Newsletter
Newsletter 311
Tuesday, November 5th, 2019 Newsletter,Late again this week! Apologies for the delay with this newsletter, but it’s been another round of extra obligations, tight deadines and – alas – unnecessary delays. As I’ve left you waiting so long already I’ll take my time with the explanation. The story begins with the Sydney Morning Herald asking for an early review […]
Newsletter 310
Monday, October 28th, 2019 Newsletter,It’s easy to agree that anyone who starts invoking comparisons with Hitler has lost the argument, but the essential craziness of present-day politics makes such comparisons extremely tempting. I was recently struck by a proposition advanced by the Führer, that it was the duty of all Germans “not to seek out objective truth in so […]
Newsletter 309
Monday, October 21st, 2019 Newsletter,Darwin in August may be the essential destination for anyone with an interest in indigenous art, but with every new iteration Tarnanthi in Adelaide is making up ground on the top end’s art award season. Having witnessed the opening of another Tarnanthi festival this week I was impressed by the good spirit in which this […]
Newsletter 308
Monday, October 14th, 2019 Newsletter,This week’s column looks at Steirischer Herbst (‘Styrian Autumn’) in Graz, one of the world’s most ‘out there’ arts festivals. I missed the typically anarchic opening ceremonies but still managed to pack in four days of art and theatre. The theme this year was Grand Hotel Abyss – which suggested that hedonism and apocalypse are […]
Newsletter 307
Monday, October 7th, 2019 Newsletter,From the ‘Wet Tropics’ of Far North Queensland my travels have brought me to Klagenfurt, Austria, where I just saw a forest planted in a football stadium. The ambitious installation, For Forest, was dreamt up by Swiss curator, Klaus Littmann, who took years to organise and fund the project. The idea sprang from a 1970/71 […]
Newsletter 306
Monday, September 30th, 2019 Newsletter,What a humiliating week to be an Australian! As world leaders attended an all-important Climate Change session at the United Nations, Scummo was in Ohio admiring a McDonalds drive-thru. Previously he had distinguished himself by his craven, fawning attitude to Donald Trump. “Blockade Iran? Yessir!” “Would you like me to talk tough on China Mr. […]
Newsletter 305
Monday, September 23rd, 2019 Newsletter,As you read this newsletter I’m at the Mt. Zero-Taravale wildlife sanctuary, near Townsville, well out of range of Internet and mobile phone communications. This means I’m filing a hasty newsletter before I get on the plane. Mt. Zero is a property owned and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, one of this country’s leading […]
Newsletter 304
Monday, September 16th, 2019 Newsletter,It’s Sydney Contemporary week, so I’ll spare you the long raves about politics or arts policies. The art fair is bracing for its biggest year ever. It remains to be seen whether or not it achieves that goal but by the time of writing it was off to a flying start. Sophie Gannon and Jan […]
Newsletter 303
Monday, September 9th, 2019 Newsletter,After much argy-bargy it seems the Art Gallery of NSW has finally found a builder for Sydney Modern. Having taken so many years to raise the necessary funds, even after reducing the proposed cost by roughly $100 million to $344 million, we’re on the verge of seeing some action. The last obstacle may have been […]
Newsletter 302
Monday, September 2nd, 2019 Newsletter,This week I’m writing about Basquiat’s Defacement: The Untold Story at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. It’s a relatively small show, but one that raises more questions than any other display I saw during a week’s visit to the USA. To start with, would any of Australia’s public art museums host an […]