Return to Heide Museum of Modern Art and Cafe Vue

A couple of weekends back, Tim and I visited the Heide Museum of Modern Art at Bulleen in Victoria.  This museum is unusual as, while it is firmly in the middle of suburbia (just peer over the front fence at the traffic on the main road), it feels like it is in the country.  Heide is situated on a sprawling piece of land that was once owned by John and Sunday Reed, a bohemian couple who were strong supporters of local artists.  The art museum itself is spread over three buildings (all of them at some stage were lived in by the Reeds and their guests), and there are also sculptures scattered around the grounds, like this corrugated iron cow that Tim is cosying up to:

I find it hard to believe, but it has been 5 1/2 years since Tim and I last visited Heide.  This time, the key exhibitions included Dancing Umbrellas - An Exhibition of Movement and Light, Artists at Leisure - Photographs by Albert Tucker and The Angry Penguins, showcasing some of the activities of the Reeds during their time at Heide.   There are a number of famous paintings on display in the latter exhibition, including some of Albert Tucker's darker works that I remember from art class in Grade 8 at school. 

We completed our visit to Heide with late lunch at Cafe Vue, the only onsite cafe.  It is very busy, so we had to put our name on the list and wait for around 10 minutes before getting a table, even though it was nearly 2 in the afternoon.

It being a warm day, I started with a glass of Pinot Gris, and Tim had a Coopers beer;

For lunch, it was burgers all the way - Tim had the Wagyu beef burger with bacon ($19), with tomato sauce provided:

while I ordered the barramundi burger with caper mayo and fries ($20) off the specials board:

Both burgers were served on a brioche bun.  My burger definitely needed the mayo, as it would otherwise have been a little dry, but the flavours were good, especially the chives mixed through the barramundi in the burger.

I took a photo of Tim with his meal as a "time stamp" against our first visit to Heide - doesn't he look pleased with his meal:

I can't resist sharing with you some photos of the custom painted tiles above the stove in Sunday Reed's kitchen in Heide I (the original farm house):

Sunday Reed loved cats, and owned many of them, with a purpose-built cattery at the front of the farm house.  These tiles were painted for her by Margaret Perceval, wife of John Perceval and sister of Arthur Boyd, who were both artists that benefitted from the patronage of the Reeds.  I was pleased to find some magnets on the gift shop at Heide that featured some of these tiles, so I took them home as a momento of my visit to Heide.

Heide Museum of Modern Art

7 Templestowe Rd

Bulleen, Victoria 3105

Ph: (03) 9850 1500