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Dance like everyone’s watching
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Penelope Grist’s spirits soar with Lisa Tomasetti’s Dancers in the Streets series.
The Archduke
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The immediate chain of events that led to the outbreak of the First World War began 100 years ago on June 28.
The sensational denouement of the case
The Yarra Boot Trunk Tragedy, 12 January 1899
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The 'Yarra Boot Trunk Tragedy' unfolded a week before Christmas 1898, when some neighbourhood boys noticed a wooden box floating in the river at Richmond.
Talking heads
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In their own words lead researcher Louise Maher on the novel project that lets the Gallery’s portraits speak for themselves.
Best buds
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It’s important to have a best bud when you’re growing up. For many boys the transition from boyhood through adolescence is defined by wanting to fit in.
Dempsey's people
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Those of you who are active in social media circles may be aware that through the past week I have unleashed a blitz on Facebook and Instagram in connection with our new winter exhibition Dempsey’s People: A Folio of British Street Portraits, 1824−1844.
Friends
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Warwick Baker’s photos of his friends are intimate. They hold a stillness that allows their subjects to be at ease.
The play’s the thing
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Penelope Grist charts an immersive path through Stuart Spence’s photography.
A portrait of the artist by the artist
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Rowan McGinness asks: when is a self portrait not a self portrait?
The selfie stick
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Last week ABC Television came to interview me about selfie sticks. The story was prompted by the announcement that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has lately prohibited the use of these inside their galleries. So far as I am aware we have not yet encountered the phenomenon, but no doubt we will before too long.
Home is where the art is
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Tedi Bills on how social media in the age of COVID-19 has fanned the flames of our portrait fascination.
An affray which deserves particular mention
Ben Hall and his gang outdone, 6 February 1865
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Bushranger Ben Hall and his cronies held around 40 people hostage in a pub north-west of Goulburn, telling their captives ‘don’t be alarmed; we only came here for a bit of fun’.
Of plague and portraits
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Corinna Cullen on the symbolic power of pandemic-related imagery over the ages.
Back track
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Penelope Grist finds photographer Matt Nettheim re-visiting a formative and fulfilling career tram stop.
A papal pet encounter
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In honour of the launch of the Popular Pet Show, Angus recalls a diplomatic incident with an over-excited golden retriever.
20/20 launch speech
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Dr Helen Nugent AO, Chairman, National Portrait Gallery at the opening of 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions.