http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/05/26/barns-henson-a-victim-of-abuse-of-process/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:48:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/05/26/barns-henson-a-victim-of-abuse-of-process/#comment-9023 Rena Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-9023 Art and artists have always been and always will be controversial, very often on 'moral grounds'or lack of talents. Nothing new. But trying to defend Henson on the grounds that his photos, sorry, pieces of art, are in plenty of galleries is equally stupid as the hysteria around them. My friends, very good fine artists would never recognise i.e. Van Gogh as an artist although his paintings are all over the place and they are hefty expensive. And we know how he became famous. In Australia alone, there are many fine artists, very often migrants who graduated from the best world's Academies of Art like i.e. St. Petersburg, who will never be fully recognised here because they haven't got a social network, a condition sine qua non to become 'an Australian icon'.<br />And the hysteria about PM's personal opinion is equally 'myopic' as that of the anti-child abuse campaigners. It is no secret that many great artists do not necessary recognise their equally talented mates. Picasso may be one of the classic example of his colleagues (Braque) absolutely outraged with the quality his works.<br />First, Australian government introduces interesting anti porno, anti terrorist and other anti- something laws allowing police to search for suspicious e-mails, photos of naked children all over the world (and no-one protested at the time) and then try to execute these laws with 'zero tolerance'. Am I missing something? Art and artists have always been and always will be controversial, very often on ‘moral grounds’or lack of talents. Nothing new. But trying to defend Henson on the grounds that his photos, sorry, pieces of art, are in plenty of galleries is equally stupid as the hysteria around them. My friends, very good fine artists would never recognise i.e. Van Gogh as an artist although his paintings are all over the place and they are hefty expensive. And we know how he became famous. In Australia alone, there are many fine artists, very often migrants who graduated from the best world’s Academies of Art like i.e. St. Petersburg, who will never be fully recognised here because they haven’t got a social network, a condition sine qua non to become ‘an Australian icon’.
And the hysteria about PM’s personal opinion is equally ‘myopic’ as that of the anti-child abuse campaigners. It is no secret that many great artists do not necessary recognise their equally talented mates. Picasso may be one of the classic example of his colleagues (Braque) absolutely outraged with the quality his works.
First, Australian government introduces interesting anti porno, anti terrorist and other anti- something laws allowing police to search for suspicious e-mails, photos of naked children all over the world (and no-one protested at the time) and then try to execute these laws with ‘zero tolerance’. Am I missing something?

]]> http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/05/26/barns-henson-a-victim-of-abuse-of-process/#comment-9024 Rachael Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-9024 If you are in Sydney you are invited to attend a public forum on this topic which has been organised by Watch On Censorship and the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 140 George Street, The Rocks, next Thursday 12 June from 6 - 8pm. 'Art Censorship: The Bigger Picture' will feature a panel of speakers including Hetty Johnston, Clive Hamilton, Ian Howard and Julian Burnside (plus one other speaker TBA from the gallery sector.) The evening will be MC'd by Margaret Pomeranz and the discussion will be chared by David Marr. All welcome at this free event. More information on the NAVA website at www.visualarts.net.au. If you are in Sydney you are invited to attend a public forum on this topic which has been organised by Watch On Censorship and the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 140 George Street, The Rocks, next Thursday 12 June from 6 - 8pm. ‘Art Censorship: The Bigger Picture’ will feature a panel of speakers including Hetty Johnston, Clive Hamilton, Ian Howard and Julian Burnside (plus one other speaker TBA from the gallery sector.) The evening will be MC’d by Margaret Pomeranz and the discussion will be chared by David Marr. All welcome at this free event. More information on the NAVA website at http://www.visualarts.net.au.

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