AUSTRALIA, Major Art Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, 21 September, 2013-8 December 2013; includes Dorchester's Tom Roberts

This is an exhibition for your diaries. 

It includes this work by Dorchester's own Tom Roberts:

Tom Roberts, Allegro con brio: Bourke Street west,

 c. 1885-86, reworked 1890

More on Tom Roberts

Also, some iconic works by Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd:

Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly, 1946

Arthur Boyd, Paintings in the studio: 'Figure supporting back legs' 

and 'interior with black rabbit', 1973-1974

More works from this unmissable exhibition:

 Charles Meere, Australian Beach Pattern, 1940

Arthur Streeton, 'Fire's On', 1891

Eugene von Guerard, Bush Fire, 1859

Rover Thomas, Cyclone Tracy, 1991

Dorothy Napangardi, Sandhills of Mina Mina, 200

Two Poems on Australian Art

Reflecting, Unreflecting

When I first arrived in Australia

I liked the Ripolin enamels,

The slick metallic sheen,

The shiny lacquer house-paints

Of Nolan's naive Kellys.

I wrote to him

Before he died.

Of course, he couldn't answer.

Now that I'm about to leave

I like the mute matt ochres

Of Queenie and of Rover.

Which the real Australia?

The Avant-Gardes from Britain 

Dampier, 

Parkinson, 

The Port Jackson painter. 

Lycett, Martens, Earle and Glover. 

Dorchester's Tom Roberts. 

Fairweather from Scotland. 

Why go any further? 

They depicted and painted Australia. 

Images forever new and true. 

The Pommy cutting-edge, mate, 

All part of the great tradition.