MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
John Perceval, Homage to Laurence Hargrave 1961-1962 (detail)
32.0 x 39.5 x 14.9 cm, glazed earthenware
Monash University Collection
Robert Jacks, Mr Bloom with his stick gently vexed No. 2 1965
152.5 x 152.5 cm, oil on canvas
Monash University Collection
Dale Hickey, Untitled 1969
173.1 x 172.8 cm, oil on canvas
Monash University Collection
Since its establishment in 1961, the Monash University Collection has grown to encompass over 1800 artworks representing the recent trajectory of
Australian art at the forefront of contemporary practice.
The Monash University Collection started through a series of site-specifi c projects designed for new campus buildings at Clayton. John Perceval was the fi rst artist to be offered a commission, for the interior of the new
University library.
Perceval’s Homage to Laurence Hargrave refers to the cold war context of population explosion, atomic testing and the space race. Perceval uses the ancient mythological form of Icarus fl ying too close to the sun to comment on the physical limits of technology. This image is aligned with the modernist ideology of the period where art was considered to act as a civilising force upon science.
By the late 1960s Patrick McCaughey was appointed inaugural adviser to the Monash University Collection. McCaughey was just 23 at the time, but already considered by his peers to be a leading light in the local art scene.
Under McCaughey’s guidance Monash began an adventurous phase of acquiring avant-garde artwork by a new generation of abstract and minimal artists including Robert Jacks and Dale Hickey.
Top: Kerstin Thompson Architect
Monash University Museum of Art, 2010
Photo: Trevor Mein

MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
Above: Stephen Bush, no title 1989, 121.5 x
83.5 cm, oil on canvas
Monash University Collection
Left: Howard Arkley, Family home - suburban exterior 1993, 203.0 x 254.0 cm, synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Monash University Collection
The Monash University Gallery opened as an exhibition space at Monash
University’s Clayton Campus in 1975. An acquisitions policy was established in 1976, and from this time onwards the Monash University Collection developed through the acquisition of key works by leading Australian artists.
This phase of collecting included artwork by prominent female artists such as Bea Maddock and Irene Barbaris, refl ecting the rise of feminist art and criticism.
During the 1980s and 1990s the Monash University Collection expanded as artists such as Anne Zahalka and Stephen Bush began exploring post-modern conceptual strategies including appropriation and post-colonialism. Also at this time Howard Arkley explored themes of national identity, creating artwork about suburbia.
Bea Maddock, Hanging Tracks Three Four 1975
3 plates overall 78.2 x 60.6 cm;
Sheet 96.0 x 70.3 cm, photo etching and aquatint on paper
Monash University Collection
Irene Barbaris, Untitled [still life with milk carton]
1975, 50.2 x 37.9 cm coloured plastidecor crayon on butchers paper
Monash University Collection
Anne Zahalka, Marriage of convenience 1987
80.0 x 80.0 cm, cibachrome photograph
Monash University Collection
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfi eld Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfi eld East VIC 3145 Australia www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217 muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm

MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
Over five decades particular strengths have developed within the
Monash University Collection including photography by indigenous artists including Destiny Deacon and Tracey Moffatt as well as sculpture and installation art by artists such as Lauren Berkowitz, Mira
Gojak and Ricky Swallow.
MUMA has played an important role as early patron to many signifi cant
Australian artists. For example, Monash University was the fi rst public institution to purchase artwork by Callum Morton, in 1994.
Destiny Deacon, Melancholy 2000 sheet: 135.5 x 159.0 cm, Lamda digital print from Polaroid original
Monash University Collection
Tracey Moffatt, Untitled 1989,105.0 x 155.0 cm, cibachrome print
Monash University Collection
Mira Gojak, From the outside to the outside 2009 dimensions approx: 280 x
220 x 170 cm, epoxy paint on wire, steel and copper
Monash University Collection
Callum Morton, 24 Hrs 1995, 175.0 x 220.0 x 70.0 cm, wood, canvas, steel synthetic polymer paint, enamel
Monash University Collection
Particular artworks within the Monash University Collection have been acquired because they open up a dialogue between art and academic research at Monash University. For example Patricia Piccinini’s Still life with stem cells (2002) is a playful yet alarming commentary about the future possibilities of genetic engineering.
Ricky Swallow, The stars don’t shine upon us, we’re in the way of their light (family telescope) 2000, 154.0 x 80.0 x 70.0 cm,
PVC piping, epoxy putty, plastic, synthetic polymer paint
Monash University Collection
Lauren Berkowitz, Dystrophy
1997, 300.0 x 100.0 x 60.0 cm, leather cricket ball off-cuts, fi shing line
Monash University Collection
Patricia Piccinini, Still life with stem cells 2002, Dimensions variable
Monash University Collection www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217 muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm

MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART
In 2002 The Monash University Gallery was renamed Monash
University Museum of Art (MUMA). In 2010, MUMA moved from the
Clayton Campus to the Caulfield Campus of Monash University into a purpose-built museum designed by Kirsten Thompson Architects. The new museum offers flexible galleries for various types of exhibitions and has placed MUMA alongside the Monash University Faculty of Art
Design & Architecture (FADA).
New artworks are acquired for the Monash University Collection each year through purchases, gifts and bequests. The main focus of the collections policy is “new and existing works by emerging and established Australian artists, representing innovative developments in contemporary visual art practice across all media, with emphasis on the period from the foundation of Monash (1960) until the present.”
Acquisition proposals are presented to the MUMA Committee through the MUMA Director and curatorial staff. The MUMA Committee then reviews the options and makes final selections.
Plan view of MUMA, Kirsten Thompson Architects
MUMA presents a program of exhibitions focusing on contemporary
Australian and international art since the 1960s. Exhibitions range from:
• surveys of significant artists
• thematic group exhibitions
• explorations of the Monash University Collection
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfi eld Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfi eld East VIC 3145 Australia
Callum Morton, Silver screen 2010 (detail), the Marc and Eva Besen Commission
Photo: Christian Capurro
Monash University Collection www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217 muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Top: Interior view of MUMA galleries
Photo by Trevor Mein