Newsletter
Newsletter 557
Thursday, September 12th, 2024 Newsletter,Much as I’d love to riff on the Harris-Trump debate, which made for rivetting TV entertainment this week, I have some big personal news. After more than 40 years the Sydney Morning Herald has decided to dispense with my services. I can’t say I’m surprised, as I’ve felt out-of-step with the direction the paper has […]
Newsletter 556
Sunday, September 8th, 2024 Newsletter,One story that has been unfolding over the past three weeks, and getting steadily more bizarre, is the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s stoush with piano virtuoso, Jayson Gilham. To recap briefly, on 11 August, as part of an MSO solo recital, the pianist played a piece called Witness, written by his friend, Connor D’Netto, in honour […]
Newsletter 555
Monday, September 2nd, 2024 Newsletter,It’s widely believed the media today is a toothless tiger, lacking the will to go after any big story. Therefore, one can only admire the boundless energy and determination of teen reporter, Nancy Drew (writing in Australia under the pen name, Gabriella Coslovich). After relentlessly hammering away at a story accusing the National Museum of […]
Newsletter 554
Monday, August 26th, 2024 Newsletter,Looking at the works assembled by Deutscher and Hackett for their auction on 28 August, among the highlights were three small sculptures by Bertram Mackennal – Circe (c.1902-04), Truth (1894) and Salome (1897). Although not much talked about today, Mackennal (1863-1931), may well be the most internationally successful Australian artist of all time. This was […]
Newsletter 553
Monday, August 19th, 2024 Newsletter,It’s amazing what stories exercise the mind of the Australian media and public. I thought we’d heard enough about the Raygun saga last week, but it seems we’ve only just got started. While the outrageous destruction of the Powerhouse Museum continues apace, with the complicity of a state Labor government that has betrayed its promises […]
Newsletter 552
Monday, August 12th, 2024 Newsletter,Returning to my hotel after the awards ceremonies for the NATSIAA in Darwin, I flipped on the TV to idly watch the Olympics. Half asleep, I suddenly found myself electrifed by Raygun’s performance in the women’s Breaking. It’s not surprising to learn this little Aussie battler has “broken the Internet” with her efforts. Raygun made […]
Newsletter 551
Monday, August 5th, 2024 Newsletter,Even though I haven’t been sitting up all night watching obscure sports I’ve never followed before, if I start watching the Olympics, I still find it hard to tear myself away from the screen. I’m sure a lot of people have the same problem. There’s something incredibly sticky and addictive about the games, although in […]
Newsletter 550
Thursday, August 1st, 2024 Newsletter,American politics has become the greatest reality TV program of all time. Almost everybody seems to be addicted to their daily dose of “What Trump did last night”, marvelling at how utterly fantastic the whole thing has become. I use the word in the sense of “seeming more appropriate to the imagination than to reality”, not […]
Newsletter 549
Monday, July 22nd, 2024 Newsletter,I’m writing this from Newhaven, on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, a property owned and administered by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. But more of that next week. It’s ironic that one of the last emails I received before plunging into Internet limbo, was from Lindsay Sharp, former director of the Powerhouse Museum, passing […]
Newsletter 548
Monday, July 15th, 2024 Newsletter,Since its inception in 2011, David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art has acted as a trailblazer and agent provocateur in the field. MONA’s jumbled hangs, themselves modelled on the shows Axel Vervoordt put together for the Palazzo Fortuny during successive Venice Biennales, have changed the way local insitutions display their collections. One could […]