Art History outreach
Christopher Marshall
Christopher Marshall on museums as art
Dr Christopher Marshall is Senior Lecturer in Art History in the School of Culture and Communication. He is currently undertaking an internship at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, Italy. The internship is sponsored by the Palladio Trust.
The Poldi Pezzoli is a house museum that was home to the art collector Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli. In 1850, Gian Giacomo began decorating his apartment inside his family palace inspired by distinctive styles of the past, so you have rooms that are decorated in, and which contain artwork and objects from, the Baroque, Medieval, Renaissance and Rococco periods. It was opened to the public in 1881 for the Milan National Exhibition and was visited by thousands of people.
Read an interview with Christopher Marshall discussing his work at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli.
Charles Green and Lyndell Brown
Art History staff in Iraq and Afghanistan
When artists and Art History staff members Assoc Prof Charles Green and Dr Lyndell Brown were approached by the Australian War Memorial (AWM) to go to Iraq and Afghanistan as war artists, the pair's initial response was an adamant “no way!”.
“We thought it was too apocalyptic a prospect,” says Charles Green, Head of the Art History program in the School of Culture and Communication.
“But then, the AWM was prepared to give us complete artistic freedom, and we then thought, 'Well, how do you get to access to where history is unfolding?' And we decided the best avenue was through a project like this,” he said.
Associate Professor Green and Dr Brown spent five weeks travelling through Iraq and Afghanistan, facilitated by the Australian Defence Force and accompanied by Official Photographer, Sean Hobbs. The artists were hosted by Army, Navy, RAAF and other Australian military personnel at posts in Bahrain, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Associate Professor Green and Dr Brown intend to produce a large group of highly detailed, 12 inch by 12 inch, paintings and a few much larger paintings depicting their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Green and Brown's work will be exhibited at the Australian War Memorial alongside the works of other renowned Australian Official Artists. The project was officially launched in June 2007 year by the AWM, which will showcase and announce the first outcomes, with a comprehensive exhibition of Brown and Green's work to follow approximately 12 months later.