Floor Sculpture Given Stamps Of Approval

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday May 23, 2007

Margot Date

IN YOUR FACE - that promises to be the main reaction to Shu-Min Lin's Glass Ceiling at the National Gallery of Australia's revamped sculpture gallery.

The sculpture comprises 12 holograms and 132 granite tiles and gallery visitors can walk on it and have the unnerving experience of holographic faces peering up their trousers or skirts. But the Max Ernst bronze Habakuk is the standout acquisition in the gallery, which opens to the public today. The National Australia Bank has bought the naming rights to the sculpture gallery for the next 10 years and helped pay for the sculpture by the German-born artist, but neither the gallery director, Ron Radford, nor the bank's representative, Steven Munchenberg, group manager of government affairs and public policy, would reveal the cost yesterday.

"I'm not telling you, but it was rather a lot of money, as all great works of art can be," Mr Radford said. "And we are very, very grateful to the National Australia Bank for giving us part of the money to buy it."

Mr Munchenberg did not know the price and the bank was not going to dictate what works the gallery should buy. "We will leave that to the experts."

Mr Radford said sculpture was one of the Canberra gallery's strengths, and among other works in the new gallery are Constantin Brancusi's Bird in Space, one in white marble and one in black marble, which were bought in 1973 and now stand in a new copper reflection pool.

The ground-floor space originally held sculpture when the gallery opened 25 years ago, but later was used for temporary exhibits. It has taken more than a year to renovate and it took eight months to mine the slate for the floor. It is the gallery's only space with natural lighting. "It is a beautiful space," Mr Radford said.