Art Column
The Lady and the Unicorn
Friday, April 20th, 2018 Art Column,Towards the end of Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll stages a furious battle between a lion and a unicorn. The fight is based on an old nursery rhyme, which plays on the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, in which the lion stands for England, the unicorn for Scotland. The lion and […]
Wonderland
Thursday, April 12th, 2018 Art Column,Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the very definition of a classic. On first publication in 1865 it did for children’s books what Don Quixote had done for romances of chivalry: making a mockery of their pompous, moralising tone; using wilful nonsense to expose the unwitting variety. The author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-98) was an Oxford […]
Art Basel Hong Kong 2018
Friday, April 6th, 2018 Art Column,“Oh my God, is that Wolfgang Tillmans? I just saw Jeff Koons! Look! It’s Olafur Eliasson!” In what Art Basel Hong Kong quaintly refers to as its “6th Edition”, the mania for celebrity-spotting reached new heights. I wish I could say these artists are idolised because of the superb quality of their work, but – […]
Sydney Biennale 2018 Part 2
Friday, March 30th, 2018 Art Column,Is it only me, or is there something intrinsically boring about art projects that involve community participation? I know there is a strand of thought in contemporary art that loathes the very idea of the master artist or the individual genius, believing every human being should be encouraged to harness his or her innate creativity. […]
Sydney Biennale 2018 Part 1
Friday, March 23rd, 2018 Art Column,Few artists have dominated a Sydney Biennale as comprehensively as Ai Weiwei with his contributions to this year’s show. It’s partly because hardly any of the 70 chosen artists, or groups of artists, have a public profile in Australia, while Ai is an international art celebrity and media magnet. Two years ago the National Gallery […]
Giorgio de Chirico: Major works from the Collection of Francesco Federico Cerruti
Friday, March 16th, 2018 Art Column,Giorgio de Chirico had an irrascible reputation but never lacked self-confidence. Although recognised as one of great modern artists, de Chirico (1888-1978) was a vehement opponent of Modernism. In his eyes, Cézanne, Matisse and Modigliani were no more than “pseudo-artists”, makers of infantile daubs. “Naturally,” he writes in his Memoirs, “in order to see and […]
The 2018 Adelaide Biennial: Divided Worlds
Friday, March 9th, 2018 Art Column,It’s a time-honoured tradition that large museum surveys of contemporary art should have titles so vague and all-encompassing as to be effectively meaningless. Yet it may be that with Divided Worlds, Erica Green, the curator of the 2018 Adelaide Biennial, has found a title that actually feels relevant. Two decades into the 21st century the […]
Perth Arts Festival 2018
Friday, March 2nd, 2018 Art Column,When it comes to rampant development Perth loses nothing in comparison with its eastern counterparts. Amid the new buildings and public works only one thing remains the same: the Art Gallery of Western Australia, which looks just as shabby year after year. Its every mention provokes Olympic-standard eye-rolling in other members of the local arts […]
Chinese New Year Lunar Lanterns & In Your Dreams
Friday, February 23rd, 2018 Art Column,Bread and circuses was the classical world’s formula for keeping the population happy. The famous phrase originates in Juvenal’s 10th Satire, when the poet laments that Romans have become so blasé about the political process they are happy to sell their votes for grain handouts and lavish public entertainments. With the NSW Government proposing to […]
Intrepid Women
Friday, February 16th, 2018 Art Column,It’s an historical fact that women have almost always outnumbered men at Australian art schools but accounted for only a small proportion of works acquired for public collections. The times have been a-changing for the past few decades, with no gallery overtly discriminating against female artists, but there is still a debt to be paid […]