Maitland Regional Art Gallery has landed a beauty.
On Thursday the gallery announced a partnership with the National Gallery of Australia under the recently-announced Sharing the National Collection program.
Federal Minister for the Arts Tony Burke,said Maitland Regional Art Gallery was one of the early institutions to take part in the program through a long term loan of a highly significant work of art from the national collection.
Ron Mueck's monumental sculpture Pregnant Woman will be on display at MRAG for 18 months, commencing April 2024.
"Ron Mueck is one of Australia's most internationally accomplished artists and Pregnant Woman is an important part of the National Gallery of Australia's collection,:" Maitland Art Gallery director Gerry Bobsien said. "We are thrilled to present this work in conversation with our own collection to captivate our audiences and attract people to Maitland.
'This will have enormous impact for regional audiences. It will create opportunities for people to experience an internationally acclaimed work of art outside a major metropolitan city.'
Standing at a height of 2.5 metres, Pregnant Woman is nearly double the size of an average person.
Mueck himself has explained the work is a contemporary response to the representations of motherhood, echoing the longstanding tradition of portraying mothers and children in art.
"Australia's national collection belongs to all Australians," Minister Burke said. "This initiative gets these works out of the storeroom and into galleries around the country for people to enjoy - as they should be.
"I can't wait to see this piece in its new home."
The Maitland gallery will showcase the sculpture in a dedicated exhibition space, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in its monumental presence.
"We are putting it in its own space in the beautiful old gallery (space with the arches) then doing a few collection shows around it and inviting four artists to make new work in response to it," Ms Bobsien said.
"It's going to be great."
