The Gleeson Tapes: John Brack

NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes is a new series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.In this episode Gleeson speaks with the Melbourne-born painter John Brack, who created some of the most iconic images in 20th century Australian art. Recorded across two sittings, Brack reflects on his early portraits of Melbourne life, which often depicted shop windows and domestic scenes, to later works like The battle 1981-83 which used coloured pencils to evoke themes of conflict and war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes is a new series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.In this episode Gleeson speaks with Melbourne-born artist Lesley Dumbrell. Dumbrell emerged as a key figure in Melbourne’s contemporary art scene from the late 1960s onwards, creating abstract, geometric paintings and contributing to the Australian Women’s Art Movement in the 1970s. Their conversation touches on Dumbrell’s many works of art held in the national collection, including Ripple 1972 and February 1976.You can view Lesley Dumbrell’s work in the collection display Know My Name: Global, on display at the National Gallery until April 2027.Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes is a new series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.In this episode Gleeson speaks with Rosalie Gascoigne, an artist whose sculptural assemblages reveal the beauty of discarded and everyday objects, and reflect both the extremes and nuances of the Australian landscape. Gascoigne tells Gleeson about the joys of collecting, and finding unexpected beauty and connections in the ordinary objects other people might throw away.The major retrospective Rosalie Gascoigne is on display at the National Gallery from 24 Oct 2026 – 14 Feb 2027.Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes is a new podcast series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.In this episode Gleeson reunites with the German-born sculptor Inge King, who he first encountered decades earlier in post-war England. The pair reflect on King's extraordinary and enduring contribution to sculpture in her adopted home, Australia, and her signature mode of sculptural abstraction that can be seen in monumental public sculptures across the country.You can view Inge King’s work in the National Sculpture Garden and the exhibition Migration and Modernism: Émigré artists in post-war Australia, on display at the National Gallery until March 2027.Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.This month, the National Gallery launches NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes, a podcast series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.In this episode Gleeson visits Grace Crowley, one of the leading figures in modern art in Australia. We meet Crowley in her late 80s, and as the tape starts rolling, she takes us from her childhood memories in regional Australia, to France, where she received on-the-ground training in modern European art. Crowley also shares an endearing portrait of her relationships with the artists Anne Dangar, with whom she made the leap from Sydney to Paris in 1926, and Ralph Balson, who was her close collaborator until his death in 1964. Just seven months after Gleeson’s visit, Crowley passed away at the age of 88, making this recording a poignant and final testimony from one of Australia’s greatest modernists.Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.This month, the National Gallery launches NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes, a podcast series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.To reintroduce listeners to Gleeson and his work, Professor Lisa Slade, Hugh Ramsay Chair in Australian Art History at the University of Melbourne and guest presenter of The Gleeson Tapes, speaks with Dr. Jeremy Eaton, an artist, writer and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne who has spent years studying the life and work of James Gleeson.Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Quincy Houghton, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and International Initiatives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as we revisit this year’s Betty Churcher AO Memorial Oration, recorded live at the National Gallery for International Women’s Day in March 2026.Since 2022 this major annual event has honoured the legacy of Betty Churcher AO (1931–2015), a trailblazing Australian arts administrator and the first and only woman to lead the National Gallery.In this talk Houghton draws on her three decades of experience shaping exhibitions at two of the world’s greatest museums – the J. Paul Getty Museum and The Met – while reflecting on her own personal journey and the evolving role of art galleries around the world at large. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of NGA Art Talks, hear highlights from the opening weekend of the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain. Recorded outdoors in front of a live audience, Kamilaroi man and award-winning television and podcast host Matty Mills leads two panels exploring themes of Family and Legacy.These conversations featured Vincent Namatjira, Western Aranda people; Vanessa Inkamala, Western Aranda people, and Carita Coulthard, Luritja/Pitjantjara/Western Aranda peoples, from Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre; Thea Anamara Perkins, Arrernte/Kalkadoon peoples; Alair Pambegan, Wik-Mungkan people; Naminapu Maymuru-White and Bithar Maymuru, Maŋgalili people; and After the Rain curator Tony Albert, Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji peoples.The 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain is on display at the National Gallery until 27 April 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of NGA Art Talks, hear highlights from the opening weekend of the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain. Recorded outdoors in front of a live audience, Kamilaroi man and award-winning television and podcast host Matty Mills leads two panels exploring themes of Cleansing and Transformation.These conversations featured Jimmy John Thaiday, Kuz/Peiudu peoples; Erin McDonald, Mandandanji people, and Troy Casey, Kamilaroi people, from Blaklash; Dylan Mooney, Yuwi people, Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait and South Sea Islander; Aretha Brown, Gumbaynggirr people; and Warraba Weatherall, Kamilaroi people.The 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain is on display at the National Gallery until 27 April 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of NGA Art Talks, Anne O’Hehir, Curator of Photography at the Gallery, speaks to Julie Rrap as part of a series of conversations recorded for the exhibition, Women Photographers 1853-2018 – a celebration of how women have shaped and redefined the medium, that recognises the strength of Australian photographers in a global context.Julie Rrap, born in Lismore in 1950 and now based in Sydney, has been a central figure in Australian contemporary art for more than four decades. Emerging in the mid-1970s through body art and performance, she developed a practice that has since expanded to include photography, painting, sculpture, and video, all anchored in a sustained investigation of how the body is seen, represented, and interpreted. Her early engagement with performance laid the foundation for an oeuvre that often places her own body at the centre, using it as both subject and tool to question conventions of gender, identity, and power.Women Photographers 1853-2018 is on display at the National Gallery until 1 March 2026.This exhibition and podcast are supported by The Bowness Family Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.