NGA Art Talks

NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes is a new series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.

In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.

In this episode Gleeson speaks with Melbourne-born artist Lesley Dumbrell. Dumbrell emerged as a key figure in Melbourne’s contemporary art scene from the late 1960s onwards, creating abstract, geometric paintings and contributing to the Australian Women’s Art Movement in the 1970s. Their conversation touches on Dumbrell’s many works of art held in the national collection, including Ripple 1972 and February 1976.

You can view Lesley Dumbrell’s work in the collection display Know My Name: Global, on display at the National Gallery until April 2027.

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NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes is a new series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.

In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.

In this episode Gleeson speaks with Rosalie Gascoigne, an artist whose sculptural assemblages reveal the beauty of discarded and everyday objects, and reflect both the extremes and nuances of the Australian landscape. Gascoigne tells Gleeson about the joys of collecting, and finding unexpected beauty and connections in the ordinary objects other people might throw away.

The major retrospective Rosalie Gascoigne is on display at the National Gallery from 24 Oct 2026 – 14 Feb 2027.

Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes is a new podcast series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.

In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.

In this episode Gleeson reunites with the German-born sculptor Inge King, who he first encountered decades earlier in post-war England. The pair reflect on King's extraordinary and enduring contribution to sculpture in her adopted home, Australia, and her signature mode of sculptural abstraction that can be seen in monumental public sculptures across the country.

You can view Inge King’s work in the National Sculpture Garden and the exhibition Migration and Modernism: Émigré artists in post-war Australia, on display at the National Gallery until March 2027.

Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.

This month, the National Gallery launches NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes, a podcast series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.

In this episode Gleeson visits Grace Crowley, one of the leading figures in modern art in Australia. We meet Crowley in her late 80s, and as the tape starts rolling, she takes us from her childhood memories in regional Australia, to France, where she received on-the-ground training in modern European art. Crowley also shares an endearing portrait of her relationships with the artists Anne Dangar, with whom she made the leap from Sydney to Paris in 1926, and Ralph Balson, who was her close collaborator until his death in 1964.

Just seven months after Gleeson’s visit, Crowley passed away at the age of 88, making this recording a poignant and final testimony from one of Australia’s greatest modernists.

Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.

This month, the National Gallery launches NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes, a podcast series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.

To reintroduce listeners to Gleeson and his work, Professor Lisa Slade, Hugh Ramsay Chair in Australian Art History at the University of Melbourne and guest presenter of The Gleeson Tapes, speaks with Dr. Jeremy Eaton, an artist, writer and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne who has spent years studying the life and work of James Gleeson.

Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.