SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.- The Lloyd Rees Sketchbooks will be opened by Richard Leplastrier at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Friday 8 February 2002 at 12 noon. The great Australian artist Lloyd Rees (1895-1988) made four extended visits to Europe between 1953 and 1973. He recorded his passion for Europe in a variety of sketchbooks, which are amongst the most prized works in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. These sketchbooks have generously been given to the Gallery by Lloyd Rees' son Alan, and daughter-in-law, Jan, who will be special guests at the opening of the exhibition. This is the first exhibition to be devoted to Rees' sketchbooks and his love of Europe. The sketchbooks contain many drawings of the Tuscan landscape, of Venice, Rome, the Greek islands, southern France and of Paris. 'Lloyd Rees' European sketchbooks provide us with the most intimate and revealing encounters with his work and its sources', Hendrik Kolenberg, Senior Curator of Australian Prints, Drawings and Watercolours, Art Gallery of New South Wales.