Australian Museum Gathers Works for Blockbuster Featuring Holy Family Painting by Raphael

THE AGE
By Dewl Cooke

Raphael: Holy Family with Saint John or Madonna of the Rose (c. 1516), image courtesy Museo del Prado, Madrid.

AUSTRALIA---One hundred paintings and drawings from the famed Museo del Prado in Madrid are to make their way to Australia for the first time for the National Gallery of Victoria's next Winter Masterpieces series. The works, from Italian Renaissance masters such as Raphael, Titian and Tintoretto, were favourites of the Spanish royal court and largely stayed in royal hands until acquired by the Prado in the 19th century. "That's what makes the collections unique; these works really have had just the one owner," said Laurie Benson, curator of international art at the NGV. "If you look at all the other major galleries...most of those were almost like vacuum cleaning collections whereas these were specifically purchased from major contemporary artists, they just happened to be now our revered Old Masters." [link]

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Australia Welcomes Art of India: Jain, Hindu and Islamic

THE AUSTRALIAN
By Margaret Scheikowski

More than 200 Indian artworks are being shown as part of a new exhibition at the Art Gallery of SA

AUSTRALIA---"Realms of Wonder: Jain, Hindu and Islamic Art of India" features more than 200 paintings, sculptures and decorative works including manuscripts, embroidered fabrics and silverware. The earliest work dates back to the eighth century while the latest was created in 2009. Beautiful paintings, sculptures, textiles and even a mansion's towering teak gateway are on show at a new exhibition of Indian art at the Art Gallery of South Australia. [link]

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Artist Trevor Nickolls Wins Australia's Blake Prize for Religious Art with "Metamorphosis"

THE HERALD SUN
By Louise Nun

Late South Australian artist Trevor Nickolls in 2012 with his painting "Metamorphosis", which has won the 2013 Blake Prize for religious art. Source: News Limited

AUSTRALIA---A NEW indigenous art prize established in the memory of late South Australian artist Trevor Nickolls has been given a $25,000 boost after the painter was awarded the Blake Prize, the first ever to be awarded posthumously. Nickolls, who died last year aged 63, won top honours in the national prize for religious art for his painting Metamorphosis, which depicts an Aboriginal man transformed into a butterfly, surrounded by peace doves. Metamorphosis, which melds the Western and Indigenous iconography Nickolls was known for, was commissioned for the 2012 Adelaide Festival exhibition Deadly: In-Between Heaven and Hell, held at Tandanya. [link]

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Blake Prize: Emerging Religious Artists Take on Established for Fiercely Fought Accolade

THE GUARDIAN
By Andrew Frost

Contender: The Edge, 2013, by Tamara Dean. Photograph: Olsen Irwin Gallery

AUSTRALIA---The shortlist for the 62nd Blake prize has been announced, naming 73 established and emerging artists. The prize explores religious and spiritual themes in art and, although that might suggest traditional religious subjects and treatments, the attraction of the Blake for many artists – and often the source of the prize’s occasional conflicts with conservative – is that it also encourages and celebrates secular ideas of religiosity, as well as broader questions of the role of ethics and morality in contemporary society. [link]

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