Newsletter
Newsletter 475
Monday, January 23rd, 2023 Newsletter,This was one of those weeks when as soon as one job finished another began. There was once a time when January provided a reliably slow start to the year but that seems to be an obsolescent concept. Just to make matters even busier, it’s Chinese New Year – and like all auspicious events on […]
Newsletter 474
Monday, January 16th, 2023 Newsletter,It’s amazing what happens when you take your eye off the news momentarily. I’ve been in Singapore for a few hectic days attending the art fair, but when I finally looked at the Aussie press I find our beloved Premier Perroquet apologising for wearing a Nazi uniform at his 21st birthday party in 2003. As […]
Newsletter 473
Monday, January 9th, 2023 Newsletter,Happy new year! Let’s hope 2023 isn’t as mangled as 2022. Last year began with lockdowns and gradually became more frenetic, with a sudden exposion of travel and events. Of all the flghts I took in 2022, I think no more than one was on time. Several were cancelled, and most were delayed by half […]
Newsletter 472
Monday, January 2nd, 2023 Newsletter,A reader has drawn my attention to Sight and Sound’s latest poll of the 100 greatest movies of all time, and it’s a shocker. The British Film Institute has been putting out this list every ten years since 1952, and it’s been a fairly predictable affair until now, with either Citizen Kane (1941) or Vertigo […]
Newsletter 471
Thursday, December 29th, 2022 Newsletter,And so this is Christmas, as John and Yoko sang. I can hardly remember a year in which the Yule tide has crept up so steathily. Is it just me or is this a peculiarly low-key Christmas? In some ways it’s been a two-speed year, starting off slowly with pandemic restrictions still in force, and […]
Newsletter 470
Tuesday, December 20th, 2022 Newsletter,From the moment they appeared, NFTs have been poorly understood and controversial. One day we may look back on this week as the time when their absurdity was completely exposed. The defining event would be Donald Trump’s new line in digital trading cards, featuring poorly photoshopped images of the former President’s mug attached to one […]
Newsletter 469
Monday, December 12th, 2022 Newsletter,I’m in Melbourne for the Alexander McQueen launch at the National Gallery of Victoria, and the talk – needless to say – is all about Sydney Modern. As Sydney-Melbourne rivalry is supposedly one of the staple ingredients of Australian culture, it’s only natural this should be the case. In the past I felt Melbourne’s claims […]
Newsletter 468
Monday, December 5th, 2022 Newsletter,At last the damn thing is open! Yes, this week saw the grand launch of Sydney Modern, the long-awaited ‘extension’ of the Art Gallery of NSW. Director, Michael Brand boasted the building was on budget and on time, which is a truly remarkable achievement at a moment when most people struggle to even get a […]
Newsletter 467
Monday, November 28th, 2022 Newsletter,This week saw the presentation of the Korea-Australia Arts Foundation Art Prize, for which Oliver Smith and I acted as judges. It’s the ninth time the prize has been awarded. After a slightly rocky beginning when the judging process was far too complicated, and the judges a mixed bag, the competition has settled into a […]
Newsletter 465
Monday, November 14th, 2022 Newsletter,American politics may not be as gripping as it was when Trump was in the White House, with the daily prospect that he might lean on the nuclear button while reachng for a diet coke, but the craziness only seems to have escalated. I think I speak for people everywhere in the world, who simply […]