Newsletter
Newsletter 286
Monday, May 13th, 2019 Newsletter,As I write this, the Archibald Prize is yet to be decided, so I won’t venture any thoughts on that annual hoop-la. There’ll be plenty of opportunities in the weeks ahead. In the meantime my travels have taken me from Paris to Le Havre, and now to Milan. On the way I’ve seen another group […]
Newsletter 285
Monday, May 6th, 2019 Newsletter,Labour Day in Paris is a reminder of the socialistic nature of the French. Almost every museum is closed, with the exception of the Jacquemart-André – a monument to faded aristocracy. On the other hand, maybe they’re just like the Aussies: any excuse for a day off. It didn’t sound like a very promising round […]
Newsletter 284
Monday, April 29th, 2019 Newsletter,Last week China, this week London. I’m changing channels in my head from the Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, to Claude Monet, as he gazed from a hotel room in Le Havre at the scene that became Impression Sunrise. But although Monet is the presiding deity of this trip, I’m taking the opportunity to […]
Newsletter 283
Thursday, April 25th, 2019 Newsletter,As I write this I’m flying down to Shenzhen from Xi’an. By now I’m getting towards the end of a China tour that began in Xi’an, travelled east to Beijing, returned to Xi’an, is heading into Shenzhen, then flying back to Beijing. This is what happens when you try to combine three separate sets of […]
Newsletter 282
Monday, April 15th, 2019 Art Essays, Newsletter,This week began in Canberra where I went to see The Historical Expression of Chinese Art at the National Museum of Australia. A deadly title (and not in the indigenous sense), but a pretty good show, it’s also the subject of this week’s art column. The title was a reminder of the way China is […]
Newsletter 281
Tuesday, April 9th, 2019 Newsletter,After a few days in Hong Kong for the annual Art Basel events I’m convinced the world is getting both dumber and richer. But how are the two connected? Do you have to be really shallow to make obscene amounts of money, undistracted by any other concerns? Or do you just have to be born […]
Newsletter 280
Saturday, March 30th, 2019 Art Essays, Newsletter,Well it’s all over bar the blood-letting, and that will be strictly on one side of the fence after the NSW Labor Party crashed and burned in the last week of the state election campaign. With pinpoint timing the Coalition released a video of Labor leader, Michael Daley, making a foolish statement about “Asians with […]
Newsletter 279
Saturday, March 23rd, 2019 Art Essays, Newsletter,It’s the NSW State elections this weekend and the arts lobby has finally been baring its teeth, although in political terms you should think hamster rather than tiger. We’re always hearing what great communicators the arts people are, but for the most part the conversations occur within small cliques, not in the public arena. For me, […]
Newsletter 278
Saturday, March 16th, 2019 Art Essays, Newsletter,After a week in New York I feel like I’ve been away for a month. Perhaps it’s the result of going from heat to cold and back to the heat – and first day back was really hot. It might also be due to my rather desperate NY gallery-going, as I tried to see everything of […]
Newsletter 277
Saturday, March 9th, 2019 Newsletter,Well the great week has finally arrived: the website has been redesigned! But before you all start emailing and pointing out various issues, I’m aware there are a lot of teething problems that need to be resolved. I could reel off a long list but it wouldn’t be a very productive use of a newsletter. […]