Public art in the City of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia includes a wide range of works across a range of genres and for a range of purposes or combination of purposes. Some are purely artistic, some are commemorative, some are both. Some are monuments or memorials; some are also fountains and some are site-specific. In some buildings, such as Australia Square and Grosvenor Place by Harry Seidler as well as Aurora Place by Renzo Piano, the art is a component of the architect's intentions. Occasionally, works are removed or repositioned.[1][2] The City of Sydney has a Public Art Policy[3] and conservation work is carried on from time to time to maintain the works.[4]
The materials used vary widely but include traditional marble (such as in Touchstone) and bronze (such as in the Archibald Fountain) as well as steel (such as in New Constellation and I Stay), concrete (such as in I Wish and Barrel Roll) and newer materials like aluminium (such as in Vine and Morpho). In the 21st century, kinetic, musical, and conceptual works began to appear.
Some memorials (such as the Levy Drinking Fountain) are in the form of a fountain; others (such as William Dalley) are in the form of a portrait statue. The Lawson Memorial commemorates a writer; John Christie Wright Memorial Fountain commemorates a sculptor; the Dobell Memorial commemorates a painter, the Morshead Fountain commemorates a soldier; Il Porcellino commemorates surgeons. As well as memorials to individuals or groups, matters of importance to Sydney such as navigation and the environment are also commemorated. The bronze portraits of James Cook, Arthur Phillip and Matthew Flinders also pay tribute to their skills in exploration and navigation.
Recurring themes include flora, children and classical or abstract allusion. Local flora is represented by sculptures such as Veil of Trees, Edge of the Trees and Into the Trees II.Busby's Bore takes water as its subject; indigenous fauna is interpreted in Dancing Brolgas and domesticated animals in Trim, Islay and Mare and Foal. The lives and importance of children are acknowledged in the Tank Stream Fountain, Windlines, Youngsters and the memorial to Hans Christian Andersen. Some (such as The Offerings of Peaceand The Offerings of War) employ classical references to convey an abstract meaning; others (such as Research) use abstracted forms to convey an idea.
Scope
The list below is of works whose purpose is at least partly artistic and located in the New South Wales local government area of the City of Sydney. Outside the scope of this list are objects and installations that are: located in the suburbs of Greater Sydney; primarily water features, such as the fountains in Martin Place and in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House; purely memorial objects such as the obelisk of botanist Allan Cunningham in the Royal Botanic Garden; and temporary exhibitions containing sculptures for sale such as those displayed in the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition or other public spaces like Barangaroo.[5] The list is ordered chronologically and reveals how art has moved from the "pedagogical: kings, generals, prophets and heroes on pedestals, striking poses that were supposed to demonstrate power, nobility and citizenship" to "something ... that brings a site to life, triggers engagement, prompts discussion and reflection''.[6]
Nineteenth century
Commissions for sculpture came from three main sources: the Church, the State and the private sponsor.[7] In the later part of the nineteenth century, there was "an active artistic relationship between Australia and Britain".[8]
Statue of Governor Richard Bourke, in his Lieutenant-General's uniform, unveiled on 11 April 1842 after a grand ceremonial procession. For the event, the banks and "nearly all the mercantile institutions and respectable shops were closed."[9]Conrad Martens did a painting in oils of the statue and Sydney Harbour in 1842. The painting is now in the collections of the Mitchell Library.[10][11]
Statue of Prince Albert, represented wearing the full robes and insignia of a Knight of the Garter and holding a field-marshall's baton. Originally placed in Hyde Park.[15] He is positioned looking across Macquarie Street at Boehm's statue of his Queen.
