[6] In 1875, Apsley Falls by Conrad Martens, commissioned by the trustees and purchased for £50 out of the first government grant of £500, became the first work on paper by an Australian artist to be acquired by the gallery.

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 on 22 September 1880.

[7] In 2005 Justice John Hamilton of the Supreme Court of New South Wales ruled in favour of the gallery over the disputed 2004 award of the Archibald Prize to Craig Ruddy.

In the same year Kenneth Reed announced his intention to bequeath his entire private collection of 200 pieces of rare and valuable 18th-century European porcelain valued at A$5.4 million.

[7] In 2013 the gallery unveiled a strategic vision and masterplan, under the working title Sydney Modern: a proposal for major expansion and renewed focus on serving a global audience.

[7] In the same year, the gallery received A$10.8 million from the NSW Government to finance the planning stages of Sydney Modern, which would see the construction of a new building and double the size of the institution.

The money was used over the next two years for feasibility and engineering studies related to the use of land next to the gallery's existing 19th-century home, and to launch an international architectural competition.

The trustees were not convinced and demanded a classical temple to art, not unlike William Henry Playfair's Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, opened in 1859.

The modern need for flexibility in display layout was answered by the use of track lighting and precast ceiling panels designed to support a system of demountable walls.

[38] In 1975 the Captain Cook Wing was awarded the Sir John Sulman Medal for Public Architecture by the NSW Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.

Within the constraints of two large Moreton Bay fig trees, and with a substantial part of the accommodation below ground level, the extension doubled the size of the gallery.

Space for permanent collections and temporary exhibitions was expanded, a new Asian gallery, the Domain Theatre, a café overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay, and a rooftop sculpture garden were added.

This addition was coupled with other alterations: a new temporary exhibition space on the top level, new conservation studios, an outward expansion of the café overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay, a new restaurant with dedicated function area, a theatrette and relocation of the gallery shop.

[41] The extension added 720 square metres (7,800 sq ft) to the New South Wales Art Gallery, with the new space to house temporary and permanent exhibitions.

[44] A competition to expand the gallery as part of the 'Sydney Modern' project was won in 2015 by Tokyo architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA.

[46] Former Prime Minister Paul Keating criticised plans to significantly develop the outdoor spaces near the gallery for use as private venues as "about money, not art".

[47] The Foundation and Friends of the neighbouring Royal Botanic Garden objected to the proposed loss of green space and parkland in the adjacent Domain, requested a review and negotiated with the gallery about sight lines, transport, logistics and alignment of built structures.

[52] In 1871 the collection started with the acquisition by The Art Society of some large works from Europe such as Ford Madox Brown's Chaucer at the Court of Edward III.

[7] 20th-century Australian artists represented include: Arthur Boyd, Rupert Bunny, Grace Cossington Smith, H. H. Calvert, William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, James Gleeson, Sidney Nolan, John Olsen, Margaret Preston, Hugh Ramsay, Lloyd Rees, Imants Tillers, J. W. Tristram, Roland Wakelin, Brett Whiteley, Fred Williams and Blamire Young.

With the gift of the John Kaldor Family Collection, the gallery now holds arguably Australia's most comprehensive representation of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present day.

[7] The photography collection has major holdings of a wide variety of artists including Tracey Moffatt, Bill Henson, Fiona Hall, Micky Allan, Mark Johnson, Max Pam and Lewis Morley.

As well as contemporary photography, Australian pictorialism, modernism and postwar photo documentary is represented by The Sydney Camera Circle, Max Dupain and David Moore.

The evolution of 19th-century Australian photography is represented with emphasis on the work of Charles Bayliss and Kerry & Co. International photographs include English pictorialism and the European avant garde (Bauhaus, constructivism and surrealism).

Styles range from the formal aesthetics of early photography to the informal snapshots of Weegee to the high fashion of Helmut Newton and Bettina Rheims.

[7] The gallery has an extensive collection of British Victorian art, including major works by Lord Frederic Leighton and Sir Edward John Poynter.

It has smaller holdings of European art of the 15th to 18th centuries, including works by Peter Paul Rubens, Canaletto, Bronzino, Domenico Beccafumi, Giovanni Battista Moroni and Niccolò dell'Abbate.

[7] British art of the 20th century occupies a significant place in the collection together with major European figures such as Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alberto Giacometti and Giorgio Morandi.

Featured artists included Vernon Ah Kee with Dalisa Pigram, Betty Muffler, Sally Smart, Alick Tipoti, Judy Watson, Judith Wright,[57] and Tom Polo.

It presenting partners and sponsors include Aqualand Projects, EY, Herbert Smith Freehills, JPMorgan Chase, Macquarie Group and UBS.

The current members of the board are:[97][98][99] At the start of the film Sirens, Hugh Grant walks past paintings in the Art Gallery of NSW, including Spring Frost by Elioth Gruner, The Golden Fleece (1894) by Tom Roberts, Still Glides the Stream and Shall Forever Glide (1890) by Arthur Streeton, Bailed Up (1895) by Tom Roberts, and Chaucer at the Court of Edward III (1847–51) by Ford Madox Brown.