Dr Gary Hickey
Fellow, Art History
Director, International Ukiyo-e Society, Japan
Biography
Gary has lived and worked in Asia for seven years studying traditional Japanese printmaking in Japan. He has worked for fifteen years in the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia, in the later institution as a senior curator of Asian art. In 1998 he curated the first major exhibition of Edo period Japanese art held in Australia, Beauty & Desire in Edo period Japan and in 2001 he curated the Japanese art in the 2001 exhibition, Monet & Japan. Catalogues accompanied both these exhibitions. Gary lectures and has published in both Australia and internationally. He was recently appointed as a director of the Tokyo-based prestigious arts organisation, the International Ukiyo-e Society and was a contributing author to the recent Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints. At the University of Melbourne he is coordinating the Asian art curatorship program as well as subjects on Japanese painting of the Edo period.
Research strengths
Gary has had an abiding interest in Asia having lived and studied in various counties in the region for more than thirty years. His particular strengths are in the art and culture of Japan. He has studied traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking in Japan and is Australia's sole authority on the Japanese Edo period 'Art of the Floating World' (ukiyo-e). Gary's current research interests deal with the influence of western realism on the works of Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. He is currently working on an historical novel dealing with the life of Hokusai.
Current projects
Currently preparing PhD thesis, Depth in the Floating World: Western Realism and the transformation of traditional space in late ukiyo-e landscape prints, for publication.
Recent grants and awards (from 2002)
- 2005 Faculty Small Grants Scheme (Seeding), The University of Melbourne
- 2004 Humanities Fieldwork scholarship, Australian Academy of the Humanities
- 2004 Courseware Design and Development Programme Grant. The University of Melbourne
- 2002 Major Festivals & Events Category in the National Tourism Awards (for exhibition 'Monet & Japan')
- 2002 Faculty Small Grants Scheme (Seeding), The University of Melbourne
Select publications
Books
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(exhibition catalogue for museum publication)
Beauty & Desire in Edo period Japan (Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1998)
Book Chapters (from 2002)
- Hickey, Gary (2006).'Ukiyo meisho-e and travel', in Amy Newland (ed.), Introduction to the art of the Japanese print, Leiden: Hotei Publishing.
- Hickey, Gary (2006).'Hiroshige', in Amy Newland (ed.), Introduction to the art of the Japanese print, Leiden: Hotei Publishing.
- Hickey, Gary (2006).'Hokusai', in Amy Newland (ed.), Introduction to the art of the Japanese print, Leiden: Hotei Publishing.
- Hickey, Gary (2006).'Fukeiga', in Amy Newland (ed.), Introduction to the art of the Japanese print, Leiden: Hotei Publishing.
- Hickey, Gary (2006). 'Cross-cultural Traveller: The Floating World of Masami Teraoka', in The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane: The Queensland Art Gallery.
Articles (from 2002)
- Hickey, Gary. 'The Old Man, Mount Fuji and the Sea', in Art Bulletin of Victoria: 44, Melbourne: Council of the Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria, 2004.
- Proceedings of the International Ukiyo-e Society Conference, 27-28 November, 2004.
Other Work (from 2002)
- Book review, 'Jennifer Mitchelhill, Castels of the Samurai: Power and Beauty', in Art Monthly Australia, no.175, November, 2004.
- 'Seasons: The beauty of transience in Japanese Art', in Art & Australia, vol.41, no.3, 2004
Poetic Inspiration: Chinese Colour Woodblock Prints, (exhibition catalogue), Melbourne: East & West Gallery, 2003.
Recent Presentations (from 2002)
- "Beauty & Truth in Nature: Japan & the West," 32nd International Conference of Art History, Crossing Cultures, Conflict, Migration and Convergence, University of Melbourne, 13-18 January 2008. (forthcoming)
- "Evoking Space in Japanese Screen Painting," Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 3 June 2008.
- "Japanese prints in the Queensland Art Gallery collection," Brisbane: The Queensland Art Gallery, 7 February, 2007.
- "People's Zen: Popularisation of Zen Buddhism in the Edo Period," Sydney: The Art Gallery of New South Wales, 17 June, 2006.
- "Near and Far in Hokusai's 'Great Wave'," Tokyo: Gakushuin University, 22 May, 2006.
- Lectured at the University of Melbourne, 'Superheroes' Conference, 10 July, 2005.
- Lectured at the NGV as part of the 'Floating World' exhibition, 13 May, 2005.
- Lectured at the NGV as part of the 'Impressionist' exhibition, 20 September, 2004.
- Lectured at the University of Adelaide, 19 July, 2004.
- Lectured at the NGV as part of the 'Impressionist' exhibition, April, 2004.
- Lecture, 'Sex in the Floating World: The erotic pictures of Edo period Japan,' The Asian Arts Society of Australia, 31 March, 2004.
- Public lecture, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 7 May 2003.
- Opened the 'Delicate Beauties' exhibition of Japanese art at the Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell and gave a one-hour public lecture (Lecture titled, Representations of women in ukiyo-e prints) 17 May 2003.
- 'Sex in the Floating world: the erotic pictures of Edo period Japan', in the Arts of Asia lecture series, 3 June 2003, Art Gallery of New South Wales.
- Lecture, 'The Floating World: Japanese prints and the NGV' to the NGV Voluntary Guides Association, National Gallery of Victoria, 17 June 2003.