The Skywhale hot air balloon is breeding. Canberra, meet Skywhalepapa
By Niki Burnside and Gordon TaylorSix years after the controversial artwork Skywhale burst into Canberra's skyline, a new member of the whale clan is set to take flight.
Key points:
- Skywhalepapa, a new balloon sculpture by Patricia Piccinini, will be launched at the National Gallery of Australia next year
- Piccinini's 2013 creation Skywhale, described by some as "the Hindenboob", divided opinions across the country
- The gallery's 2020 exhibits will also include Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers and hundreds of women's artworks on billboards across the country
A sketch of Skywhalepapa was released on Wednesday, complete with what looks like a pop of Skywhale spawn tucked under its … gills?
The "hyper-real sculpture" will be among the National Gallery of Australia's 2020 exhibits, which will include hundreds of women's artworks on billboards across the country.
The revered National Gallery in London will also lend the Canberra institution its largest-ever collection of paintings to leave Britain, including Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers.
Skywhale has drawn strong opinions ever since it was unveiled — at a price of $300,000 — to mark Canberra's centenary in 2013.
It drew both praise and condemnation, described variously as "a giant turtle with breasts" and "the Hindenboob".
The balloon was barely seen in Canberra after its launch, though the gallery announced last month it had received the sculpture from an anonymous donor and it would return to the national capital.
Its creator, Canberra artist Patricia Piccinini, reflected on the debate her work created five years ago.
"I don't make work to shock people so I never thought that there might be a reaction against her, because I really think that she's a beautiful sort of sign of fecundity and fertility," she said.
Skywhalepapa and his offspring are now expected to fly over the city with Skywhale during next year's Canberra Balloon Spectacular.
"And here we have this beautiful male character and he's doing the hugging and the nurturing and the carrying," Piccinini said.
Gallery director and Skywhale fan Nick Mitzevich said he loved art that got people talking.
"Two gigantic sculptures, each 35-metres high, floating above our cities … of course we're going to get some commentary, of course we're going to get people having an opinion," he said.
"How great is art in the 21st century when that can happen?"
Celebration of women
The gallery will also take women's art to communities across Australia next year via 1,300 billboards as part of a campaign titled Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now.
The gallery's 2020 program will also feature works that combine robots and art.
The major drawcard, though, is more than 60 paintings from London's National Gallery, including masterpieces by Botticelli and Rembrandt, as well as van Gogh's iconic Sunflowers.
Mr Mitzevich said the exhibits would include "some of the most extraordinary works of art by the leading artists over the last 500 years".
That exhibition will open in November, while the Skywhale family will begin flying in March — almost certainly to mixed reviews.