Victorian Artists Society established in 1856 in Melbourne, Australia promotes artistic education, art classes and gallery hire exhibition in Australia. Fore-runner of the Victorian Academy of Arts, founded in 1870. In 1888 the Australian Artist's Association amalgamated with the Victorian Academy of Arts to form the Victorian Artists Society. Past presidents include Frederick McCubbin
The premises at 430 Albert Street, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002, were erected for the society in 1888, enlarged in 1892 and modernised in 1953. Facilities include four Galleries, teaching studio, members room, offices and other ancillary facilities.
Membership is restricted to 1000, a figure last reached in 1979, and today is open for new members to join. Membership is open to all persons interested in the fine arts, with the emphasis on practicing artists.
Regular classes are held in various media which are open to members and non-members. Including watercolour, oil paiting, drawing, mixed media, life model.
Regular exhibitions are held annually, including the seasonal Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Exhibitions, with special award's given at each.
The 2011 Artist of the Year Award was given to Clive Sinclair.
Famous quotes containing the words victorian, artists and/or society:
“Apart from letters, it is the vulgar custom of the moment to deride the thinkers of the Victorian and Edwardian eras; yet there has not been, in all history, another age ... when so much sheer mental energy was directed toward creating a fairer social order.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“The past is interesting not only for the beauty which the artists for whom it was the present were able to extract from it, but also as past, for its historical value. The same goes for the present. The pleasure which we derive from the representation of the present is due not only to the beauty in which it may be clothed, but also from its essential quality of being present.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“And what is an authentic madman? It is a man who preferred to become mad, in the socially accepted sense of the word, rather than forfeit a certain superior idea of human honor. So society has strangled in its asylums all those it wanted to get rid of or protect itself from, because they refused to become its accomplices in certain great nastinesses. For a madman is also a man whom society did not want to hear and whom it wanted to prevent from uttering certain intolerable truths.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)