Excellence. It might be a goal of our national cultural policy, but do we really know it means?
Art
My Cup Of Tea: The problem of being exceptional
My Cup Of Tea: The legacy of our departing gallery gurus
With the retirement of Edmund Capon from the Art Gallery of NSW and Gerard Vaughan from the National Gallery of Victoria within weeks of each other, two of the biggest jobs in the Australian art world are open.
Chong: The Country outing, the Art opening and the Governor’s speech
W H Chong trekked through the rain to the country pavilion of the Tarrawarra Museum of Art, crowning the rolling expanses of Yarra Glen to hear the Governor of Victoria open the latest exhibition.
Political snippets: Marvelling at ingenuity of carbon tax opponents
The creativity of carbon tax opponents is glorious to behold
Julian Assange and the wobbliness of pictorial art
W H Chong discusses the trouble with text vs. pictures in understanding the image of important cultural figures, and how with his new print of Julian Assange, what you see is what you get.
Don Whyte’s Offcuts: where art really is the bomb
Every year Don Whyte, who runs a Darwin-based framing shop, holds Offcuts, an exhibition up there with the best anywhere in the NT. Bob Gosford chews the fat with Whyte and contemplates where art and explosions collide.
Paul Kelly prints: buy your own W H Chong original
In honour of Australian Book Review’s 50th anniversary, cover designer W H Chong has created a stunning limited edition linocut of singer/songwriter Paul Kelly to rise money for the literary journal.
Daily Proposition: Draw someone in the nuddy
If you’ve never seen a grown woman impersonate a starfish in the nude you’ve never lived, says Alexandra Patrikios.
Hobart’s new gallery/freak show: quintessentially Aussie, if a little absurd
Over the Bass Strait, and up the Derwent River, lies Australia’s newest experiment in art curatorship. MONA, the new $150 million museum carved out of a sandstone cliff, offers a unique museum experience, says Paulina Olszanka.
Daily Proposition: Explore a new Melbourne arts space
Check out the new Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne, says Robert Lukins, and its spectacular exhibition of contemporary Australian art, Change.
What do you do when you win 15 grand? Give it away…
Artist Chips Mackinolty won the $15,000 prize in the TOGART Awards and immediately gave the cash away to three different live music venues in the NT, reports Bob Gosford.
Mon dieu! Versailles gets a modern makeover
Traditionalists have got their brocade and gold gilt in a twist, following a modern art exhibition inside the famed French Palace of Versailles. A petition of 5000 signatures pleads authorities not to “shatter the harmony” of Versailles.
Who owns David?
Michelangelo’s David is not a free man. A battle has broken out in Italy over whether the nation or the city of Florence owns him. The mayor of Florence declares it a “David vs. Goliath” war.
The hidden art of being a curator
A curator at the National Gallery of Victoria talks with Broadsheet about the curating process. It’s not always about whether they like the art, it’s about if it’s important.
iNudes: life drawing on an iPad
iPads aren’t just for reading newspapers and watching YouTube videos. W H Chong creates beautiful life drawings using just the brushes application on his iPad.
Spider-Woman dies, leaving a tangled web of ferocious art
French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, best known for her giant metal spiders sculptures, has died, aged 98. Adrian Searle reflects on a career of creative abnormalities, like the writhing nest of floppy penises.
Photography and the fascination of erotic youth
Soon Bill Henson’s current show will packed away with barely a squeak about censorship or his “revolting” art. But there is something about the nude minor that jangles a major chord in us, writes W H Chong.
The United Nations of Dachshunds
In the moody blur-grey of a late autumn afternoon, a gathering of 47 dachshunds drew hundreds of well-wishers together in hope. W H Chong was there.
How to draw a kookaburra
It’s a challenge to sketch such fugitive subjects like kookaburras and cockatoos but the point is to observe, explains W H Chong, as he shares his drawings of a kookaburra in progress. Tip: start with the head.
The Archibald: Why it matters and why it doesn’t
The Archibald Prize is Australia’s most popular art prize. But why is it important, why isn’t it and why is everyone obsessed with it? W H Chong offers both a long and a short art history lesson.
Crikey Clarifier: How to find a fine art fake
With Australian artists Charles Blackman and Robert Dickerson claiming forgeries of their art are being sold, Crikey intern Tom Cowie spoke with an art authentication expert about how one would go about identifying a fraudulent artwork.
Arty farts in uproar: culture isn’t just in the eye of the benefactor
Art gallery directors are begging, pleading and quitting over the lack of funding being made by state governments to their state cultural institutions. With funds drying up and art seen as charity, we’re becoming a second-rate culture, writes John McDonald.
Keating, a rusted-on luvvie, leaves a legacy
Guy Rundle’s recent assault on Paul Keating’s cultural cred was irritating and thrilling by turns, writes arts reporter Stephen Feneley — it shouldn’t be so surprising arts folk have such fond memories of Keating given what came after him.
The death of Tozer and Keating’s romancing of genius
The death of pianist Geoffrey Tozer raises questions about Paul Keating and the attitudes about art and civilisation that he projected — and continues to project — onto this country.
Antiques Roadshow uncovers Nazi-looted art
Some real treasure has been uncovered on the German version of Antiques Roadshow: a 17th century painting by Flemish baroque artist Frans Francken the Younger valued up to €100,000, stolen by the Nazis and last owned by Hitler himself. A real bobby-dazzler!
