Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Art Gallery of New South Wales, located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is the most important public gallery in Sydney and one of the largest in Australia. The Gallery's first public exhibition opened in 1874. Admission is free to the general exhibition space, which displays Australian art, European and Asian art. A dedicated Asian Gallery was opened in 2003. On 24 April 1871, a public meeting was convened in Sydney to establish an Academy of Art 'for the purpose of promoting the fine arts through lectures, art classes and regular exhibitions.' From 1872 until 1879 the Academy's main activity was the organisation of annual art exhibitions. The first exhibition of colonial art, under the auspices of the Academy, was held at the Chamber of Commerce, Sydney Exchange in 1874. In 1875 Apsley Falls by Conrad Martens, commissioned by the trustees and purchased for E50 out of the first government grant of E500, became the first work on paper by an Australian artist to be acquired by the Gallery. The Gallery's collection was first housed at Clark's Assembly Hall in Elizabeth Street where it was open to the public on Friday and Saturday afternoons. The collection was relocated in 1879 to a wooden annexe to the Garden Palace built for the Sydney International Exhibition in the Domain and was officially opened as The Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 1882, the first Director, Eliezer Montefiore and his fellow trustees opened the art gallery on Sunday afternoons from 2 pm to 5 pm. Montefiore believed: The public should be afforded every facility to avail themselves of the educational and civilising influence engendered by an exhibition of works of art, bought, moreover, at the public expense. The destruction of the Garden Palace by fire in 1882 placed pressure on the government to provide a permanent home for the national collection. In 1883 private architect John Horbury Hunt was engaged by the trustees to submit designs. The same year there was a change of name to The National Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Gallery was incorporated by The Library and Art Gallery Act 1899. In 1895, the new Colonial Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, was given the assignment to design the new permanent gallery and two picture galleries were opened in 1897 and a further two in 1899. A watercolour gallery was added in 1901 and in 1902 the Grand Oval Lobby was completed. Over 300,000 people came to the Gallery during March and April 1906 to see Holman Hunt's painting The Light of the World. In 1921, the inaugural Archibald Prize was awarded to W.B. McInnes for his portrait of architect Desbrowe Annear. The equestrian statues The offerings of peace and The offerings of war by Gilbert Bayes were installed in front of the main facade in 1926. James Stuart MacDonald was appointed director and secretary in 1929. In 1936 the inaugural Sulman Prize was awarded to Henry Hanke for La Gitana. John William Ashton was appointed director and secretary in 1937. The first woman to win the Archibald Prize was Nora Heysen in 1938 with her portrait Mme Elink Schuurman, the wife of the Consul General for the Netherlands. The same year electric light was temporarily installed at the Gallery to remain open at night for the first time. In 1943 William Dobell won the Archibald Prize for Joshua Smith, causing considerable controversy. Hal Missingham was appointed director and secretary in 1945. In 1958 the Art Gallery of New South Wales Act was amended and the Gallery's name reverted to The Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 1969 construction began on the Captain Cook wing to celebrate the bicentenary of Cook's landing in Botany Bay. The new wing opened in May 1972, following the retirement of Missingham and the appointment of Peter Phillip Laverty as director in 1971. The first of the modern blockbusters to be held at the Gallery was Modern masters: Monet to Matisse in 1975. It attracted 180,000 people over 29 days. The 1976 the Biennale of Sydney was held at the Gallery for the first time. The Sydney Opera House had been the location for the inaugural Biennale in 1973. 1977 saw an exhibition A selection of recent archaeological finds of the People's Republic of China. Edmund Capon was appointed director in 1978 and in 1980 The Art Gallery of New South Wales Act established the Art Gallery of New South Wales Trust.