JULY / AUGUST PROGRAMME

Celebrate Australian Impressionist artist Charles Conder with Poetry, Pernod and Bohemian Rhapsodies every Wednesday evening 5-9pm, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Gallery's evening of art and entertainment also includes live jazz performances, film screenings and sumptuous winter eats at the ArtBar.

Charles Conder, along with Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and Arthur Streeton, was a major contributor to the Heidelberg school of Australian Impressionist painting. Of this celebrated group, Conder was the only one to become a legendary figure of the international art world of Paris and London. The first major exhibition of this great Australian artist, on view at the Gallery until 17 August, tracks the "golden summers" of his Australian period to the Bohemian dream in Paris.

The Charles Conder-inspired Art After Hours programme runs from Wednesday 9 July until Wednesday 13 August.

5.30pm - Parallel Poetry
Conder's enigmatic visions have in turn evoked poetic inspiration in contemporary Australian poets. Jill Jones, MTC Cronin, Jo Wade, Jodie Peet, Carolyn Brun and Robert Kennedy read a selection of their original poems in front of Conder's work. Free with exhibition entry.

6pm - Art Appreciation Lectures
Mysteries and methods behind the world's greatest works of art are revealed in this weekly guest lecture series. Bookings and Costs, Telephone: (02) 9225 1878

6.30pm - Bohemian Rhapsodies
Ensembles from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music play under the majestic ceilings of the Old Master Galleries. Free.
9 July - David Miller introduces the Greenway String Quartet
16 July - Craig Scott and jazz ensemble
23 July - Daryl Pratt and percussion ensemble
30 July - Mark Walton and the Conservatorium Saxophone Orchestra
6 August - Georg Pedersen and the Conservatorium Cello Ensemble
13 August - Simone Young, Conductor & Music Director of Opera Australia, gives an introductory talk prior to the performance with Gerard Willems and chamber ensemble.

7.15pm - Film Programme
Robert Herbert's film programme takes us on an excursion to the seamier side of 19th Century Montmartre, Paris, a scene infiltrated with avant-garde artists such as Conder, Toulouse-Lautrec, Anquetin and Oscar Wilde. Herbert's selection captures the decadence of this period and includes 35mm feature films imported direct from Paris such as Jean Renoir's French Can-Can and John Huston's original version of Moulin Rouge.
16 July French Can-Can (Dir: Jean Renoir) 1955
23 July Moulin Rouge (Dir: John Huston) 1952
30 July Lautrec (Dir: Roger Planchon) 1998
6 August Wilde (Dir: Brian Gilbert) 1998
13 August Van Gogh (Dir: Maurice Pialat) 1991

7.30pm - Jazz Trios in the Gallery Caf�.
Performed by talented trios from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

7.30pm - Free Guided tour of the Gallery

A courtesy bus takes visitors from the Gallery to surrounding car parks and Martin Place from 7 until 9pm.

The Gallery Shop, Caf�, research library are all open until 8.45pm

Art After Hours is sponsored by the Sydney Morning Herald, the Art Gallery Society and the President's Council.

Information
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery Road
The Domain
Sydney 2000
Telephone: 02 9225 1744 or 1800 679 278
Website: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Press Information:
Margaux Simms, Press Office
Telephone: (02) 9225 1618
Email: margauxs@ag.nsw.gov.au

IMAGE: William Rothenstein L'Homme qui sort (The painter Charles Conder) 1892 (detail)
Toldeo Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey 1952