Velasquez Gallery, also known as Velasquez Gallery at Tye's, and later Tye's Art Gallery, was a Melbourne art gallery that showed contemporary traditional, and later, modernist Australian art, including some sculpture and prints, as well as Australian indigenous art. It operated from 1940 to 1955.[1]
History
The Velasquez Gallery, located in the basement at the rear of Tye's Furniture Building, 100 Bourke Street, Melbourne,[2] was one of the few places to exhibit in 1940s Melbourne.[3] The gallery opened during WW2 on 4 June 1940 with an exhibition of work by Australian proponent of Tonalism, Max Meldrum, and "autumn leaves from Mr. Tye's Macedon garden decorated the gallery".[4][5][6] When it first opened in June 1940,[7]The Age described its facilities;
The Velasquez Gallery an interesting development in the progress of art in Melbourne is the establishment of a new gallery — to be known as the Velasquez Gallery— by Tye and Co., at their Bourke-street premises. The gallery, which is 50 feet square, is artificially lighted on a carefully considered plan, which allows for adjustments and modifications, and will ensure a uniform and even glow, such as cannot be got by a daylight arrangement. The general setting of the gallery is adequate, and pictures will be seen under the best possible conditions. The gallery will open with a one-man exhibition by Max Meldrum on June 4.[8]
The business later expanded to 110-116 Bourke Street.[9]
Ethos
The manager was painter/printmaker, critic, broadcaster and lecturer Stephanie Taylor (1899–1974),[10][11][12] and director, the art collector and connoisseur[13] George Page-Cooper (c.1895-1967).[14][15] The gallery showed contemporary traditional, and later, Modern Australian art, including some sculpture and prints, as well as indigenous art. In 1948, twenty-seven of Sidney Nolan's Kelly series paintings were shown at the Velasquez Gallery for the first time.[3][16] Under the management of Taylor, women artists were given much better exposure than at other galleries,[12][17] and she organised a number of shows to raise funds for charities.[18][19] A September 1943 report in The Bulletin demonstrates its optimistic openness to Modernism;
Art shows of various groups and the crowds they draw give abundant evidence that war hasn’t yet squelched our aesthetic senses. Norman MacGeorge, expatiating on surrealism and symbolism and such developments, drew a surprisingly large audience to the Velasquez Galleries. He took his examples from the Contemporary Art Group’s show.[20]
Closure
Page-Cooper moved on in 1952 with the unrealised intention to set up another gallery in the city[21] before Velasquez Gallery closed early 1955.[22] Taylor wrote to The Age newspaper:
...the passing of Tye's Art Gallery will be regretted by many art lovers who will remember some of the fine exhibitions that were held there. It Is a pity that there are not a few more public-spirited people like the late Mr. Tye, who are willing to sacrifice a little of their profits for the cultural development of the city which gives them a living.[1]
1940, July 2: Children's Exhibition, 130 works from Australia, Britain, United States, Canada, Spain, Poland and other countries, opened by Daryl Lindsay and Lady Brookes,[30] silver coin fundraiser for the Red Cross[31]
1940, 13 September: Noel Blaubaum, Melbourne and Hobart landscapes in monotypes and oils[36]
1940, 30 September - October: Paintings by Miss A.M.E. Bale,
1940, 18–30 November: The Bread and Cheese Club's Australian Art & Literature Exhibition[37][38]
1941: Exhibition of paintings sculpture and pottery by Australian artists to aid the Red Cross.
1941: 18 February – 3 March: Exhibition of clay sculptures on Australian Aboriginal folk-lore by William Ricketts: legends collected by Sir Baldwin Spencer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. and David Uniapon[39]
1941, 9 August – 30 August: Exhibition of paintings by Edith Holmes.
1945, 2–13 July: Contemporary Child Art to Aid Red Cross Funds, Arranged by Woman"s World, Exhibition opened by Lady Brookes at Velasquez Gallery, Tye's Building
1945, 1 March – 1 April: Exhibition of paintings by Ivan Yakovlev
1945, 3 – 13 April: Australian C.E.M.A. Victorian Division, Autumn Arts Festival. First Annual Exhibition.
1945, 16 – 23 May: Exhibition of works of art by well known Australian artists for the benefit of The Lord Mayor's Appeal (The Rt. Hon. Cr. Sir Thomas S. Nettlefold, K.B., O.B.E.,) for totally and permanently disabled service men and service women.
1945, 16 – 27 July: Exhibition of the Graphic Arts; Bread and Cheese Club, Australian Bookplate Club.
1949, from 13 September: paintings by official R.A.A.F. and War Memorial artists Eric Thake, Harold Freedman and Max Newton to mark Air Force week, opened by Air Marshal G. Jones[51]
1949, September: Stephanie Taylor, watercolours and oils[52][53]
^ abStephanie Taylor, 'Closing of Tye's Gallery' in 'Letters to the editor', The Age Friday 21 Jan 1955, p.2
^Akehurst, Christopher (June 2019), "Books and mateship at the bread and cheese club", Quadrant, 63 (6): 93–96, ISSN0033-5002
^ abWendy Donald-Bradley (1991) Alannah Coleman: The Woman and her Role in Promoting Australian Art and Artists in the United Kingdom 1950–1990, M.A. thesis, Melbourne: Victoria College, 1991
^"NEWS IN BRIEF". The Age. 30 August 1940. p. 8. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
^"105 volumes : illustrations (chiefly coloured), portraits (chiefly coloured) ; 30-40 cm.", The bulletin., John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues)., Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1880, ISSN0007-4039, nla.obj-592278493, retrieved 10 August 2021 – via Trove
^”ART EXHIBITION OPENED,” The Age, Wednesday, 28 Aug 1940, p.5
^"NEW PATHS IN ART". The Age. 13 September 1940. p. 11. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
^Malloch, H., & Bread Cheese Club. (1940). A brief history of the Bread and Cheese Club, Melbourne / by Harry Malloch. Melbourne: The Club.
^The Bulletin, Sydney, N.S.W.: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, Vol. 61 No. 3172 (27 Nov 1940), p.29
^Ricketts, W., & Waller, O. (1941). Exhibition of clay sculptures on Australian Aboriginal folk-lore by William Ricketts: Legends collected by Sir Baldwin Spencer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. and David Uniapon. Brighton, Vic.: Middle Brighton Printery.
^"Hand-bound books displayed", The Age, Tuesday, 17 Aug 1943, p.3