best places to visit in Canberra/”>Canberra gets underestimated. Australian travellers know this, but many international visitors still overlook the capital entirely in favour of Sydney and Melbourne. This is a mistake, and the National Gallery of Australia is probably the single strongest argument for correcting it.
The NGA holds the most significant collection of Australian and Indigenous art in the world. It also holds one of the finest collections of Asian art in the southern hemisphere, an outstanding international modern and contemporary collection, and — perhaps most surprisingly to first-time visitors — work by Monet, Pollock, Warhol, Rothko, and Hepworth. It is, by any measure, a major art museum.
The Australian Art Collection
The Australian art galleries present the story of art in this country from the earliest colonial period to the present day. Sidney Nolan’s iconic Ned Kelly series is here — those black helmet paintings are among the most instantly recognisable images in Australian art history, and seeing the series in person reveals how strange and funny and disturbing they actually are.
Fred Williams, Arthur Boyd, Russell Drysdale, Grace Cossington Smith, Margaret Preston — all the major figures of Australian modernism are represented with major works. The collection is presented chronologically and thematically in a way that makes Australian art history legible even to visitors with no prior knowledge.
The Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Islander Collection
This is the most significant collection of its kind in the world, and it is the most important reason to visit the NGA. Spanning bark paintings, dot paintings, fibre art, sculpture, photography, and video, the collection represents artistic traditions from across the continent — Arnhem Land, the Western Desert, the Torres Strait — across time periods ranging from ancestral to contemporary.
Pair this with Aboriginal Museums Canberra to round out your trip.
The work of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, whose paintings of her ancestral Country in the Arlparra region cover canvases at a scale that makes them overwhelming in person, is among the highlights. So too are the major works by Lena Nyadbi, John Mawurndjul, and the Hermannsburg watercolour tradition. The NGA also holds significant collections of Torres Strait Islander art that are rarely exhibited elsewhere with this depth and care.
Allow more time here than you expect to need. These works reward sustained looking.
The International Collection
The NGA’s international holdings span more than 4,000 years and include work from Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and the Pacific. The Asian art collection is particularly strong — one of the best in any public institution in the southern hemisphere, with outstanding holdings in Indian sculpture, Chinese painting and ceramics, Japanese prints, and Southeast Asian objects.
The European and American modern collection includes Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles — the painting whose acquisition in 1973 for $1.3 million caused a political scandal in Australia and now looks like one of the greatest purchases in the history of Australian collecting. It hangs in a dedicated gallery and is, by any measure, a major work. Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Mark Rothko are all represented with significant paintings.
The Sculpture Garden
The NGA’s outdoor sculpture garden runs along the edge of Lake Burley Griffin and contains more than 60 works by Australian and international artists including Henry Moore, Aristide Maillol, and Bert Flugelman. It’s free to enter — no ticket required — and is one of the best outdoor art spaces in the country. On a clear Canberra winter’s day, walking through it before entering the gallery proper is a fine way to start a visit.
Worth adding to your itinerary: Best Things to Do in Canberra.
Practical Information
The NGA is located in Parkes, Canberra, on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin adjacent to the High Court of Australia. It’s a short drive or taxi ride from the city centre. The permanent collection is free to enter. Ticketed special exhibitions rotate through the year and are generally of a very high standard — check the program before your visit.
Allow at least half a day. A full day is not excessive. The Gallery Kitchen café is good and the museum shop is one of the better art museum shops in the country, with a well-curated selection of books, prints, and reproductions. Open daily except Christmas Day.
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