Newsletter
Newsletter 464
Monday, November 7th, 2022 Newsletter,Another one of those weeks has passed in a blur of commitments and deadlines. I won’t burden you with the details. My sole disinterested social activity was to catch up with David Humphries, who has been in the public art business since the 1970s. In a career spanning 50 years, David has been responsible for […]
Newsletter 463
Monday, October 31st, 2022 Newsletter,It wasn’t surprising there was no joy in the budget for the arts sector. With a year of economic doom and gloom ahead, the arts were always going to suffer alongside staples such as health, welfare, employment and housing. Having inherited a huge mess from the Morrison government, Labor must now do all the hard […]
Newsletter 462
Monday, October 24th, 2022 Newsletter,Still on the road, I’m in Bangkok for the city’s third Biennale, which is proving – so far – to be an impressive event. I’ll save any further comments for a forthcoming column, and turn my attention to another matter, namely the incredibly stupid tactics of climate activists in art museums. There have been a […]
Newsletter 461
Monday, October 17th, 2022 Newsletter,I’m back in Singapore today, for the 7th Singapore Biennale, which goes under the peculiar name of Natasha. I’ll have more to say about this show at a later date, but in the meantme, I was struck by a story in The Age, about Melbourne artist, Casey Jenkins, who is suing the Australia Council “for […]
Newsletter 460
Friday, October 14th, 2022 Newsletter,There’s a tremendous hullaballo about the National Gallery of Australia’s 40thbirthday celebrations, but I’m not quite sure why everybody is getting excited. For a start, a 40th birthday is hardly one of the great jubilees. 50 has a ring to it, and 100 is always a big deal, but 40? Then there’s the program. The […]
Newsletter 459
Saturday, October 8th, 2022 Newsletter,I’ve been in Melbourne for Richard Mosse’s new film, Broken Spectre, screening at the National Gallery of Victoria, and away from the laptop for a while. Needless to say, if I don’t look at the laptop for a day or so the emails reach avalanche proportions and everything backs up. My only consolation in this […]
Newsletter 458
Monday, September 26th, 2022 Newsletter,In Sydney it seems the state government can never be done with schemes that are supposed to create brilliant new opportunities for our cultural institutions. It’s a shame that everyone who actually knows something about these institutions always seems to think such ideas are disastrous. The obvious example is the ongoing vandalisation of the Powerhouse […]
Newsletter 457
Monday, September 19th, 2022 Newsletter,While Sydney Contemporary was drawing the crowds at Carriageworks on the weekend, I was in Wollombi, two hours drive north of Sydney, judging Sculpture in the Vineyards. It’s surprising to realise this event has been going for 20 years, although the past two or three have witnessed a big scaling up of operations. The growth […]
Newsletter 456
Monday, September 12th, 2022 Newsletter,There’s only one news item this week: the Queen is dead. I thought she’d go on forever, or at least until she’d passed the hundred mark, like her mum. All the comments by world leaders dwell on Elizabeth’s consistency and stability. She was a solid, dignified presence in a politically turbulent world, benefiting greatly from […]
Newsletter 455
Monday, September 5th, 2022 Newsletter,I’ve finally managed to leave these shores, albeit briefly. Last week I spent two solid days in Singapore, feeling like everything was on the verge of returning to normal, as governments proceed with indecent haste to roll back COVID-19 restrictions. After three years of self-isolation, masks and general paranoia, are we finished with the pandemic? […]