Art Column
David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948-2018
Friday, November 23rd, 2018 Art Column,“I was never interested in making propaganda for anybody,” said David Goldblatt, “and didn’t allow my photos to be used that way.” It’s an important point because even Goldblatt’s admirers tend to see him as a political photographer who drew global attention to the injustices of Apartheid. As this landmark retrospective at the Museum of […]
Watters Gallery: Tony Tuckson 1921-1973, Figurative Paintings and Preoccupations
Thursday, November 15th, 2018 Art Column,It was a typically understated opening night at Watters Gallery last week for Tony Tuckson 1921-1973, Figurative Paintings and Preoccupations. If the atmosphere was a little sombre it was because this was the last hurrah for a Sydney institution and icon. After 54 years Watters is closing, and none of the visitors on that final […]
Masters of Modern Art from the Hermitage
Thursday, November 8th, 2018 Art Column,Masters of Modern Art from the Hermitage is the offspring of Icons of Modern Art: The Shchukin Collection, held at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris at the end of 2016. Having seen that exhibition, which was one of the great experiences of decades spent in art museums, it’s hard to get too excited about […]
Sculpture by the Sea 2018
Friday, November 2nd, 2018 Art Column,This weekend is the last chance to catch Sculpture by the Sea, which has become one of the annual rituals of life in Sydney. Every October or November we trek dutifully from Bondi to Tamarama (and usually back again), with the devotion of pilgrims visiting a holy shrine with a full range of relics on […]
Bangkok Art Biennale
Friday, October 26th, 2018 Art Column,“Follow your bliss” was the signature pronouncement of Joseph Campbell, an American writer on comparative mythology who became a guru for many of his readers. Campbell took the idea from the Indian holy books, the Upanishads, in which the Sanskrit word for “bliss” is “ananda”. It may be pure coincidence that the inaugural Bangkok Art […]
White Rabbit: Supernatural
Saturday, October 20th, 2018 Art Column,At a time when the United Nations has just issued an alarming report about the impact of climate change a new show at the White Rabbit Gallery looks at the transformations of nature in contemporary Chinese art. It’s a subject that took a radical turn when the Communist Party came to power in 1949. Prior […]
William Kentridge: That Which We Do Not Remember
Friday, October 12th, 2018 Art Column,There is nobody in the upper echelons of contemporary art quite like South Africa’s William Kentridge. There may be artists with more natural talent. There are plenty whose works sell for greater sums. There are artists with a much better feel for colour or texture, or who draw with greater fluency. Kentridge’s works are not […]
Steirischer Herbst 2018
Thursday, October 4th, 2018 Art Column,In the words of Thomas Bernhard, Austria’s greatest novelist of the late 20th century, the city of Graz was “a nest of Nazis”. In a speech of last year, Georg Friedrich Haas, Austria’s foremost living composer, reeled off a list of Nazis that had remained faithful to the Führer in post-war Graz, including his own […]
Contemporary Istanbul 2018
Thursday, September 27th, 2018 Art Column,Having left Sydney while one art fair was winding up, I arrived in Istanbul on the eve of another. Shortly afterwards came the news that Sydney Contemporary had secured $21 million in sales, an increase of $5 million on last year’s total. This comes at a time when dealers complain about declining visitation and how […]
6 Artists, 7 Days: The AWC Newhaven Exhibition
Thursday, September 20th, 2018 Art Column,Cute kittens and puppies have been used to sell all sorts of products, but the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) is testing whether small marsupials can sell contemporary art. Check out the AWC website and you’ll find pictures of the Mala, AKA. the Rufus Hare-wallaby, a miniature fur-ball with dark eyes, big ears, whiskers and tiny […]