Maroondah City Council Art Collection
Southern Cross - To Bear and Behold by Jill Orr
The Maroondah City Council Art Collection contains a wide range of paintings, prints and ceramics by Australian artists from colonial times to the present, including works by Indigenous artists and a growing selection of contemporary painters.
Through the R & M McGivern Art Prize, Council’s acquisition fund and the generous support of our many benefactors, the Maroondah City Council Art Collection has grown from strength to strength.
In 2007 the Collection was accepted into the Federal Governments Cultural Gifts Program. Inclusion in the scheme has enabled a number of important donations to be made, including 37 works on paper by the Polish born artist Yosl Bergner.
A sample of our art collection
You can also view some images of our collection in the slideshow below. Click on the image to view full size:
Artists represented in the collection
Ray Arnold, George Bell, John Brack, Dean Bowen, Norma Bull, Wawiriya Burton, Anna Caione, Judy Cassab, Angela Cavalieri, Jazmina Cininas, Bindi Cole, Paul Compton, Vicki Couzens, Gwyn Davies, Stephen Haley, Deborah Halpern, Robert Hollingworth, Cherry Hood, Judy Holding, Pamela Irving, Robert Jacks, Larry Jenkins, Tjampawa Katie Kawing, Sylvia Kanutjupai Ken, Martin King, Justine Khamara, Deborah Klein, Wim Kortland, Marco Luccio, Victor Majzner, Muriel McGivern, Sidney Nolan, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Jill Orr, Lin Onus, Rosslynd Piggott, Nursa Latif Qureshi, Lloyd Rees, Shaike Snir, James Alfred Turner
Enquiries regarding the Collection can be directed to Emily Jones, Curator Exhibitions and Collection on 9298 4538.
History of the collection
When the former Cities of Croydon and Ringwood amalgamated in 1994, their art collections combined to create the Maroondah City Council Art Collection. Consisting of over 180 items, the Collection represents the region’s long-standing involvement in the visual arts, especially in respect to painting in all mediums. Reflective of the former Councils’ links with their communities, the Collection contains a number of paintings by artists working in the region, many of whom had recorded images of local landmarks and scenes.
There are numerous landscape paintings including works such as W Unsworth’s Antimony Mine, 1912, featuring the mineshaft’s distinctive A-frame tower. Other local notables include James Alfred Turner’s records of early settlement in the Maroondah district and Ruth L Jackson, with examples of her finely detailed botanical illustrations of the locality’s distinctive native flora. Paul Laspagis has been inspired by the area’s leafy neighbourhood streets to produce striking works such as Tree on Naturestrip, 2006.