The Johnstone Gallery was a private gallery located in the suburb of Bowen Hills in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia co-owned by Brian Johnstone and his wife, Marjorie Johnstone (née Mant). It was the leading Brisbane commercial gallery exhibiting contemporary Australian art from 1950 until 1972.
History
Establishment
Brian Johnstone ran Marodian Gallery at 452 Upper Edward Street, Spring Hill, during 1950–1951 in a gallery at the rear of Hugh Hale's interior decorating shop. The partnership terminated when Hale criticised an Arthur Boyd exhibition. Johnstone Gallery then moved to the basement of the Brisbane Arcade, into what had been an air-raid shelter, from 1952 to 1957 before it was permanently sited at 6 Cintra Road, Bowen Hills in 1958 in a purpose built space in a sub-tropical rainforest setting. There, owners Brian and Marjorie Johnstone showed most major Australian artists of the period, including Sir Sidney Nolan, Robert Dickerson, Lawrence Daws, Margaret Olley (whose 1962 exhibition sold out at the opening for £3000, then a record for an Australia woman artist), Charles Blackman, Ray Crooke, John Coburn, Arthur Boyd, Donald Friend, Laurence HopeShapcott, T. W. (2006). The Brian Johnstone Gallery. Overland, (182), 46. and others in post-war Brisbane which had few visual art offerings beyond Queensland Art Gallery.
Theatre The sub-tropical rainforest garden was also the stage for theatre, including a production by Twelfth Night Theatre, then situated in inner city Wickham Terrace, of Aristophanes' Lysistrata with the set and costumes designed by Quentin Hole, 24–27 April 1962. With plans from 1966 to establish a unique suburban artistic precinct in Brisbane the couple formed a committee to permanently establish what would become the new location of Twelfth Night Theatre. Prior to the commencement of building it, a production of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas was staged in a tent on the site. Construction began in 1969 and the theatre opened in February 1971 under the direction of Joan Whalley, with two productions, A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau and The Rose and the Ring a musical based on the fireside pantomime written by William Makepeace Thackeray. The Johnstones were delighted, as Brian wrote to Sidney Nolan:
"...with the new half-million dollar theatre next door, the establishment is now nicely rounded off, so perhaps one of these days Marjorie and I will be able to play ladies and gentlemen of the art world!"Letter from Brian Johnstone to Sidney Nolan, 24 March 1971: The Johnstone Gallery Archive: Sidney Nolan Correspondence File: RBHARC 7/3/69
The theatre continues under the directorship of Gail Wiltshire.
Legacy Johnstone Gallery closed in December 1972, and the gallery buildings have since been demolished and the rainforest gardens lost to the development of townhouses. Following the closure Brian Johnstone operated an art consultancy for a few years.
In 1994, after her death in 1993, the estate of Marjorie Johnstone bequeathed the Johnstone Gallery Archive to the State Library of Queensland. The collection features 26 bound volumes of scrapbooks, gallery files, printed exhibition catalogues, correspondence, photographs, and is a major resource for provenance research of Australian artworks and artists. Photographer Arthur Davenport recorded many of the artworks and gallery installations from 1964 to 1972, which can be seen in the State Library of Queensland's Arthur Davenport collection. The State Library has also produced a series of digital stories and oral histories with many of the artists and gallery owners who were associated with the Johnstone Gallery - John White, Philip Bacon, Victor Mace and artists Nevil Matthews, Margaret Olley, Laurence Daws, Ray Crooke, Roy Churcher, Betty Churcher, Robert Dickerson and Max Hurley.
The Johnstone Gallery Archive was added to UNESCO's Australian Memory of the World Register in 2021.
Exhibitions
1952, Laurence Hope 1961, 14–30 Nov; Donald Friend 1962, February; William Peascod 1962, 28 April-10 May; 50 Drawings of old Brisbane, Kenneth Jack 1962, September; Fred Jessup 1962, October; Adrian Feint 1962, November; Margaret Olley 1962, December; John Coburn 1963, 28 July–; Moya Dyring 1963, August; Francis Lymburner 1963 13–28 Aug; Yulgilbar 1863-1963 and other paintings, Donald Friend 1964, 28 Feb-25 March; Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman, Lawrence Daws 1964 14–22 April; Paintings by Shay Docking 1964, 13–25 June; Paintings and drawings by Mervyn Moriarty 1964, 14–29 July; James Gleeson 1964, 18–30 July; Peter Kennedy 1964, August; New Guinea paintings Ray Crooke, Baillieu Myer commission for 1964. 1964, 18 Sept-7 Oct; Recollections of Raratonga, Henry Bell 1964, 30 Oct- 19 Nov; Gordon Shepherdson downstairs in Gallery F 1964, 30 Oct- 19 Nov; John Åland 1964, 15 Nov-2-Dec; Brian Seidel 1964, 6–24 December; Alex Leckie 1965, 8–23 June; Paintings by June Stephenson 1965, 21 Sept-6 Oct; Ken Reinhard 1965, 12–27 Oct; Michael Kmit 1966, 4–21 September; Alice in Wonderland, Charles Blackman 1967, 21 March–5 April: Rosemary Ryan 1967, 25 July-9 August, Arthur Boyd 1967, 17 Oct-1 Nov; Paintings by Lawrence Daws 1968, 14–26 Oct; Leaves from a New Guinea Sketch Book and other paintings by Margaret Olley 1969, 30 March-12 April; The Dolley Pond Church of God with signs following suite and other paintings by Lawrence Daws 1969, 30 March-12 April; People in miniature series, Ann Graham 1969, 22 June–5 July; A homage to Breughel, Manet, Daumier, Picasso, Degas, Rembrandt, Goya, Renoir, Robert Dickerson 1969, 13 July-2 August; Documenta espirita, Ignacio Marmol 1969, 10–23 August; Arthur Boyd 1969, 23 Nov-20 Dec; Sculpture by Guy Boyd 1969, 23 Nov-6 Dec; Laurence Hope 1970, 4–26 Sept; The 1913 mining disaster, paintings by Lawrence Daws 1970, 2–24 Oct; Paintings by Margaret Olley 1970, 30 Oct-21 Nov: An Experience of Paris: park, cathedral, city. Charles Blackman 1971, 9–31 July; Dust, Sidney Nolan 1971, 6–28 Aug; The Professionals and other people, Robert Dickerson 1972, 6–29 Sept; Anatomy of a Relationship, Lawrence Daws 1972,1–20 Oct; Homage, Margaret Olley
References
External links RBHARC-7 Johnstone Gallery Archive 1948-ca. 1992. State Library of Queensland collection record. Johnstone Gallery Archive Interviews State Library of Queensland collection record. Johnstone Gallery Archive resources State Library of Queensland's online portal to the Johnstone Gallery Archive. The Johnstone Gallery Archive 1948 - ca 1992: treasure collection of the Australian Library of Art, John Oxley Library blog, State Library of Queensland. Twelfth Night Theatre Johnstone Gallery Archive 1948-c1992 and Arthur Davenport Photographs 1955-1992 - Australian Memory of the World