Friday, March 16, 2018

Arts Longa, Vita Brevis

Dr. Pullin with The Sheep Shearers

Our lecturer this morning was Dr. Ruth Pullin, an expert on colonial artist Eugene von Gerard.  She provided insight on the development of art in Australia as a documentation of the fauna and flora by convicts and settlers for the British comparing it to the Hudson River School.  Some of the art was greatly romanticized in order to encourage settlers from Britain.  After the lecture we walked to the National Gallery of Victoria where Dr. Pullin acted as docent.  Two current exhibits rounded out the learning. 1) 600 early works illustrating the history of the settlement. 2) current works by Aboriginals depicting the horrors inflicted upon them by the settlers.  

We had dinner this evening with Nancy and Jerry Cutler, Road Scholars from Florida and Connecticut.  We all love Greek food and what better place than Athens than Melbourne.  The dips were delicious as was the octopus.  To my disappointment there was no spanakopita, but the fried feta with honey made up for it.  Pictures of our day at flickr.