Roy de Maistre Rhythmic composition in yellow green minor 1919 (detail) oil on paperboard © Caroline de Mestre Walker; Bettina Rheims Martine 1989, gelatin silver photograph from the series Modern lovers 1990. Gift of Edron Pty Ltd 1996 through the auspices of Alistair McAlpine; Gumuk Gumana River at Gangan 1947 (detail) crayon on paper, Berndt Museum of Anthropology; Polly Borland Untitled XXXII from Smudge 2010 (detail) chromogenic print 76 × 65 cm Image courtesy of the artist and Murray White Room, Melbourne © the artist

“I’m delighted to announce our 2013 exhibition program, my first as director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It’s an exciting schedule, ranging from Old Master drawings and Chinese archaeology to the art of our own time, a period in which we can claim to be the national leader.

“The year begins with a contemporary journey through love’s emotional language – joy, elation, longing, loss, melancholia and memory – with works by eleven Australian artists. In the middle of the year we’ll present our major Australian exhibition, Sydney Moderns, highlighting the complex world of early Australian modernism as it took Sydney by storm between the two world wars. I’m also very pleased to announce an outstanding Chinese exhibition, A Silk Road saga, which uses the Gallery’s international reputation in this field to bring to Australia a sixth-century CE white marble sarcophagus only excavated in 1999. Our photography shows include Bill Henson: cloud landscapes and the fashion photography of Helmut Newton and Bettina Rheims, and around the same time we will have the Anne Landa Award for video and new media.

“With respect to our continuing focus on Aboriginal art, highlights of 2013 will include a unique group of Yirrkala drawings from the 1940s and a special exhibition of works from southeast Australia, spanning well over a century.

“Lastly, I am especially looking forward to our Spanish prints and drawings: Renaissance to Goya exhibition, which will bring together 130 exceptional drawings and prints from the British Museum in London, and for which the Gallery will be the only venue in Australia.”

Michael Brand, director, Art Gallery of New South Wales