ANU art treasures go on display at Drill Hall Gallery

New treasures of The Australian National University (ANU) art collection will go on display for the first time on Friday at a major exhibition of works donated to the University's Drill Hall Gallery. The exhibition, 10 Years of Collecting at the ANU, highlights some of the outstanding additions to the collection through donations, gifts and purchases over the past decade. Drill Hall Gallery Director Terence Maloon said the ANU art collection of more than 2,500 works, worth more than $34 million, is usually scattered around the campus and is rarely brought together in one place. "We have chosen 100 treasures from the ANU art collection to celebrate some of the great works of art acquired over the past ten years, and to acknowledge the generous gifts from our benefactors," Mr Maloon said. "This is not a collection like any other in Australia's museums. It is unique to the ANU and its community." The exhibition features significant works by indigenous artists such as Timothy Cook, George Tjungurrayi and Jacky Green, as well as the Australian modernist Tony Tuckson, Australian contemporary artist, Greg Hodge, and Papua New Guinean artist Simon Gende. Highlights include a large work by Timothy Cook called "Kulama" - an expression of his ongoing anxiety about the prospect of death.