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Tag: Australian art

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Jacobus Capone

Thursday, February 22nd, 2024 Blog,

In 2007, at the age of 21, Jacobus Capone took a scoop of water from the Indian Ocean, walked across Australia, and emptied it in the Pacific. The journey took five-and-a-half months and killed off any relationship he ever had with his native country. “That was my last university project,” he recalls. “I was very […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

NGV Triennial 3

Saturday, February 10th, 2024 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Over the past decade I’ve had so many positive things to say about the National Gallery of Victoria that I get accused of favouritism. My response to such charges is very simple: Put in the work and reap the rewards. The NGV owes its success to a busy, dynamic exhibitions program and an unwavering focus […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Ann Thomson & Ian Gentle

Saturday, February 3rd, 2024 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Reaching the age of 90 and remaining young is reason enough for us to celebrate Ann Thomson, but for Terence Maloon, curator of the artist’s survey at the S.H. Ervin Gallery, it’s not just a sentimental occasion. He argues forcefully that Thomson’s work “has never stood still, never lost its momentum or intensity, and has […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Miwatj Yolngu: Sunrise People

Friday, December 22nd, 2023 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Yolngu country, in the gulf of Carpentaria, draws its identity from the everlasting rendezvous of salt water and fresh water. The same daily drama takes place in the Shoalhaven, in a vast estuary near Nowra. As with Yirrkala, where the Yolngu live, Bundanon, the property gifted to the nation by Arthur Boyd and his family, […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Emily Kam Kngwarray

Saturday, December 16th, 2023 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Emily Kame Kngwarreye, as she was known when she left us in 1996, was Aboriginal art’s original megastar. Not since Albert Namatjira had an artist captured the public imagination in the way Emily did. Twenty-seven years later, that reputation continues to grow, with no Australian artist being more eagerly sought after by overseas museums and […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

John R. Walker: Journeys and Return

Wednesday, December 6th, 2023 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

“Inspiration” is a word we use in the most casual fashion, but it originally meant being under the direct influence of God. For the artist, John R. Walker, it has retained that significance. As a practising Christian, Walker believes there are paintings that are divinely inspired, the breath of God having touched something in the […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Portia Geach Memorial Award 2023

Monday, November 27th, 2023 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Has the Portia Geach gone political? That was the inescapable suspicion when this year’s prize went to Kate Stevens for The Whistleblower, a portrait of military lawyer, David McBride, currently in court over breaches of the Defence Act, having pleaded guilty to leaking classified documents that detailed alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. McBride’s argument […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Sculpture by the Sea 2023

Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

As a looming El Nino system promises a hot, dry summer, Sculpture by the Seahas once again demonstrated its magical powers as a bringer of rain. Threatened by droughts and bushfires, perhaps we should abandon the unreliable science of meteorology and organise outdoor sculpture exhibitions in the driest parts of the country. Last week, as […]

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Aboriginal Art returns to NYC (Starring Steve Martin)

Saturday, October 14th, 2023 Blog,

When Andy Warhol said: “the best museum is Bloomingdale’s,” he was anticipating a day when art was seen as just another commodity, like a kettle or a toaster. Last month the famous showroom windows at Bloomingdale’s on 59thSt. Manhattan, displayed kettles, toasters and expresso machines covered in the distinctive patterns of Western Desert painting. It […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Fearless & Parlour Parlëur

Tuesday, October 10th, 2023 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

There are lots of people who acquire a few trendy works and call themselves “art collectors”. To all those aspirationals, who may well go on to greater things, I would ask them to take a look at Fearless: Contemporary Indigenous Women in the Hassall Milson Collection, at the S.H. Ervin Gallery, to see what can […]