Lining up for the gallery in C-town.

Lydia and I ventured off to C-town to catch up with some friends but principally to see the Post-Impressionist exhibition at the NGA. For some reason, a lot of people considered this an amazing extravagance and asked me whether it was worth it. My immediate answer when asked this post-viewing was an unequivocal *No*. Now before you think the exhibition was a load of crap, let me explain why.

Firstly, I was a bit hesitant about going to the exhibition given that I've been to the Musee d'Orsay 3 times (in 2004, 2007, and 2008). I also went to the Impressionist exhibition that hit Melb in 2004. These recent viewings meant that I was pretty sure I was going to see things I'd already seen 4 times. I did. That's not to say it's not a good exhibition - merely that I was quite familiar with them already and unfortunately few of them make me say *Wow!* every time.

Sargent's La Carmencita is a clear exception to the rule.

This however brings me to the second point. Even if I was not so familiar with the Musee d'Orsay, I may have felt what dancinghula believed - specifically that while there were paintings from 'Name' artists (Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat etc), but that they were primarily 'secondary' works. She pointed out that while there were many studies for major works, the major works themselves were missing. I'm not so fussed about that, but I guess if you're expecting Seurat's The Circus, and the reality is you get a preliminary study, that might be upsetting.

Finally, the thing that really annoyed me. To get into the exhibition, we had to line up for two hours. This was despite pre-booking our tickets. Hell, I don't even wait that long to get into the real gallery! This waiting time is akin to getting into something like the Uffizi - and that's a 400 year old building that has to restrict the number of people inside.

Our position in the queue

We've moved further up and here are some people behind us

The queue doubling back along the block.

It is quite possible that if we didn't have to wait that long to enter, I would be more forgiving. However, as it stands, we spent more time in the queue than in the exhibition, and having been on our feet in a crowd for approximately 3.5 hours (without toilet breaks), we were in no condition to actually look at the other works in the NGA other than the Ned Kelly series. The odd thing is, having visited on other occasions, it's usually quite empty! I guess they must make their budget back somehow.

I was assured that the waiting time is an anomaly due to the lateness at which we were able to organise our trip. This is quite likely. However this may be considered a caveat for future visitors. Or maybe not. Oh well. It was still good to catch up with dancinghula, Lymbo (but I didn't get to meet sleep Pan-danny), the Bedouin, H, and Punz. Sorry to all the C-towners that I wasn't able to squeeze in!

And so to end, here's a tourist pic of Lydia outside Parliament House!