A monument to the celebrated explorer James Cook.[17][18][19] Woolner wrote: "My idea is, ... to make an animated figure filled with wonder and delight, in the moment of discovering a new country; smitten by the sun, he would always stand a shining welcome to all comers to the fair Australian land."[20]
The original was erected prior to 1880. In 1990 it was removed and a bronze cast made of it; the replacement was erected in the same location in 1994.[23]
A copy of a famous work by Antonio Canova, one of eight brought from Italy in 1883 and put back in the Garden in 2009 after vandalisation and restoration by master mason, Jacek Luszcyk.[26][27] The restored statue was unveiled in July 2009.[28]
Autumn
and
Winter
Royal Botanic Garden
Two of four neoclassical sculptures representing The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Both "Spring" and "Summer" had been decapitated and Summer's head had been lost. As well, various pieces were missing. The works were restored and re-placed in the Garden.[27]
The subject is two famous boxers of 400 BC. The original Canova is in the Vatican Museums.[22] Most of the classic marble figures in the Botanic Garden, including "The Boxers" were copied from plaster models made by Charles Francis Summers (son and pupil of Charles Summers). Summers, whose "forte is the ideal", was known for copies from the antique. During a residence in Rome of 30 years he had been granted access by the Vatican authorities, and possessed "some exceedingly valuable casts."[29]
The colony at the time, "unfortunately", wrote a contemporary critic, had no example of Canova's grace. Comparing "The Boxers" unfavourably with another classical copy ("The Quoit-thrower") he said that "The 'Boxers" are "two actors from the Théâtre Français in an attitude with their clothes off." Nonetheless, he concluded that "We must not deny their excellence, however, in their own particular style."[30]
Unveiled in the Centennial year of 1888, Boehm's monument to Queen Victoria can be seen in position near Hyde Park in early 20th century photographs.[31] The Queen, dressed in brocade, wears the crown, her left hand holds the orb and cross, her right hand points the sceptre to the earth.[32]
One of the few remaining large public drinking fountains in Sydney.[33] A young girl stands with reeds, herons and frogs. Art Nouveau in style and "...is an important example of aestheticism in Sydney".[34] It is made from polished red and white granite; the figure is bronze.[35] Gifted to the memory of Lewis Wolfe Levy (1815–1885) by his family.
Purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and donated to the Garden in 1958.[41]
c1893
Allan Cunningham
Tomaso Sani
Lands Building
Portrait of botanist Allan Cunningham, depicted with his hand resting on a column of waratahs. One of a series of sandstone sculptures in the niches of the facades of Lands Building. They are all of a uniform size – 200cm x 60 x 50 (9ft 6 ins tall). They were cleaned and refurbished in 1979/80 by the Public Works Department.[42]
Bronze over life-size likeness of William Bede Dalley, whose unveiling on Easter Tuesday 1897 was reportedly attended by 10,000 people.[43][44] A critic wrote that the sculptor "was cruelly handicapped by the stumpy figure and square-jawed face of his subject (however beloved and talented – and he was both!) ..."[32]
One of a pair of architectural sculptures for the new Queen Victoria Markets building. Tenders were called and MacIntosh was awarded the commission.[46]
One of a pair of architectural sculptures for the new Queen Victoria Markets building. Tenders were called and MacIntosh was awarded the commission.[46]
Bronze sculpture 15 feet 6 inches in height outside the Royal Exchange Building, formerly on the roof of the now demolished stock exchange building.[47][48] The sculpture was regarded as marking "a new development in the history of Sculptural art in Australia" and was made "in the manner of" the statue of "Liberty" in New York. "Commerce is represented by an ideal female figure standing upon the globe on either side of which are placed emblems of the staple industries of the State — sheaves of wheat, miners' tools, ram's head and skin, and an anchor — and holding in her left hand the Caduceus of Mercury, the accepted symbol of commerce, and in her right, a branch of laurel."[49]
Twentieth century
By the twentieth century, the "basic traditional concepts of sculpture were challenged and radically undermined" giving rise to modern sculpture.[7]
The bronze life-sized statue in memory of five-times Premier Robertson was funded by public subscription and unveiled on 24 September 1904.[50][16] Them pedestal is of trachyte with a rock faced shaft and "classical leaf cornice capping".[51] It bears the inscription "Sir John Robertson, K.C.M.G. Patriot, Statesman, Prime Minister of New South Wales 1817–1891."[52]
Monument to Scottish poet Robert Burns.[53] A committee representing the Scottish associations in the State, and presided by Sir Normand MacLaurin, collected funds to erect a memorial in honour of the poet.[54] Burns anniversary services were held near the statue.[55]
A painted cast-iron three-tiered fountain in memory of actor Robert Brough.[57][58][59] A group of brolgas is surmounted by black swans with crimson beaks. The sculpture was cast in the Colebrookdale Factory in England.[34][60]
Made and installed originally in Ireland, the statue was moved to Sydney and inaugurated on 20 December 1987 by Queen Elizabeth II[61]
1912
Lion and Lioness
Royal Botanic Garden,
outside Lion Gate Lodge
A pair of bronze lions donated to the Botanic Garden in 1912 from the estate of Edward Sanders. Restored in 1989 and returned in 1990. Popular with children for generations.[62]
Bronze equestrian memorial statue on sandstone plinth. Funded by public subscription, the City of Sydney, and the State Government, it was unveiled on Empire Day,12 years after the King's death.[64]
Companion piece to Offerings of War outside the Gallery.[65] The models for the works are the Elgin Marbles, and the rider carrys Greek theatre masks of Tragedy and Comedy, representing "the arts" and "plenty".[66] The inscription on the base reads:
The Real and Lasting VictoriesAre those of Peace and Not of War.
