Media release
12 August 2002
ARID ARCADIA: ART OF THE FLINDERS RANGES
Art Gallery of South Australia
30 August – 3 November 2002
For the first time, the magnificent landscapes of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia are to be
celebrated in a new exhibition Arid Arcadia: Art of the Flinders Ranges, which examines how
this unique region of South Australia has inspired a remarkable variety of art works, and how such
works continue to influence the Australian public’s perception and love of the outback. Arid Arcadia
is the Art Gallery of South Australia's exhibition to celebrate the Year of the Outback in 2002.
The exhibition showcases more than 140 significant paintings, watercolours, photographs and
other works of art inspired by the region by many of Australia’s finest artists, including Aboriginal
art and art from the colonial period to the present. It includes many spectacular pieces gathered
together for the first time from public and private collections throughout Australia.
Ron Radford, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, says the exhibition will have wide
appeal for South Australians, national and international visitors alike. “The arid beauty of South
Australia’s Flinders Ranges has inspired an incredible diversity of landscape art over the past 200
years. Further, this special land has been the dwelling place and the creative force for its
Indigenous inhabitants. In 2002 we celebrate the 200th anniversary of William Westall’s first
European recording of the Flinders Ranges. Colonel E.C. Frome was the first local South
Australian explorer-artist to travel through and visually record the Ranges in 1843.
Three years later, the popular colonial artist S. T. Gill painted his most evocative watercolour
landscapes while a member of the ill-fated Horrocks’ Expedition. Since then, the once-remote
region has inspired some of the most brilliant art created in South Australia.”
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-2From the late 1920s Hans Heysen, South Australia’s most nationally renowned landscape painter,
made the Flinders Ranges the subject of the greatest works from his later career. Heysen’s
inspiring panoramas of the ochre hills, the drought-ravaged landscape, captured the imagination of
thousands, and continue to influence our vision of the area.
As the tourist industry expanded, more visitors, and more artists, made the journey to see for
themselves the spectacular landscapes. Images such as the great river red gum captured in The
Spirit of Endurance by photographer Harold Cazneaux are now national icons.
The far Northern interior of Australia with its stern reality of desert country holds a particular
fascination for many who have come under its spell, and I must confess to having fallen a victim …
There is an undeniable call about this interior … and offers, for the artist, a wide field as yet
practically untouched. Hans Heysen, 1932
Other artists represented in Arid Arcadia include H.H. Tilbrook, Horace Trenerry, Max Ragless,
Jeffrey Smart, James Cant, Barrie Goddard, Stavros Pippos, Nikolaus Lang and Sally Smart,
and Flinders Ranges artists Regina McKenzie, Sam Lester and Antony Hamilton. Each has
responded with a wonderful visual diversity, and their works inspire contemplation of and a desire
to travel to this arid arcadia.
The exhibition, curated by Alisa Bunbury, is accompanied by a comprehensive book, which is the
first publication to examine the importance of the art of this remarkable region.
Media preview: Thursday 29 August at 11 am at the Art Gallery of South Australia
Media contact:
Neil Ward
Neil Ward Publicity
Ph: (08) 8361-3577M: 0438 095 580
Art Gallery of South Australia North Terrace, Adelaide Open 10 am – 5 pm every day
www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
Admission:
Adult
Concession
Member
Students 16 and over
Children under 16
$ 10
$8
$6
$4
free entry
A range of activities including artist’s talks, feature and documentary film screenings, tours and an
extensive schools program will complement the exhibition.
16/02/16 Flinder Ranges AGSA