Monthly museum news from the University of Sydney
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As we welcome the first week of winter, we are also counting down the days until our museum is completed. The crisp concrete outer shell is now filled with lights, wooden panelling, cabinetry and a strong hint of the awe-inspiring museum this building will become. This month we have for you Episode 2 of our new podcast Object Matters, work from our conservation lab and lots of other exciting announcements. As the end of the financial year draws near, now is the time to make your tax deductible donation to support future museum projects. Your donations bring our ambitious projects to life.
Exhibitions revealed
Enjoy a sneak preview of the first seven of 18 exhibitions you'll be able to see when the museum opens.
Object Matters: Episode 2
This episode features Dr Paul Donnelly, our Deputy Director, discussing three white ground lekythoi. These painted ceramic vessels were used as a grave offering by the ancient Greeks.
New appointments: Academic Engagement Curators
Dr Eve Guerry and Jane Thogersen will be working with diverse teaching staff to introduce university students to our collections.
Djon Mundine honoured with lifetime achievement award
Djon Mundine OAM has been awarded the Red Ochre Award at the 2020 First Nations Arts Awards. Djon is a curatorial collaborator on our upcoming Gululu Dhuwala Djalkiri exhibition.
Conservation feature
Before
After
This Roman marble funerary dedication, or stele, has recently spent some time in our conservation lab. The reverse side features a Latin epitaph, while the side pictured shows a large rosette or shield surrounded by military paraphernalia in each corner: two helmets, body armour and leg armour.
Weeks of conservation work have cleaned the marble to pristine condition, ready to be exhibited as part of Roman Spectres, one of the 18 exhibitions to open in November this year.
Support the conservation of
ancient artefacts
Your donation can bring our conservation and research projects to life.
Education resources available online
Primary and secondary school teachers are encouraged to check out the first two sets of learning resources available now on our website: First World War and Transport in the Past.
Collection item of the month
Remembering Christo
Sydney will never forget Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s bold wrapping of the Little Bay coastline in 1969. While in Sydney, they also made several lesser known 'wrapped' projects, including this proposal for Harry Seidler's new Australia Square tower, then the tallest of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
Its wrappings announce a mysterious presence, which would transform the Sydney skyline. The collage keeps the elegant circular form under wraps, as if the radical puncture it made in the fabric of the city had yet to be unpacked.
Christo (1935–2020)
Packed Public Building, Project for Sydney, Australia, 1969
Collage: pencil, fabric, twine, charcoal, wax, crayon, fabric sample and tape on board, 71 x 56 cm
Donated by Chandler Coventry, 1972, JW Power Collection, University of Sydney, managed by Museum of Contemporary Art (PW1972.9).
Image details (in order of appearance)
1. Banner image: Chau Chak Wing Museum building detail, photo by Brett Boardman.
2. Chau Chak Wing Museum under construction
3. L-R from top: Cacatua leadbeateri (Vigors, 1831); Grace Cossington Smith, Northern Beach, 1931; Marble head of a woman, Roman, 1st century AD; Coffin of the scribe Padiashaikhet, Thebes, Egypt, 25th Dynasty (725-700 BC); David Daymirriŋu Malangi, Manharrŋu clan, Dhuwa moiety, Yolŋu people, Biw’yunnaraw warrakan ŋaṯili dawurr (black cockatoo feather fan), c.1984; [Portrait of a woman] 1888-1900. Photograph: GF Jenkinson, Broken Hill. HP2014.3.2327
4. Attic white ground lekythos, Athens, Greece, 450-425BC; NM41.1, NM41.2, NM41.3
5. Dr Eve Guerry and Jane Thogersen.
6. Djon Mundine and Philip Gudthaykudthay discuss his artwork in the University collections, Bula'bula Arts, Ramingining, Arnhem Land, NT. Photo: R Conway, 2017.
7. Funerary monument with Latin inscription, Roman, 1st to 4th century AD.
8. Conservator Gemma Torra Campos working on a funerary monument with Latin inscription.
9. Students in an object-based learning environment.
10. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Packed Public Building, Project for Sydney, Australia, 1969 (full details above).
