946, Breakfast Creek Hotel 1946 and the Queensland Treasury Building 1947.

The exhibition highlights Olley’s enduring love of travel and her passion for portraiture, still life and interiors and includes many examples of her painted by other artists, including William Dobell and Jeffrey Smart. There's also a selection of works she bought then generously gifted to public institutions, including pictures by European artists Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Giorgio Morandi, Pablo Picasso, Edouard Vuillard and others.

Nice to know - Showing concurrently at GOMA (from June 29) is an exhibition of 70 works by artist Ben Quilty, for whom.Margaret Olley was a good friend and mentor. Quilty was awarded the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship by Olley in 2002 and it was her portrait that Ben painted to win the Archibald Prize in 2011.

Image credits:

Margaret Olley - Australia, b.1923; Breakfast Creek Hotel (Brisbane) 1947; Oil on canvas / 59.

Margaret Olley - Australia, b.1923; Victoria bridge 1966; Pen and watercolour on paper/ 38.5 x 49cm. Collection: Moreton Bay Regional Council (Caboolture Art Gallery)

Margaret Olley - Australia, b. 1923 (Bananas from the garden, Farndon) 1974–75; Oil on board / 79 × 110cm. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Wayne Kratzmann (Brisbane), 2014. Collection: Tweed Regional Gallery

Paul Cézanne - 19 January 1839;  Banks of the Marne c.1888 Oil on canvas / 86.0 × 102.5 × 11.0cm;  Purchased 2008 with funds provided by the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation, the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales, and donors to the Masterpiece Fund in joint celebration of the Foundation’s 25th anniversary and Edmund Capon AM, OBE’s 30th anniversary as Director of the Gallery.  Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

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