Listen to Wendy Whiteley speak about key works in the exhibition ‘Brett Whiteley: Blue and White’.

Image: Brett Whiteley ‘Still life with meat’ 1975–76 (detail), Art Gallery of New South Wales © Wendy Whiteley / Copyright Agency

Brett Whiteley ‘The pink heron’

Madrid is every bit enchanting with its elegant boulevards, expansive parks, royal palaces and charming plazas. Located at the geographical heart of the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish capital boasts magnificent art treasures in The Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofía museums. Join Brian Ladd as he explores the art and architecture of this sophisticated city and reveals why its history and culture make Madrid so fascinating and enchanting. 

Brian Ladd is past President of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales, a specialist in European and Australian sculpture, and a graduate in sculpture from the National Art School, Sydney. From 1996 to 2010 he was Head of Public Programs Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and responsible for enlivening the Gallery and engaging diverse audiences with art.

Enchanting cities Madrid

Frank Young ‘Kulata punu’

Assoc Prof Wei-Cheng Lin, Department of Art History, The University of Chicago

Foreign musicians, opulently dressed court ladies, handsomely made dancing horses—these are only a few examples of tomb figurines from Tang China that can be easily found in museum collections. All these figurines appear joyful as though they were serving a luxurious lifestyle, or enhancing a celebratory atmosphere, and yet, they were, in fact, part of tomb furnishings, once the door was sealed, closed inside the burial chamber forever. Though diverse in type and representation, the Tang figurines share most obviously a sense of performance, and yet, one wonders for whom and to what end they were made to perform in the dark, lonely, and secluded subterraneous chamber. This lecture will reconsider the ‘performance’ of the burial artefacts from Tang China with these questions in mind.

Wei-Cheng Lin is Associate Professor of Art History and the College at the University of Chicago, where he also received his doctoral degree in 2006. Lin specialises in the history of Chinese art and architecture with a focus on medieval periods. His primary research interests are visual and material cultural issues in Buddhist art and architecture and China’s funerary practice through history. He is the author of Building a sacred mountain: the Buddhist architecture of China’s Mount Wutai (2014). He has also published on a variety of topics, including collecting history, photography and architecture, historiography of Chinese architectural history, and contemporary Chinese art. Lin’s current book project, titled Performative architecture of China, investigates the ways in which Chinese architecture can be considered as actively engaging its users by structuring, affecting, evoking or shaping their spatial senses and imagination.

Image: 'Mural of females' c710 (detail), Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology


Performing in the afterlife: performance and performativity of Tang tomb art

Tessa MacKay

Sinead Davies

Shane Bowden

Samuel Rush Condon

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran

Prudence Flint

Learning curve lecture series: Sublime - the pleasure of the overwhelming presented by Damian Freeman on 20.6.14

Performing in the afterlife: performance and performativity of Tang tomb art

Art Gallery of NSW