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Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses
September 20, 2024When you’re born in the same town as Hieronymus Bosch, it’s a hard act to follow. In the Prado in Madrid, visitors stand transfixed in front of Bosch’s triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490-1510), with its outlandish visions of heaven and hell, the former packed with exotic animals, the latter a nightmare scene of […]
Art Column
Sydney Contemporary 2024
September 5, 2024Sydney Contemporary has quickly found its niche in a city in which the most probing critical analysis of a work of art is usually: “How much did you pay for that?” Variations on a theme include: “Why would anybody pay that much?” and “They must’ve seen him coming.” In Melbourne, art aficianados are more likely […]
Art Column
Lesley Dumbrell: Thrum
August 31, 2024Patrick Heron, one of Britain’s most prominent abstract artists, told me he lost his job as art critic at The New Statesman for writing too much about “space”. It may have bored the readers rigid, but for Heron, space was a colossally exciting topic. It probably takes an artist to understand the thrill of seeing […]
Art Column
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine
August 23, 2024In a career of 50 years, Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1948) has worked to quietly and purposefully refute the idea that photography is a “second-class citizen” in the world of art. Although known as a photographic artist, Sugimoto is a polymath, with interests in science, history, philosophy, theatre, architecture and landscape design. He has been a […]
Art Column
Darwin 2024
August 16, 2024Darwin at the beginning of August is one of the essential experiences on the Australian art calendar. The main attraction is the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), often called “the Telstras”, after the major sponsor, but there are enough exhibitions and activities to keep visitors busy for a week. Along with […]
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Film Reviews
October 6, 2024
Megalopolis
It’s hard to recall a film being greeted with more perplexity than Francis Ford Coppola’sMegalopolis. A production that has been 40 years in gestation, cost US$120 million, and failed to attract support from the major studios, it’s like no movie ever made. As the director is one of Hollywood’s all-time greats it seemed incredible that […]
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My Old Ass & The Critic
September 27, 2024Margo Robbie is one of the biggest names in Hollywood today, so when she decides her company will produce the second feature by young Canadian director, Megan Park, it’s a huge endorsement. It might have been even better had Robbie acted in this movie, as a little star power would have added to its box […]
Film Reviews
The Substance
September 19, 2024Wild. Demented. Shocking. Bizarre. Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is all of the above. It’s difficult to achieve an R rating in Australia nowadays but this movie clears the bar with ease. Along with the blood and full-frontal nudity, there’s a ferocious energy that propels the story forward, and a brand of comedy that leaves one […]
Film Reviews
Bonnard, Pierre & Marthe
September 12, 2024Despite the hundreds of books and catalogues devoted to the art of Pierre Bonnard, we are obliged to piece together his life from a mass of unreliable snippets. The major authority was his great-nephew, Antoine Terrasse (1928-2013), but the family connection can also act as a form of censorship, ensuring that difficult or disreputable stories […]
Film Reviews
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice
September 5, 2024Thirty-six years is a long time to wait for a sequel, but Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice feels like it was made immediately after the first film wrapped. The same characters reappear, while sets and props seem to have been carefully preserved against the day they were required for a second installment. Even Michael Keaton in […]
So Long, Guy
July 26, 2024When I spoke to Guy Warren three years ago, on the occasion of his hundredth birthday, I walked away feeling like I’d never felt following an interview. I felt energised. Talking to Guy, 100 not out, and so full of life he could have kept going all day, I realised that if I managed to […]
Blog
How the ancient Egyptians found an afterlife in the British Museum
July 18, 2024In terms of sheer longevity, writes Egyptologist, Toby Wilkinson, the 3,000-year reign of the Pharaohs represents “the greatest political and religious system the world has ever known.” It was, however, a fiercely hierarchical affair that bestowed wealth and luxury on the king and the elites, while condemning the poor to a life of drudgery. Ramses […]
Blog
Laura Jones is the Winner
June 8, 2024This year’s Archibald Prize announcement will remain etched in my memory for the peculiar way one of the speakers pronounced the name of the venue. Forget about “Naala Badu”, from now on I shall always think of the place as the Art Gallery of Nudist Whales. The other striking memory will be director, Michael Brand, […]
Blog
I Know Where I’m Going
May 6, 2024I Know Where I’m Going, made during the last year of World War Two, was a film between films. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger had been working together since 1939, when the Hungarian emigré was asked to help with rewrites for Powell’s The Spy in Black. Four years and three films later, Pressburger would be […]
John McDonald
For over thirty years he has been one of Australia’s best-known critics. He writes a weekly art column for the Sydney Morning Herald, a weekly film column for the Australian Financial Review, and contributes to a wide range of local and international publications.
Jeffrey Smart, ‘The Bather, Bondi’ (1962)
June 16, 2023JEFFREY SMART (1921-2013) The Bather, Bondi 1962 oil on board 49.0 x 72.0 cm signed lower left: JEFFREY SMART Provenance: South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne, 1962 Jean Parker (formerly Ramsey), Melbourne Estate of the above Amanda Addams Auctions, Melbourne, 13 April 2008, lot 285 Private collection, Melbourne Exhibited: Jeffrey Smart, South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne,11-24 November 1962, cat.7 […]
Journals
John Olsen, ‘Lake Alexandrina and Dirt Roads’ (1997-98)
JOHN OLSEN Lake Alexandrina and Dirt Roads 1997-98 oil on canvas 199.0 x 183.0 cm signed and dated lower right: John/ Olsen/ 97-98 signed and inscribed verso: Dirt Roads & Lake John/ Olsen Provenance: Savill Galleries, Sydney Private collection, Melbourne Exhibited: John Olsen: Recent Work 1995-1998, Olsen Carr Art Dealers, Sydney, 7-25 April 1998, cat.13 (illus. […]
Journals
Jeffrey Smart: ‘Petrol Station’ (1975)
March 10, 2023JEFFREY SMART Petrol Station 1975 oil on canvas on board 34.5 x 39.5 cm signed lower left: JEFFREY SMART Provenance: South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 4 November 1981, lot 25 Private collection, Melbourne Exhibited: (Probably) Jeffrey Smart, South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne, 3 April 1975 (Or) Jeffrey Smart, South […]