Tag: contemporary art
William & Jonathan Delafield Cook, Luke Sciberras, David Collins, Danelle Bergstrom
Tuesday, March 28th, 2023 Art Column,William Delafield Cook (1936-2015) was the perfect expatriate artist. He left Australia in the late 1950s, and would spend most of his life in London, where he blended in smoothly with the British art scene. His paintings, however, returned perpetually to Australia. In this, he was like Sidney Nolan, although their work was poles apart. […]
Art Dubai 2023
Tuesday, March 21st, 2023 Art Column,Introducing the 16th edition of Art Dubai, Artistic Director, Pablo del Val, spoke about an art fair dedicated to ‘the Global South’. This new-old concept term has been around for decades but has gained momentum recently, as a way of dividing the developing world from its developed counterpart. At first, I thought this was a […]
White Rabbit: Shuo Shu
Tuesday, February 14th, 2023 Art Column,In pre-literate societies the storyteller had everyone’s attention. The role grew in importance as communities became more cultivated, with public recitations being valued as forms of education and entertainment. The ancient Greeks, for instance, had their rhapsodes who would recite Homer to enthusiastic audiences. The Chinese have a long tradition of public storytelling, often accompanied […]
Singapore Art Fair 2023
Tuesday, February 7th, 2023 Art Column,Visitors to the new Singapore Art Fair were greeted by a large Robert Indiana sculpture spelling out the word ‘LOVE’. It was an invitation to locals and visitors to share a love of contemporary art that has struggled to take root in this prosperous island state. This time around, there was no room for hesitation. […]
Air
Tuesday, January 31st, 2023 Art Column,Some people say not to worry about the air Some people never had experience with… air Talking Heads Science tells us the average human being takes in 360 litres of air per hour. That sounds like a lot, but we do it without even noticing. It’s only when we have trouble breathing or […]
Aotearoa Art
Tuesday, January 17th, 2023 Art Column,A handful of big international art fairs are obligatory annual destinations for the world’s major collectors. Only among the second-tier fairs is there real competition, as cities compete to attract wealthy art tourists looking for something a bit different. All these fairs dream of getting the world’s über-galleries to participate, but the real interest lies […]
2022 and Beyond
Monday, January 2nd, 2023 Art Column,There’s been plenty to think about in 2022, including war in the Ukraine, a looming global recession and floods along the north coast, but if one had to nominate Australia’s most momentous event of the year it would have to be the change of government. Whether this was equally momentous for the visual arts remains […]
Alexander McQueen: Mind Mythos Muse
Monday, December 26th, 2022 Art Column,“I don’t see fashion as curing cancer or AIDS – or anything else for that matter,” said Alexander McQueen. “At the end of the day they are just clothes.” This statement, like so many others uttered by this prodigiously talented designer, testifies to the contradictions that defined his career and character. For McQueen (1969-2010), fashion […]
Sydney Modern Revisited
Tuesday, December 13th, 2022 Art Column,“Campus” is word of the week. It seems to be a particular favourite of Art Gallery of NSW Director, Michael Brand, who kept using the term during the Sydney Modern launch. “My vision,” he writes in the book associated with the new gallery, “has been for the Sydney Modern Project to transform the Art Gallery […]
Bangkok Art Biennale 2022
Tuesday, November 15th, 2022 Art Column,During the pandemic most of the world’s major art events were put on ice, but this was not the case for the youthful Bangkok Art Biennale. Unwilling to lose momentum after a successful debut in 2018, the organisers hosted a huge international exhibition in 2020 that was seen only by local audiences. This year, the […]