The Art Gallery of South Australia has revealed its 2026 winter centrepiece, a new exhibition bringing together works by some of the most celebrated names in 19th and 20th century art with Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition.<\/p>\n
Slated to open in July 2026, the exhibition will feature key showpieces from the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, including pieces by Paul C\u00e9zanne, Edgar Degas, Helen Frankenthaler, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh and James McNeill Whistler.<\/p>\n
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Claude Monet, born Giverny, France 1840, died Giverny, France 1926, Water Lilies, c.1922, oil on canvas, 200.7 x 213.4cm; Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States of America<\/p>\n
Once known as \u2018The Glass City\u2019 for its booming 19th century glass industry, Toledo\u2019s history of wealthy industrialist-philanthropists \u2014 like glass magnate and Toledo Museum of Art founder Edward Drummond Libbey (1854-1925) \u2014 has left it with a rich public collection capturing decades of experimentation and evolution from across Europe and America.<\/p>\n
\u201cToledo is in the Midwest, and it\u2019s part of what we now call the Rust Belt, but was a big area of industry and development in the first half of the 20th century \u2013 huge amounts of money,\u201d Art Gallery of South Australia curator Tansy Curtin tells InReview.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it means is that you have this moment where you\u2019ve got incredible collectors who are establishing a museum for a community. And so it\u2019s this amazing kind of coming together of money and power and philanthropy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Henri Matisse, born Le Cateau-Cambr\u00e9sis, France 1869, died Nice, France 1954, Dancer Resting, 1940, France, oil on canvas, 81.3 \u00d7 64.8 cm; Gift of Mrs. C. Lockhart McKelvy, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States of America, \u00a9 Henri Matisse\/Copyright Agency, 2025<\/p>\n
This Australian-exclusive loan arrives as the Toledo Museum embarks on a major, multi-year renovation project \u2013 including its first comprehensive reinstallation in four decades. With the museum set to reopen in 2027, Adelaide has swooped in to serve as a temporary home to some of Toledo\u2019s most prized acquisitions.<\/p>\n
While many of the artists represented have also appeared in other recent major exhibitions around the country, Curtin says audiences will still find plenty to appreciate when the Toledo pieces are unveiled.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s this amazing kind of coming together of money and power and philanthropy.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do know these artists really well, but I also like to say there\u2019s a big difference seeing a work on a screen and seeing the work in real life,\u201d she says, citing Vincent van Gogh\u2019s 1890 painting Wheat Fields with Reaper, Auvers, purchased via an endowment donated by Libbey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you can\u2019t see is just how incredible the brush work is, and how thick the paint is. It\u2019s not a two-dimensional work, it is three-dimensional, it\u2019s an object. It\u2019s so beautiful to get up close to it, and be able to see that, and to see how the artist really understands colour and plays with colour and form.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Paul Klee, born M\u00fcnchenbuchsee, Switzerland 1879, died Locarno, Switzerland 1940, Villas for Marionettes (Villen f\u00fcr Marionetten), 1922, Germany, oil on wood panel, 29.8 x 22.9 cm; Gift of Thomas T. Solley, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States of America<\/p>\n
The Toledo works will be complemented by selections from AGSA\u2019s own collection of 28,000 works on paper, including works by \u00c9douard Manet and Paul Gaugin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a really extraordinary collection of work on paper,\u201d Curtin says. \u201cI\u2019ve been working to really draw out some of the stories with some of our works on paper to tell a deeper story.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably a lot of people wouldn\u2019t even realise that we have many of these great masters in our collection, and haven\u2019t had that opportunity to see them in context.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition will be the first of four major Winter Art exhibitions to be held from 2026 \u2013 2029. The series was first revealed by Premier Peter Malinauskas in March as the $15 million flagship project of the state government\u2019s new cultural policy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMonet to Matisse is a real coup for South Australia, bringing iconic paintings by artists including Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse to Adelaide for the first time,\u201d Malinauskas said in a statement this week.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Art Gallery of South Australia has cemented itself as a major tourism destination and AGSA\u2019s Winter Art sSeries will see blockbuster exhibitions exclusively in Adelaide over winter for the next four years, driving tourism visitation and delivering tangible economic growth to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n In March, AGSA director Jason Smith said he hoped the series would help make South Australia an \u201cinspiring art destination\u201d, and build the gallery\u2019s reputation outside the state.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Malinauskas-Jam-Factory.jpg\")
Premier Peter Malinauskas announcing the state government\u2019s $15 million backing of AGSA\u2019s Winter Art exhibitions in March 2025. Photo: Walter Marsh<\/p>\n