The National Gallery “Artworks that have defined the Australian nation and a selection of iconic international works from various art periods.”

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We don’t know what this is

Parliament House Old Parliament House Floriade Riding the Buses National Gallery National Museum Sleeping with Cops National Zoo CSIRO Black Mountain Tower National Archives High Court War Memorial The Big Dry	Considering that it houses a rather large art collection, the National Gallery is a singularly unattractive building. Of course the exterior may have been designed to give the canny visitor a clue as to the quality of the contemporary art inside, so that one might not bother going in if one doesn’t appreciate random lines and blobs of paint, or sculptures made of old buckets. We went in anyway, knowing that besides the unintelligible modern rubbish, there is a very nice collection of real art, with some wonderful impressionist work, great portraits, and scenes of colonial Australia.
CLICK ANY PHOTO TO SEE IT AT FULL SIZE	Photography is not allowed inside, mainly due to copyright issues – somebody might copy someone else’s wonderful modern slop on canvas. But we did manage to take just two pictures without anyone noticing, and we feel fairly confident that there’s little danger of this artist’s copyright being breached. Judge for yourself.
The sign explaining the painting that we couldn’t resist photographing. Mr Ryman’s ambition to ‘paint the paint’ while ‘limiting the palette and format of his work’ is so clearly depicted in this particular piece, called ‘Arena’ for obvious reasons. Scroll down to see the painting that impressed us so much.
Isn’t it beautiful – so understated and yet so vibrant with meaning. How wonderful for the Australian public that the gallery bought this for a bargain price of only $670,000 (or was it $4.95 and a pizza coupon…)
	This ‘painting’, and others like it, made Tony rather angry, and he felt compelled to tell a bored looking security guard how much he hates this sort of junk. Much to his surprise, the guard said he hates it too, and used a nasty expletive or two to describe his feelings. He would much rather be playing the drums in his rock band than sitting here staring at this crap, and he and Tony ended up having a lively conversation about music, which made them both a lot happier.
	To visit the official National Gallery website, click here > http://www.nga.gov.au