Companion piece to Offerings of Peace outside the Gallery.[67] The rider holds a staff, a bundle of swords and broken spear shafts.[66] The inscription on the base reads:
That our House may stand foreverand that Justice and Mercy grow.
Bronze cast of an original first exhibited in 1924, "...modelled from the artist's brother, whose death inspired Kenneth Slessor to write Five Bells."[16] The sculpture was subsequently considered too pagan to be on public display. In storage until placed in the Royal Botanic Garden in 1977.[68][69]
Statue of Matthew Flinders, navigator who explored and charted the coast of Australia. In consequence of Sir Flinders Petrie's 1922 offer of his grandfather's papers to the first State in Australia to erect a statue in Matthew's honour, Flinders' papers are now part of the Mitchell Library collection.[70]
Bronze memorial statue of William Shakespeare standing above representations of some characters from his tragedies (Romeo, Juliet, Othello, and Portia) and Falstaff from one of his comedies and two of his histories. Unveiled in 1926, repositioned in 1959.[73]
Statue of Patrick Francis Moran (the third Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney) was unveiled by Cardinal Cerretti before an estimated quarter of a million people.[74][75] Mackennal began work on this and its companion statue of Archbishop Kelly on his return to England from Australia in 1926.[76]
Bronze memorial to writer Henry Lawson. Henry's son Jim was the model for his father's figure, and Conrad von Hagen posed as the swagman. Unveiled on 28 July 1931 by New South Wales Governor Sir Philip Game.[78]
Commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church for £1200. Modelled in plaster using Sten Snekker as the model and co-signed by Murch. Cast in bronze in London. Portrays a soldier in an accurately rendered uniform with a natural expression, in a style between realism and idealism.[79]
Mackennal's bronze statue of Archbishop Kelly is a pair with one of Cardinal Moran by the same sculptor outside St Mary's Cathedral.[81] Unveiled on 5 March 1933 in the presence of thousands of people and described as a "splendid life likeness".[82]
Once described as "Sydney's most moving example of publicly visible sculpture".[83] The soldier is "surrounded by a circle of bronze paving symbolising flames".[35] He is supported by three women who represent his mother, his sister and his wife and child. Their heads are bowed and they are presented in the form of a column.[35] The bronze casting is described as "superb".[84]
Bronze fountain of "Eros" or "Cupid" in the Memorial Garden to Pioneers on the site of the Garden Palace dome.[68] The sculpture is in the middle of a pool of water which is part of the composition.[35]
One bronze door of two pairs that illustrate elements of Australian history at the entrance to the Mitchell library. Donated in memory of David Scott Mitchell, after whom the building is named, by Sir William Dixson, one of the other major benefactors to the library. Principal librarian William Ifould supported the idea of "panels illustrating scenes from the lives of Australian Aboriginal people".[85] The doors were first modelled in plaster by Wunderlich and the company returned them to the Library in 1973.[86]
Bust and hands of a girl, formed of pink concrete and placed on a sandstone plinth engraved with the title of the work. Commissioned by Leo Buring.[16] It is located on the site of Sydney's first "Wishing Tree",[16] a Norfolk Island pine.
