BILL HENSON
THREE DECADES OF PHOTOGRAPHY
8 JANUARY - 3 APRIL
Bill Henson's powerful and edgy photographs bring together the formal and classical with the gritty, casual dramas of the everyday. Henson is a master of the use of light and dark in the tradition of the great European masters. Beautiful, confronting and unforgettable, his images enliven, and sometimes unsettle, our own sense of being. This landmark exhibition is the first major survey of Bill Henson's work and a key visual arts event in the 2005 Sydney Festival.

Bill Henson Untitled 1985/86 (detail)

ARTEXPRESS
OUTSTANDING HSC STUDENT ARTWORKS FROM 2004
29 JANUARY - 27 MARCH
ARTEXPRESS showcases the major works of students achieving the highest results in HSC Visual Arts. The Art Gallery of New South Wales has been the primary venue for ARTEXPRESS since it was first displayed in 1983. Since then the ARTEXPRESS exhibition has developed a high profile and enthusiastic following of over 100 000 visitors each year.

Michelle Heldon, Kirrawee High School When I was little they called me Nim (detail)

�ERKEZ AND FUSINATO
5 FEBRUARY - 20 MARCH
Mutlu �erkez's haunting self-portraits and Marco Fusinato's lush monochromatic paintings are at first glance visually incompatible. The recent collaborations by these artists, however, explore their artistic difference together with their similar interests in time and language. In this exhibition each artist will exhibit one new painting along with a more spontaneous collaborative work in which representation and abstraction find common ground.

Mutlu Cerkez Untitled: 18th April 2013 2002

DADANG CHRISTANTO
THEY GIVE EVIDENCE
25 FEBRUARY � 29 MAY
Dadang Christanto's larger-than-life sculptures speak eloquently for the victims of oppression and social injustice. The 16 male and female figures in this installation formed the first exhibition in the new Asian galleries and have since been purchased by the Gallery. The figures represent displaced victims, mutely carrying bodies of innocent men, women and children - testament to the inhumanity of humanity, a silent moment to communal grief.

Dadang Christanto They give evidence (detail)

BOUCHER, WATTEAU AND THE ORIGIN OF ROCOCO
5 MARCH - 1 MAY
Fran�ois Boucher was regarded during his lifetime as the greatest living draughtsmen in France.
Along with his predecessor Antoine Watteau and contemporaries, Boucher was responsible for the development of the style which became known as the rococo - intimate, dainty, graceful and pleasure loving. Assembled to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Boucher's birth, the exhibition features works from one of the foremost collections of Old Master drawings in the world, the �cole Nationale Sup�rieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Fran�ois Boucher Project for a frontispiece: a group of putti around a drapery (detail)

ARCHIBALD WYNNE AND SULMAN PRIZE
THE CITIGROUP PRIVATE BANK
AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE
30 APRIL - 3 JULY
The nation's favourite and most prestigious prize for portraiture is always a source of entertainment and controversy. 'No other art prize in this country comes close to challenging its position as a genuinely national event, and no other art prize has managed not only to survive, but to flourish with such implausible flamboyance over eighty years.' Edmund Capon, director Art Gallery of NewSouth Wales

Craig Ruddy David Gulpilil, two worlds, winner of the 2004 Archibald Prize

TRANQUILLITY
LYNDELL BROWN & CHARLES GREEN, GEORGE FARRELL & ROSE PARKIN
7 MAY - 19 JUNE
The long-term collaborative partnerships of Lyndell Brown and Charles Green, and George Farrell and Rose Parkin have created a new dialogue between their respective practices. Visually manipulated archival photography, video footage and a reproduction of Benjamin Rush's medicinal Tranquilising Chair from the 18th century explore notions of memory, amnesia and identity erasure. The works suggest self-editing of our experiences and identity.

