Art Column
The Picasso Century
Tuesday, June 21st, 2022 Art Column,“Nothing is excluded,” said Picasso, when asked about his methods. The Picasso Century at the National Gallery of Victoria provides the evidence for that sweeping claim. The show uses the iconic artist as the key to unlock an overview of the Modernist epoch. We see how Picasso’s innovations helped shape very different movements and tendencies; […]
The Archibald Prize in Ten Pictures
Tuesday, June 14th, 2022 Art Column,No fewer than 816 works were entered in this year’s Archibald Prize, with 52 being selected as finalists. I should be used to it by now, but I’m still amazed that so many artists plunge in, year after year, in the forlorn hope of making it into the charmed circle that hangs at the Art […]
Queer
Saturday, June 11th, 2022 Art Column,Art is a queer business. That seems to be the overriding message in a monumental show at the National Gallery of Victoria dedicated to shedding light on many aspects of art and social history that have been shunned, misrepresented, or left shrouded in darkness. Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection is an extraordinary exhibition that […]
Salon des Refusés 2022
Tuesday, May 31st, 2022 Art Column,This week has served up a powerful reminder that fame in art may be long, but celebrity in politics is strictly ephemeral. The Archibald Prize rolls around every year with cosmic regularity, but governments come and go, and when they change, the entire personality of a nation is changed. Last week I felt I was […]
Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail
Tuesday, May 24th, 2022 Art Column,It’s said there are distinct personality differences between those who prefer the mountains or the seashore. While it would be hard to argue all beach lovers are extroverts while mountain people are introverts, it’s probably true that most of us harbour an innate preference for one or the other. For Sculpture by the Sea, the […]
Shakespeare to Winehouse
Saturday, May 14th, 2022 Art Column,Shakespeare to Winehouse may not be the most important show ever held at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, but I can’t think of a bigger one. The most surprising thing about this collection of more than 80 works, drawn from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, London, is how long it has taken […]
Bundanon: Impulse to Action
Tuesday, May 10th, 2022 Art Column,When Arthur and Yvonne Boyd gave their Shoalhaven property, Bundanon, to the nation in 1993, the federal government was reluctant to accept the gift. Rather than a valuable cultural asset it must have seemed as if the Boyds were off-loading an expensive liability in a remote location. Almost 30 years later, with funding from federal […]
2022 Biennale of Sydney: rīvus
Tuesday, April 26th, 2022 Art Column,When he began to plan the 23rd Biennale of Sydney, this year’s director, José Roca, thought of Australia as a hot, dry country in which water was a precious resource. By the time the show got underway, a month ago, Sydney was well into its wettest March on record. Since then, the clouds and rain […]
Steve Lopes Encountered
Saturday, April 16th, 2022 Art Column,“What a lot of rubbish!”, I thought, looking at Steve Lopes Encountered – not the paintings but the subject matter. Lopes shows us a world covered in litter. His pictures are filled with dead leaves, bits of paper, fragments of rock or broken tile, the odd bottle, and lots of small, coloured patches that might […]
On Commissions
Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 Art Column,As the fabulous mirage of Sydney Modern rises on the edge of the Botanic Garden, the Art Gallery of New South Wales has decided to tell us what we might see when the building opens, allegedly before Christmas. Last week the gallery announced it had commissioned nine new works, from Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Karla Dickens, Simryn […]