‘We’re probably safer than the Louvre’: The country town that’s hosting Andy Warhol

Move over Henry Lawson. A new exhibition has opened in Mudgee featuring famous Pop Art from Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein borrowed from Canberra.

Australian country towns are more used to being cash-strapped and under-resourced than flush with offerings from the nation’s capital. So when Lizzy Galloway, gallery curator at the Mudgee Arts Precinct, got to pick and choose from the National Gallery of Australia’s extensive art collection, she was unaccustomed to the jackpot feeling.

“It was like being a billionaire for a day – or winning the lottery,” says Galloway. “I was flicking through the NGA’s catalogue of works thinking: ‘Should we ask for the Andy Warhols or the Roy Lichtensteins? Or can we have both? And would they throw some David Hockney’s pool series prints in too?’.”

That was in mid-2023, when Galloway first applied for Mudgee’s regional gallery to partake in the NGA’s “Sharing the National Collection” four-year pilot program, inked by the federal government in 2023, with $11.8 million behind it.

So far, some 20 regional galleries and exhibition spaces across the country have received 200 works from the NGA collection, about 85 per cent of which are in storage in Canberra at any given time.

As for Mudgee – a 3½-hour drive north-west of Sydney – nine paintings from the NGA finally arrived a week ago in the form of four Andy Warhol prints and five works by his 1960s Pop Art contemporary, Roy Lichtenstein. “We whisked them straight into our climate-controlled storeroom. We just could not believe it,” says Galloway.

“We jumped through a few hoops to get to this point, including liaising with the Andy Warhol Foundation in New York on copyright issues. And there were many requirements to work through with the NGA, such as security.

“We explained the police station is next door to the gallery, so that’s a good start.”

The Mudgee regional gallery – comprising an $8.1 million extension that opened in 2021 off the back of the heritage Victorian-era council chambers – is also surrounded by CCTV, not to mention that it is also partly protected by a sturdy Colorbond fence.

“We’re probably safer than the Paris Louvre,” says Galloway.

Works on loan include Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup II – Cheddar Cheese from his Campbell’s Soup series, and his portrait of Australian lawyer, collector and editor of Interview magazine, Henry Gillespie from 1985.

Mudgee Region Tourism chief marketing officer Beau Kassas says it puts a new spin on tourism to the mid-western region.

“Mudgee and the surrounding towns are a great antidote to big-city burnout,” Kassas says.

“To be able to offer big-city experiences – internationally celebrated artists on show in our slow-paced region allows people to enjoy the best of both worlds.”

Over the next two years, the Mudgee Arts Precinct will host a series of rolling small-scale exhibitions of a total 41 works from the NGA, including works by David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler and Frank Stella.

“We have fabulous annual cultural events that this initiative supports – such as Sculptures in the Garden at Rosby Wines Mudgee each October, Cementa Festival in Kandos and the Henry Lawson Festival in Gulgong,” Kassas says.

Galloway was initially going to select Australian artists from the NGA: “Then I thought, ‘hang on, how sexy would it be to have Andy Warhol in Mudgee’,” she says. “And we even got one of his soup cans!”

Icons of Pop Art: Warhol & Lichtenstein is on show now until March 15. Entry is free.