Bronze bust of Governor Phillip, originally in First Fleet Park, Circular Quay. Unveiled in present location in 2014 in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Phillip's death.[87][88]
A tribute to industry and scientific research, commissioned by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).[92] It presents "symbolic figures representing aspects of science and technology looking to the heavens..." and has since been relocated from the company's former headquarters on Macquarie Street.[93]
Curved copper bowl with overflowing water from single jet, erected in memory of sculptor John Christie Wright, who had been Art Instructor at the Teachers' College in Sydney University and Principal of the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts. He was killed in action in France in May 1917, during World War I.[94][95] Restored in 2012.[96]
The full text of the proverb is Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur, which translates from the Latin as "A true friend in uncertain times", and is the motto of AMP. The sculpture is fixed on the Quay Quarter Tower.[97]
Commemorates the Australian involvement in the First and Second Battle of El Alamein. Rare commemoration of battle rather than individual participants. Award-winning and influential design.[98][99]
Private monument in tribute to business leader Frederic Joseph Walker and "all those who pioneered primary industry in Australia". A fountain plus three sandstone figures depicting Water (represented as a fisherman); Fire (represented as a woman); and Earth (represented as a farmer).[100]
Commemorating Busby's Bore, "Sydney's sole source of water until 1859".[101]
Wall Enrichment
Bim Hilder
Reserve Bank, Martin Place
Copper and bronze work set high on marble wall. Hilder is quoted as saying it forms "an integrating and disintegrating galaxy, representative of the manner in which nations and communities come together, and separate".[102]
A wall-mounted sculpture that in 1963 was satirised on the cover of Oz magazine as a public urinal and "enjoys a kind of celebrity status as a landmark."[93] The sculptor defended the magazine, saying it was "fair comment".[103]
Non-representational work c.5 metres high resulting from Hinder's winning competition entry in 1962. Technically difficult to instal and aesthetically difficult against the "distracting" effects of the white marble pillar on the building behind it.[104]
Commissioned by Harry Seidler, architect of the building outside which the sculpture is installed. An example of Seidler's way of relating architecture and sculpture.[106][107] During conservation treatment, it was discovered that "some of the original bolt heads have a C for Calder on them".[4]
A popular memorial to Thomas and Piero Fiaschi, honorary surgeons at the hospital. The boar is a replica of Tacca's 1547 original Porcellino, located at the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo in Florence.[4][109]
A weathered steel sculpture acquired for the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1979[114] that has been described as "a tour de force in which parts barely touch and casually levitate".[115]
1979
First Impressions
Bud Dumas
Rocks Square,
The Rocks
"The Settlers", one part of a three-sided sculpture in Sydney sandstone representing people who established the new colony in Sydney. They other two sides show "The Soldier" and "The Convict". Commissioned by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority and presented by the Fellowship of First Fleet ers.[35]
Presented to the people of Sydney by the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation in his memory. Originally located in Martin Place; moved to present position in 1999. The work is affectionately known as the "Silver Shish Kebab"[116]
Memorial to the First Fleet symbolised by large burnished brass rings linked in a chain.[118] The sculpture symbolises the close bonds between the cities of Portsmouth and Sydney as a result of the voyage. The plinth was donated by the Fellowship of First Fleeters. The granite block above the plinth was quarried in Dartmoor, England and donated to the City of Sydney.
Also known as the Children's Fountain, the work is dedicated to "all the children who have played around the Tank Stream". A series of separate linked pools, it uses both figurative and non-figurative forms, and includes "an array of Australian flora and fauna, such as frogs, snakes, goannas, echidnas, crabs, birds and tortoises [which] appear to be playing in the pools."[119]
Goodwin said he would describe his sculpture "as a cylindrical tower of white concrete panels, rather like a Tower of Babel, with a sea of figures spiralling towards the top. It is symbolic of the human struggle for survival; a sort of journey through life or a depiction of time, metaphorically."[120] The work is 500 x 450cm.
Blue plate steel shapes.[121] The artist is described as "iconoclastic and irreverent, treating sculpture with a lighthearted and improvisatory dash."[122]
A bronze of Queen Victoria's pet Skye Terrier called Islay, modelled from a sketch done by the Queen in 1842.[123] The sculpture sits in a sandstone wishing well in which a stone from the battlements of Blarney Castle is embedded and the recorded voice of John Laws asks for donations which are given to the deaf and blind children of New South Wales.[124]
A three part wall mounted sculpture using oil paint on magnesium, a "dynamic and colourful presence" in the building's foyer. One of the collaborations between architect Harry Seidler and artists.[125]
Bronze sculpture representing Governor William Bligh. Unveiled 18 December 1987.[35] Clark is quoted as saying that he has "yet to find any material that gives me so much satisfaction as bronze."[95]
1988
Pioneer Women's Memorial
Alex Koloszy
Jessie Street Square, Loftus Street
The memorial to the pioneering women of Australia comprises two bronze statues. Located in the garden named after Jessie Street.[127] It shows a mother in realistic clothing with two children who are pointing eagerly.[35]
Life size realistic bronze of a person engaged in an everyday activity, typical of Johnson's work.[128]
Dragon Wall
Ceramic artists from Guandong Province, China
Chinese Garden
A ceramic wall 4 metres high x 7 metres wide depicting two dancing dragons, playing with the "pearl of prosperity". Installed as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations.[35]
Statue in bronze of a uniformed woman standing in front of a sandstone wall featuring various insignia of military divisions in which women served in World War II. Dedicated to "the wartime servicewomen of New South Wales". The artist served in the AIF and the sculpture was unveiled by Rear Admiral Sir David Martin.[129][130]
Bronze portrait bust of the artist Lloyd Rees (1895–1988). The inscription on the plaque set in a sandstone pedestal reads: "A City is the greatest work of art possible".[131]
Gift of the artist to the Art Gallery of New South Wales[133] Whiteley's work was said to be a tongue-in-cheek self-portrait: "inspired ordinariness grown out of control".[134]
Interpretation of a willy willy in the building's foyer.
The inscription incised into the base reads: "His Excellency ARTHUR PHILLIP Esq, governor in Chief, landed in this Cove with the first Settlers of this country, the 24th Day of January, 1788." An example of Broad's "continued preference for bronze, and his concern with the great figurative tradition".[135] He acquired knowledge of casting in the bronze foundries of Italy.[136]
A matched pair of bronze figure sculptures by an artist who "blends the real and the abstract" and "draws inspiration from Greco-Roman ruins and art deco forms as well as contemporary abstracts".[139]
To Sail, To Stop
Ingrid Orfali
Sydney Square, near the Town Hall
A large bronze work designed to "represent both an anchor and a ship".[140] It commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove and also Viscount Sydney, after whom the city is named. The monument was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II.
A "forest" of trees comprising 29 pillars of wood, steel and sandstone to symbolise first contact between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people at the site.[142]
The subject is Matthew Flinders' cat who as Flinders' pet during his voyage of 1801–1803, is notable for being the first cat to circumnavigate Australia.[143] The sculpture was erected by public subscription of cat-lovers.
