Napoleon, Sugimoto exhibition at NGV

Spent a whole day at NGV.

I usually join a free tour so that I can get more background information of an exhibition.
Today's tour guide ("Wynona"?) was fabulous. She spent two hours with us, offering a wide variety of stories behind the exhibits.

My knowledge of French Revolution and Napoleon was very limited, so this exhibition gives me a good understanding of this exciting time in history.

I particularly liked how France and Australia were connected by the turn of events during this time.
For example, French man Baudin arrived at Encounter Bay only three days after Flinders.
Australia could have been colonised by the French, and we might have been speaking French now. Well, a great opportunity was missed!!
And, Josephine kept kangaroos, black swans and emus at Malmaison.

This is a great exhibition, with great paintings by David and others, and all sorts of glitzy paraphernalia.
I also loved meticulous drawings of Australian flora and fauna, and indigenous people.

The best exhibit was, I must say, 'Nipple Cup with Tripod". It's very Frenchy and kitsch. Whether or not it was designed according to Josephine's is debatable, I was told.

There was a film screening at the auditorium.
'Hiroshi Sugimoto - Visions in my mind' is a superb documentary of this renowned Japanese photographer.
I always like his black & white photos, they're all very sublime, lyrical images. Beautiful.

His photo is exhibited in a photography room, along with some Bill Henson, but, this space is depressingly tiny. NGV should have another building dedicated to photography, I think.

Here are some of his works.

It seems NGV shifted some of contemporary paintings from top floor to one level below.
And here it is! Warhol and Rothko side by side. This is disgraceful. Rothko would have been furious if he saw this.