Smoke From Australia’s Devastating Wildfires Has Forced the Closure of the National Gallery in Canberra
As devastating wildfires continue to rage in Australia,
Canberra’s National Gallery has been forced to
temporarily shut down as a protective measure. Air quality
conditions in the city have deteriorated due to smoke from the
worst bushfire season in modern history, and opening the building’s
doors could jeopardize the artwork.
The move marks the first time in the museum’s 53-year history
that it has closed due to smoke (or ever closed for two or more
consecutive days). “Closing our doors allows us to mitigate any
risk to the public, staff, and works of art on display. We are
sorry for any inconvenience,” wrote the museum on Twitter on Sunday. A
second post on Facebook extended the closure through Monday.
Would-be visitors to the current exhibition, “Matisse & Picasso,” (on view through April
13) can return at any point during the exhibition’s run or return
their tickets for a refund.
The flames have been stoked by hot weather and strong winds and
so far the bushfires have burned some 12.4 million acres of land
across Australia, according to the Associated Press. The state of
New South Wales, around both Canberra and Sydney, is among the
hardest hit regions, with the New South Wales Rural Fire
Service reporting 136 fires, 69 of them currently
uncontained.
It’s estimated that the bushfires could kill up to one billion
animals, while the human death toll has climbed to 24, with 2,000
homes burned to the ground, reports Sky News.
Art handlers at the National Gallery of
Australia install Pablo Picasso’s L’Arlésienne: Lee Miller
(1937). Private international collection ©Succession
Picasso/Copyright Agency. Courtesy of the National Gallery of
Australia.
The fires also present a significant threat to works of art.
“Smoke is suspended airborne particles,” National Gallery of
Australia director Nick Mitzevich told the Sydney Morning
Herald. “Those airborne particles can have any number of
carcinogenics in them. If they settle on a painting or a textile or
a photograph, they could have a corrosive effect on the surface.
Anything in the air that is a foreign body has the potential to
deteriorate artworks over time.”
The museum’s current exhibition on Matisse and Picasso includes
loans from the Tate in London and the Musée national-Picasso Paris.
“All our lenders have been informed of what we have been doing and
the way we have been protecting the collection,” Mitzevich told
the Daily
Telegraph. “At the moment the artworks are not under
any threat at all.”
A fire rages in Bobin, Australia, on
November 9, 2019, as firefighters try to contain dozens of
out-of-control blazes that are raging in the state of New South
Wales. Photo by Peter Parks/AFP/via Getty Images.
Other Australian museums are also being affected by the ongoing
disaster. Air quality in the city of Albury, home to
the Murray Art Museum Albury, is even worse than in Canberra.
Nevertheless, the institution has opted thus far to remain open,
offering an air-conditioned respite from the heat, particularly for
those displaced by evacuation orders. The Show and Tell Gallery in
the small town of Corryong even served as a temporary shelter for
30 local residents on New Year’s Day. The space’s director, Joshua
Colling, was among those whose homes burned down.
The unprecedented intensity of this year’s fire season is
forcing institutions to reconsider how and when they mount shows in
the future. Until the air has cleared, the Blue Mountains Cultural
Centre, host of the upcoming National Photographic Portrait Prize
exhibition, is trying to limit how often the gallery doors are
opened. “In future years we will be programming our exhibition
space through summer to focus on exhibitions that can’t be damaged
by smoke,” a Blue Mountains City Council spokesperson told the
Herald.
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Forced the Closure of the National Gallery in Canberra appeared
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