Five Centuries of Melancholia

Overview

When Danish director Lars von Trier turned a disposition of great sorrow into a film with 2011’s Melancholia, he followed in the footsteps of a long line of artists channelling despondency into their work. It is the manifestation of a mood of gloom that the UQ Art Museum celebrates, in an exhibition charting the depiction of wistful unhappiness since the Renaissance.

Marking the 500th anniversary of Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Melencolia I, the aptly titled Five Centuries of Melancholia features 46 works by 33 artists, all invoking melancholia as a condition, perspective or tone through figures, objects and landscapes. Australians feature prominently, including the Queensland-born Tracey Moffat and William Yang.

More than just a carefully curated collection of creative sadness, the exhibition is accompanied by monthly lectures that provide an intellectual insight into the works and term. Fittingly, the program also features a screening of Melancholia on October 7.