Bronze fountain, one of many water features done by the artist.[147]
Thai lion
Royal Botanic Garden
One of a pair of bronze lions ("Temple Dogs") in the Oriental Garden. Made in Thailand. Purchased in Annandale in 1977, donated by Friends of the Garden in 1998.[62]
Copper sculpture depicting folded palm fronds. Installed near Phoenix reclinata palm in the garden.[148] Even though the artist claimed not to be interested in structures in nature, saying that her "ideas develop from the materials which I use ... and in what materials will do",[122] natural forms are everywhere in Oliver's work and are also often the subject.[149]
One of many memorials to the Great Famine. The names of 400 women who arrived as famine orphans are etched into the glass part of the memorial walls.[152]
Artwork made of coloured glass modules and stainless steel lines set into the pavement in five place to mark the watercourse of the Tank Stream river. Etched quote from the diaries of Watkin Tench.[154]
A trunk of a yellow box eucalyptus, partially covered in gold leaf with water dripping from one of the upper branches. Installed at the entrance to Chinatown to "encourage harmony and serenity" and incorporating "the five natural elements – of wood, water, earth, fire and gold to harmonise the natural environment with the urban environment". The tree itself came from Condobolin – where early Chinese migrants to Australia came to the goldfields.[156]
Three bronze fountains in the shape of large overflowing bowls, representing Georgian washrooms, in a house that is recalled by a floor plan inlaid on the pavement. Periodically a mist rises from vents along the inlay, evoking the house's walls. A site-specific work designed for the 2000 Olympics and also the 2001 Centenary of Federation.[157]
Kinetic air-wheel sculpture, described as "the perfect spatial counterpart" to the foyer space which is clad in terracotta tiles made by NBK Baukeramik of Germany to "anchor the building to the earth" and granite.[159][160][161]
Painting commissioned for the foyer of the building and positioned against the distinctive terracotta ceramic tiles, similarly to the Prentice sculpture in the same space. Abstract composition.[159][162]
The idea came from a suggestion in a sketch book from the colony's early history that a folly was built for the Governor Macquarie's wife and contains various references including a component of the Macquarie coat of arms at the apex. It is sited across Farm Cove looking towards Mrs Macquarie's Chair.[164]
Located between the old Teachers college and the Women's Sports Centre at the university, the statue of Gilgamesh was commissioned by the Assyrian community.[165]
Statue of Athena offered to the City of Sydney and unveiled during his visit to the city for the 2000 Olympic Games, by the Mayor of Athens, Mr Demetres Avramopoulos.[166]
The 20th century sculptor Tom Bass described himself as "a maker of totems – symbolic, widely recognisable forms that embody social, cultural and spiritual meanings for a community – for a city, a corporate client or humanity in general", however, noted Sydney art critic John McDonald critic has commented that "only nowadays our malaise is cultural illiteracy."[93] In the twenty-first century, citizens and viewers of public art no longer share a common theology and world-view nor a "general grasp of symbolism and numerology". The absence of such a "shared cultural lexicon" means that sculptors have had to master more than form, medium, composition and technique to create meaning with their works.[169]
Sculpture representing the Southern Cross and mounted in the vestibule of the Mitchell wing of the Library. Made from "cobalt blue glass, stainless steel, clear perspex and fibre optic lights" and is "inspired by one of the earliest known images [of the constellation]" in the Florentian manuscript Lettera di Andrea Corsali (1516).[172]
A boulder from the New South Wales Central Coast with a painted face, resting where it had been ceremoniously dropped as part of the 2004 Sydney Biennale – on a 1999 Ford Festiva parked on the Sydney Opera House forecourt. Now permanently installed on a roundabout near the Harbour Bridge. It is a work that is "both a performance and an installation", and is "concerned with monuments and monumentality, but also with nature".[174]
Two bright yellow signs, in the style and material of a roadworks warning sign, "acting as book ends" to the roundabout featuring Still Life with Stone and Car (2004).[175] Both read "Artwork Ahead" on one side and "End Artwork" on the other.
The sculptor has said: "Words are sonic magic ... I want to give sculptural weight to language."[176]
Memory Lines
Ingrid Skirka
Darling Harbour
A memorial to working people "whose lives have been cut short in the pursuit of earning a living". The work was unveiled on the Workers International Day of Mourning.[177] A plaque in the ground nearby reads "A place to reflect upon dignity and respect of others at work"
A 16.5m column or "tendril" of welded aluminium strands, suspended from the ceiling in the hotel's foyer.[178] The artist said it was "intended to be like a vine or a tendril, reaching up to light", and "echo the meandering path of guests as they moved up" the hotel's tiers.[151]
A replica of the sculpture done by Bissen in 1865. Commissioned by the Australian Danish community, presented to the City of Sydney for the bicentennial celebrations of Andersen's birth, unveiled by Frederik and Mary, Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark.[179]
The title comes from the name of a large tropical butterfly with iridescent wings. Aluminium scales are attached to wall-mounted panels and reflected light animates the surface.[183]
Jay Flowers was commissioned by the Darling Harbour Authority in 1988, and was one of several works of public art for Darling Harbour selected by a special advisory committee under the chairmanship of Neville Wran. The sculpture was designed by Robert Parr, a teacher of sculpture at the Canberra School of Art, and executed in cut and welded steel by K and G Fabrications of Unanderra. The five outsize blooms mounted on stems made from gently out-curving Rolled Steel Joists represent a bunch of Australian flannel flowers.[184][185]
The first official Korean War memorial in NSW, featuring 136 steel and bronze hibiscus flowers (representing the number of Australian soldiers killed), and a mound of 11 stones (representing the battles in which Australian soldiers received honours) surrounded by a stone circle inspired by the form of a taegeuk.[186][187]
The stump of an old gum tree (Eucalyptus tereticornis) carved in the traditional aboriginal manner. The different patterns on the tree represent different tribal groups across New South Wales. "YuraBirong" means "people of this place".[191]
Brightly coloured ellipsoidal surfaces drawn from the shapes of the building. A private commission, chosen by the building's owners and architects.[193][6]
The sculpture consists of two parts – a wave and a monolith. The former is constructed from 260 blocks of Sydney sandstone with a combined weight of 350 tonnes. The latter consists of "16,000 threaded quartz pebbles" and decorated with a pattern from the Sydney Shield,[197][198] an aboriginal object in the collection of the Australian Museum and made during the period of earliest European settlement.[199]
The sculpture commemorates the songs of fifty birds, such as the Spotted pardalote, once heard in central Sydney.[200] A popular temporary art work that was made permanent.[6]
Kinetic sculpture whose form references the enormous circular brewing-vat support found in the nearby decommissioned Brewery Yard building. The off-centred encircling motion of the ring is a re-imagining of brewing alchemy and the effects of alcohol.[201]
One of two figures in the tradition of monumental bronzes but in the size of a child wearing contemporary street clothes. The other child is doing a handstand.[202]
Work named after the sculptor's experience surfing at Whale Beach and created by concrete cast from a large dug hole.[203] Winner of Sculpture by the Sea in 2012.[196]
A conceptual artwork using scrolling digital sign of light-emitting diodes in blue, green and red.[206] Attached to a four-sided, 19-metre long, and diagonal steel column of the building's ground floor it features a series of "...songs, poems, stories and other texts by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Straight Islanders [sic]".[207]
A series of 60 handcrafted bronze birds expressing the loneliness resulting from Australia's being so distant from the rest of the world. One bird is situated near the Obelisk of Distances, designed by Francis Greenway.[209][210]
As part of the renovation of the escalators in Wynyard railway station, 244 of the wooden treads and 4 "combs" from the original installed in 1931, were repurposed and installed in a twisting sculpture on the ceiling above the new escalator.[214][215][216] Winner of the judges choice at the 2018 National Trust Heritage Awards.[217]
A memorial to the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis, the work consists of 210 handmade glass flowers, embedded into the pavement near the site of the event.[218]
Booth, Chris, Edward Lucie-Smith, Gregory O'Brien and Ken Scarlett (2001) Sculpture in Europe, Australia & New Zealand, Auckland, N.Z.: Godwit. ISBN1869620739
Scarlett, Ken (1980) Australian sculptors, West Melbourne, Vic.: Nelson. ISBN0170052923
Sturgeon, Graeme (1978) The development of Australian sculpture, 1788–1975, London: Thames and Hudson, ISBN050027116X
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Robert Lyall "Alfie" Hannaford, is an Australian realist artist notable for his drawings, paintings, portraits and sculptures. He is a great-great-great-grandson of Susannah Hannaford.
Cahill Expressway is an urban freeway in Sydney and was the first freeway constructed in Australia, first opening to traffic in 1958. It links the southern foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, over an elevated roadway and through a series of sunken cuttings and tunnels between the Royal Botanic Garden and The Domain, to Woolloomooloo in Sydney's inner-eastern suburbs.
Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal, usually known as Bertram Mackennal, was an Australian sculptor and medallist, most famous for designing the coinage and stamps bearing the likeness of George V. He signed his work "BM".
Centenary Square, formerly known as Bicentennial Square, is a civic square located in the heart of Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia. It faces the 1883 Parramatta Town Hall and St John's Cathedral. The square was listed on the Parramatta City Council local government heritage list on 20 August 1999.
Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Eastern Suburbs Crematorium and Botany General Cemetery, is a cemetery and crematorium on Bunnerong Road in Matraville, New South Wales, in the eastern suburbs district of Sydney, Australia.
Ellen José (1951 – 2 June 2017) was an Australian Indigenous artist, photographer and anarchist. She was a Torres Strait Islander descendant from Murray, Darnley and Horn Islands who lived in Melbourne with husband and fellow anarchist Joseph Toscano.
Gilbert William Bayes was an English sculptor. His art works varied in scale from medals to large architectural clocks, monuments and equestrian statues and he was also a designer of some note, creating chess pieces, mirrors and cabinets.
Margel Ina Harris Hinder was an Australian-American modernist sculptor, noted for her kinetic and public sculptural works. Her sculptures are found outside the Australian Reserve Bank building in Martin Place, Sydney, in a memorial in Newcastle, New South Wales, and in Canberra, ACT. Her work is held in several Australian public collections.
J J Cahill Memorial High School is a public co-educational secondary day school, located on Sutherland Street in Mascot, an inner southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is operated by the NSW Department of Education with students from Year 7 to Year 12. Established in 1961 as a comprehensive high school, the school was named in honour of John Joseph Cahill, the local member of parliament and the Premier of New South Wales from 1952 to his death in 1959. The school is one of four NSW state schools with "memorial" in its name, alongside Sir Henry Parkes Memorial Public School in Tenterfield, Hay War Memorial High School, and Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in Tamworth.
William Leslie Bowles, commonly referred to as Leslie Bowles or W. Leslie Bowles, was an Australian sculptor and medallist.
John Frazer was an Irish-born Australian politician and businessman.
The Offerings of Peace and The Offerings of War are a pair of bronze allegorical equestrian statues by Gilbert Bayes commissioned for the entrance of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. They have been on permanent display since their installation in 1926.
Margaret Coen was an Australian artist, known for her watercolours, paintings of flowers, landscapes and still life works. Her paintings and personal papers are held in national collections.
Sarah (Sally) Hynes was a Kingdom of Prussia-born, Australian botanist and teacher.
Barbara Tribe (1913–2000) was an Australian-born artist who spent most of her career in Cornwall. She is regarded as a significant twentieth-century portrait artist, working both in painting and sculpture.
1 2 Licht, Fred (1967). Sculpture: 19th and 20th Centuries. London: Michael Joseph. pp.15–18.
↑ Read, Benedict (2004). Galbally, Ann (ed.). The Edwardians: secrets and desires. Canberra, A.C.T.: National Gallery of Australia. p.129. ISBN0642541493.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
↑ "Mr. Woolner's Statue of Captain Cook for Sydney". Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil. Vol.VI, no.72. Victoria, Australia. 28 September 1878. p.97. Retrieved 21 April 2016– via National Library of Australia.
↑ Barnard, Alan (1974). "Mort, Thomas Sutcliffe (1816–1878)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
↑ Van Der Poorten, Helen M. (1969). "Brough, Lionel Robert (1857–1906)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
↑ Cable, K.J. (1967). "Johnson, Richard (1753–1827)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
↑ Tranter, Robin (2008). "Archibald Fountain". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
↑ O'Farrell, Patrick (1983). "Kelly, Michael (1850–1940)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. 9.
↑ Crayford, Michael (2000). "Lewers, Gerald Francis (1905–1962)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
↑ "Wurrungwuri". Wurrungwuri: Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
↑ Edward, Lucie-Smith; O'Brien and Ken Scarlett., Gregory; Scarlett, Ken (2001). Chris Booth: sculpture in Europe, Australia & New Zealand. Auckland, N.Z.: Godwit. ISBN1869620739.
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