Birth of the Cool

Aug 12, 2015, updated May 13, 2025

On Thursday 3 September exhibition curator Terence Maloon will speak about the Samstag Museum of Art and Drill Hall Gallery exhibition Birth of the Cool. Following this Floor Talk there will be a last opportunity to view the CACSA Contemporary 2015 exhibition in the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery whilst enjoying light refreshments and cool jazz from The New Cabal featuring Nick Pennington.

The New Cabal is one of Australia’s premier contemporary jazz groups. The ensemble consisting of Chris Soole – saxophone, Lyndon Gray – double bass, Angus Mason – drums and recent winner of the James Morrison scholarship, Nick Pennington on guitar will perform a programme of 1960s jazz to accompany the exhibition including the music of Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman.

Birth of the Cool is a selection of works by four painters: David Aspden, Sydney Ball, Michael Johnson and Dick Watkins currently on display at the Samstag Museum. It surveys the decade between 1963 and 1973. With the benefit of hindsight, it can be reappraised as a golden era of Australian art, with a brilliant generation emerging in full confidence of its powers, determined to excel at the highest level – not just locally, but in a global context.

Birth of the Cool presents some of the finest, most dazzling works borrowed from private and institutional collections across Australia.

Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, the Hawke Research Institute and Samstag Museum

Register: Birth of the Cool Exhibition, floor talk and Jazz evening
Thursday 3 September 2015, from 5.30pm
Samstag Museum and Kerry Packer Civic Gallery

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