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COLLECTIONS
State Art Collection
The Gallery's purpose is to preserve, interpret, display and acquire the visual arts from the past and the present with an emphasis on the art of Western Australia and Indigenous art.
The State Art Collection comprises 16,500 works in a range of media including paintings, sculptures, craft and design, watercolours, drawings, photographs and prints. Indigenous art is a highlight, providing a comprehensive overview of traditional and contemporary art from Western Australia, the Central Desert and Arnhemland. The Collection also has pre-eminent holdings of Western Australian art, craft and design from 1829 to the present.
Policy – State Art Collection – Acquisition 2007 - 2011
The policy provides the direction for all purchases, gifts and loans to the Collection. The State Art Collection increases the knowledge and appreciation of the art of the world for the enjoyment and cultural enrichment of the people of Western Australia. The Collection aspires to be the best public art collection in the State and the pre-eminent collection of Western Australian art. The Collection provides primary access to art, heritage and ideas locally, regionally and internationally now and for future generations.
The priority is to expand the principal strength of the Collection – art with a central theme of human habitation in the environment. Stories of Habitation encompasses works of art across all areas of the Collection. They are often figurative and landscape based works which can be described as secular, religious and Indigenous works that embrace the subject of human habitation, endeavour, beliefs and cultural critique. Through Stories of Habitation the Collection builds dialogues to support visitor engagment with the art of Western Australia and the art of the world.
International historical and contemporary art
The Art Gallery of Western Australia will continue to acquire works of art that build upon the principal strength of the Collection Stories of Habitation.
Indigenous art
The Gallery will continue to acquire Australian Indigenous art, with a particular focus on enriching the representation of Western Desert, Kimberley and South West artists and communities. Clusters of works of art will be identified and developed to reflect a breadth of artists, to reinforce the strength of the community context and present the diversity of Indigenous artistic practice.
Australian art
The Gallery will continue to acquire works of art by Australian artists with national reputations, from the historical and contemporary periods. In so doing, it will further enhance the Collection's key strengths and movements and reinforce its representation of existing artists in the Collection. Further, The Gallery will seek to introduce the work of emerging artists.
Western Australian art
The Art Gallery of Western Australia will represent Western Australian artists with exemplary work from the historical and contemporary period. It will continue to foster the representation of key strengths, movements and/or artists and introduce the work of emerging artists to ensure the pre-eminence of this most unique area of concentration in the State Art Collection.
