Description of the attraction
The Art Gallery of Western Australia is part of the Perth Cultural Center, adjacent to the Museum of Western Australia and the State Library. The current building of the gallery opened in 1979.
The collection of the gallery has more than 15, 5 thousand works of art, to admire which every year up to 400 thousand people come.
Previously, the gallery was housed together with the museum and the library in the Jubili Building, built at the end of the 19th century. And the administration of the gallery occupied premises in the former Police Quarter. The main gallery building was built in 1977 during the mining boom. During those years, the Western Australian government invested heavily in culture and, inspired by the upcoming 150th anniversary of Australia's founding in 1979, allocated money to build the library.
The building of the Art Gallery is made in a somewhat brutal style, popular at that time in European design. The gallery's first collection was eclectic: it consisted of works by Indian and Asian artists, works by Australians of European descent, and copies of English art. Current exhibits include traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art from the Northern Territories and Western Australia and Australian art from the 1820s and 1960s. The annual Year 12 Perspectives exhibit presents to the public the creations of art students - paintings, prints, digital art, design and sculpture.
