Artwork: Cybele, Robyn Daw, 1994-97, frottage and graphite on BFK Rives paper, framed: 89.5 x 182.5cm.
The gallery is delighted to see the donation of ‘Cybele’ by the late Robyn Daw, artist, curator, and educator in the QUT Art Museum. The donation was made by Dexter Daw Friend and Ian Friend in memory of the late Robyn Daw.
Daw was the inaugural curator (Public Programs) at QUT Art Museum, and played an important role in the national arts community. She has curated countless exhibitions spanning art, craft and design and has been published extensively. While many knew her as a well-loved and influential arts administrator, her work as an artist is also to be celebrated, and commemorated in recent collaborative exhibition Lux Æterna featuring works from both Ian Friend and Robyn Daw.
The donated work, Cybele, was inspired by the 1780-81 work by Antoine-François Callet, Spring, or Zephyr and Flora Crowning Cybele with Flowers. Daw used a process-driven approach of frottage and drawing to bring to life the details of the frame surrounding the French painting. A work of art in and of itself, the frame is part of the ceiling of the Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre.