Newsletter
Newsletter 520
Monday, December 4th, 2023 Newsletter,Looking at NSW Minister John Graham’s many titles, I can’t help wondering if he has confused his role as Minister for the Arts with that of Minister for Music and for the Night-time Economy. On the very same day I received a series of alarming emails about the future of the Powerhouse Museum – which […]
Newsletter 519
Monday, November 27th, 2023 Newsletter,It was reassuring to read this week that after 1,800 years, the much-maligned Roman emperor, Elagabalus, has had “her” pronouns respected at last. The teenage emperor, who reigned from 218-222, came to a sticky end at the age of 18, being assassinated, decapitated and dragged through the streets, until “her” body was thrown into the […]
Newsletter 518
Friday, November 24th, 2023 Newsletter,This week’s column looks at the Kandinsky exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. To say it’s “long-awaited” is an understatement as it’s the only international exhibition the gallery has initiated since Matisse, in November 2021. There’s been a Biennale in-between, and the opening of Sydney Modern, but it’s simply not good enough to go […]
Newsletter 516
Tuesday, November 7th, 2023 Newsletter,Another week when I’m away from home and struggling to find time to write anything, let alone a newsletter. The art column looks at Hoda Afshar’s mid-career survey at the Art Gallery of NSW, which was a show worth doing, but it’s amazing how one “activist” artist gets such lavish treatment while so many others […]
Newsletter 515
Monday, October 30th, 2023 Newsletter,This week I’m still travelling and finding it hard to snatch some writing and thinking time. To make matters even more complicated, the Herald has published my column on Tarnanthi 2023 and Vincent Namatjira, but it doesn’t seem to be on-line, so I’m posting it myself along with a review of the film, Dumb Money. […]
Newsletter 514
Monday, October 23rd, 2023 Newsletter,I’ve been travelling again and will be on the road continuously in the coming weeks. This means these newsletters may be a little slow to appear, as I juggle too many commitments. Today I’m in Perth, where I’m launching a monograph on George Haynes, for which I’ve written the major essay. If you’ve never heard […]
Newsletter 513
Monday, October 16th, 2023 Newsletter,There’s been one major elephant in the room this week – if we avoid the incidents in Israel and Gaza that are dominating the headlines – namely the referendum over the Voice. I haven’t had much to say about this topic, which has been endlessly ventilated in the media over the past few months, because […]
Newsletter 512
Monday, October 9th, 2023 Newsletter,When one already knows the ending, watching any film loses a good deal of its interest. With the ABC’s two-part special, imaginatively titled: The Whiteley Art Scandal, it seemed as if the filmmakers went out of their way to destroy any suggestion of suspense by continually flashing forward to moments in the story that let […]
Newsletter 511
Monday, October 2nd, 2023 Newsletter,This week I agreed to say a few words at the opening of the MAKE award at the Australian Design Centre. It sent me back to the age-old art v. craft debate – a body of thought that requires periodic updating. I can recall the horror with which many artists once used to regard the […]
Newsletter 510
Monday, September 25th, 2023 Newsletter,Last week, Danish artist, Jens Haaning, may have staked out a little piece of art history at the price of his career. Almost two years ago, Haaning was commissioned by the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, to produce updated versions of two earlier works that had highlighted average annual incomes of Austrians and […]