Lyndell Brown and Charles Green Sanctuary 2002

RAJPUT: SONS OF KINGS
8 JUNE - 4 SEPTEMBER
This exhibition presents approximately 90 paintings depicting Rajput courtly life from the 1600s to the 1800s. Created in the princely states of Rajasthan, including Mewar, Bikaner and Bundi, the paintings encapsulate the vitality and sensuality of life at the maharana's court. The daily activities of the courtiers and their retinue of sardars, entertainers and servants are narrated in lively compositions.
National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition

Maharana Bhim Singh worshipping Annapurna (detail) c1825

MARGARET PRESTON: ART AND LIFE
30 JULY - 23 OCTOBER
One of Australia's most celebrated artists, Margaret Preston created some of the most popular, enduring and iconic works of Australian art. The Art Gallery of New South Wales is delighted to present The art of Margaret Preston, touring nationally in 2006. This continues the Gallery's tradition of organising some of the most significant and popular retrospective exhibitions of Australia's leading artists.

Margaret Preston Implement blue 1927

WOLFGANG LAIB
The Third BALNAVES Foundation SCULPTURE PROJECT 
22 JULY - 18 SEPTEMBER
Wolfgang Laib is an artist who works within, and collaborates with, nature. In spring he goes out into the landscape and meticulously collects pollen from hazel and pine trees. Each tree produces a different coloured pollen and these are used to make a series of monochrome 'paintings' on the floor of the gallery. In addition to the Pollen series he also makes simple beeswax houses, wax boats and even walls of wax.

Wolfgang Laib House 1990

DOBELL PRIZE FOR DRAWING
2 SEPTEMBER - 20 NOVEMBER
The most important drawing prize in Australia, this award was established in 1993 as an initiative of the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation to encourage excellence in drawing and draughtsmanship and to honour a great Australian artist who excelled at drawing, William Dobell (1899-1970).

Kevin Connor Le Grand Palais, Cl�menceau, de Gaulle and me (detail). Winner of the 2005 Dobell Prize for Drawing. � Kevin Connor

THE POETIC MANDARIN
JAMES HAYES CALLIGRAPHY COLLECTION
23 SEPTEMBER - 27 NOVEMBER
The James Hayes' gift to the Art Gallery comprises calligraphy ranging from the late Ming period to the early 20th century and is a great addition to the Gallery's collection. Composed by scholar-officials from Guangdong and other provinces of China, the calligraphic works offer insights into China's elite literary and court culture. The collection presents a harmonious combination of calligraphy in different styles and mediums.

Duanfang (1861-1911) Calligraphy (detail) 1905

GRACE COSSINGTON SMITH
4 NOVEMBER 05 - 15 JANUARY 06
Grace Cossington Smith played a vital role in the development of modernism in Australia. This exhibition traces Cossington Smith's artistic development through paintings and drawings as well as through her many sketchbooks to reveal an artist of considerable depth, insight and spirituality.
National Gallery of Australia touring exhibition

Grace Cossington Smith The curve of the bridge 1928�29 (detail)

CAMILLE PISSARRO
19 NOVEMBER 05 - 19 FEBRUARY 06
Camille Pissarro was the only painter of the impressionist group to participate in all eight of the historic impressionist exhibitions held in Paris between 1874 and 1886. Not only was he the mainstay of the group, he was also the most astute judge of young talent. C�zanne and Gauguin both acknowledged their profound debt to Pissarro's innovative methods. The Art Gallery's major summer show for 2005-06 and the largest exhibition of Pissarro's work to be presented in Australia, the exhibition will show Pissarro's painting, drawing and printmaking at its best.

Pissarro Peasants' houses Eragny 1887

GENERAL INFORMATION
Art Gallery of New South Wales,
Art Gallery Road The Domain Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Telephone: + 61 2 9225 1744 or toll free: 1800 679 278
Website www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
Open 7 days a week, 10am to 5pm
(closed Chirstmas Day and Easter Friday)
Art After Hours: late opening until 9pm on Wednesdays
Admission is free, charges may apply to some exhibitions.
Please note dates and exhibitions subject to change.