Australian Visions: 1984 Exxon International Exhibition of Contemporary Australian Art

About the exhibition
Australian Visions was first presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York before touring Australia. This exhibition  built on sporadic precedents of Australian art showing in the United States over the past century, for instance, at the Chicago Intercolonial Exhibition in 1866, at the Roerich Museum in 1930, and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1975. Curated by Diane Waldman, Deputy Director of the Guggenheim Museum, following her visit to Australia as a guest of the Visual Arts Board in 1983, this exhibition represented a major development in international recognition of Australian contemporary art. Presenting recent work by artists John Nixon, Jan Murray, Vivienne Shark LeWitt and Peter Booth, among others, the exhibition aimed to reflect the ‘vitality and variety of an Australian society in rapid flux’ .

Acknowledgements
This exhibition was sponsored by Esso Australia Ltd and assisted by the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council.

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^{Image: Vivienne Shark LeWitt, The Making of Leopold 1984, acrylic on wood, 2 panels. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney. Photo: Terence S. Bogue}