Art Column
White Rabbit: The Dark Matters
Saturday, April 29th, 2017 Art Column,Contemporary culture puts a premium on instant gratification but ancient Chinese thinkers found the greatest value in the contemplation of eternal things. This was brought home to me by Tang Nannan’s Dao-inspired, wide-screen video, Billenium Waves (2015) at the White Rabbit Gallery. It’s nothing more than a four-minute close-up of waves lapping under a dark […]
Adman: Warhol Before Pop
Friday, April 21st, 2017 Art Column,In the catalogue for Adman: Warhol Before Pop, at the Art Gallery of NSW, Thomas Sokolowski finds it “astounding that after so many years of exhibitions and publications, critics continue to find value only in Warhol’s early 1960s work.” As a former director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, and the man behind a […]
Peter Powditch: Coast – A Retrospective
Friday, April 14th, 2017 Art Column, Australian Art,Pop to Popism, held at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2014, was not a show that left glowing memories, but one work has remained lodged in my mind. Peter Powditch’s The Big Towel, which appeared in the Australian section of the exhibition, looked incredibly fresh for a painting made in 1969. Part of its […]
The National
Saturday, April 8th, 2017 Aboriginal Art, Art Column, Australian Art,One wonders if The National: New Australian Art is intended as a subtle riposte to the National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now of 2013-14. “No navel gazing here in Sydney – we’re bringing you art from all over the country.” The NGV’s bright idea may have been predicated on Melburnian self-esteem but final attendances topped […]
Art Basel Hong Kong 2017
Friday, March 31st, 2017 Art Column,Why do art dealers clamber over each other to be included in the big fairs even though they expect to lose money? The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report provides the answer. In 2016 art fairs accounted for an estimated 41% of all dealer sales. As a percentage of the whole this represents […]
Versus Rodin
Friday, March 24th, 2017 Art Column,For public art museums these are dark times. As costs keep escalating and governments grow reluctant to provide necessary funds it becomes ever more urgent to work out what audiences actually want. Then comes the difficult balancing act between revenue-raisers and those shows that are part of a gallery’s wider responsibilities to our history and […]
Rayner Hoff
Friday, March 17th, 2017 Art Column,Ask sculptors to nominate the single greatest work of Australian sculpture and most will opt for The Sacrifice (1934), the centrepiece of the Anzac Memorial in Sydney’s Hyde Park. It’s the work of Rayner Hoff (1894-1937), an exceptional artist and inspirational teacher, whose legacy is receiving overdue recognition in a two-week exhibition at the National […]
On the Origin of Art
Friday, March 10th, 2017 Art Column,In 1997 scientist, Steven Pinker, described music as “auditory cheesecake”. His one-liner has been repeated many times since, with variations. It’s a simple extrapolation to say that all art is “cheesecake for the mind”, or as Pinker puts it: “a brew of megadoses of agreeable stimuli which we concocted for the express purpose of pressing […]
Perth Festival Art
Friday, March 3rd, 2017 Art Column,Back in the 1980s when Adelaide was Australia’s only notable arts festival, it featured a comprehensive visual arts program. Today there are festivals in every major city and in several minor ones, but the visual arts are marginal to proceedings. The exception to the rule is the Perth International Arts Festival. Long-term curator, Margaret Moore, […]
Margaret Olley
Friday, February 24th, 2017 Art Column,It’s hard to believe it’s been more than five years since Margaret Olley died. She was such a forceful personality I still half expect to see her pushing through a crowd at the Art Gallery of NSW, using her walking frame to clear a path. The art world is notorious for its doublespeak but Margaret […]