In 1497 Girolamo Savonarola burned books and art in Florence in the most infamous act of European cultural desecration. A year later, he met the same fate.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Arts + Culture – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 2551 - 2575 of 5124 articles
Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s novel The Lebs is a realistic portrayal of teenage boys in Western Sydney.
Stigma about black or African hair reflects deep-seated politics around race and history.
The 21st Sydney Biennale is the first to be directed by a curator of non-Western heritage. While the number of artists is modest, lost quantity is made up by quality.
Today, beauty counts for little in the judgement of works of art. But our felt experience of beauty connects us with an object’s maker, revealing a pure moment of humanity.
Colony at the NGV pairs colonial art with Indigenous responses, in an effort to create dialogue about Australia’s history.
In the early days of colonial Tasmania, the British used threatening picture boards to communicate with Aboriginal people, giving them a choice between conciliation and death.
The Great War uses scale models to give a worm’s eye view of titanic violence. In Kings of War, by contrast, lethal events are viewed from the unsteady perspective of leaders.
Through virtual reality you can now explore a sunken ship, suspend weightless in space, or visit Angkor Wat. So why is the real experience still better?
The origin of around 300 of Australia’s Aboriginal languages lies in Queensland, about 6,000 years ago.
Mongolia’s important historical sites are under threat from climate change and looting - and one exacerbates the other.
For centuries, Mary Magdalene was wrongly depicted as a repentant whore, diminishing her vital role as witness to the resurrection. A new film portraying her life does much to restore her character.
Essays On Air: Joan of Arc, our one true superhero
The Conversation22.1 MB (download)
Joan of Arc has been depicted as a national heroine, nationalist symbol, a rebellious heretic and a goodly saint. Forget Wonder Woman and Batman – Jeanne d’Arc may be our one and only true superhero.
Neil Armfield’s production of the Brett Dean opera Hamlet is a confronting three hours in the theatre, but then so is Shakespeare’s play. The second act is devastating in its emotional impact.
Clinton Walker’s Deadly Woman Blues was a missed opportunity and a lesson in how not to tell other people’s stories.
Memorial brings Alice Oswald’s poetic retelling of the Iliad to the stage, with its furious indictment of war and its aftermath.
Australian artist Elizabeth Durack became infamous for her use of an Aboriginal nom de plume in 1990s. But in the 1960s, when the country was striving for independence from Australia, she portrayed Papuan women with sensitivity.
While the 2018 Oscars ceremony showed its support for women against sexual harassment, women remain underrepresented in some of the awards catagories.
You Know We Belong Together is a moving demand for more representation of people with Down Syndrome in the arts.
The Vatican is training priests to recognise and deal with the demonically possessed. This re-emergence of the Devil in popular Western culture is part of a new engagement with an enchanted world.
The beguiling works on display in an exhibition by Muslim Australian artists are grounded in the realities of their daily lives.
The Franklin River campaign is commonly seen as a green victory; a fight for the right of ‘wilderness’ to exist. But archaeological research revealing the region’s deep Aboriginal history was crucial to it.
The personal is now commercial – beauty, fashion and feminism
The Conversation22.2 MB (download)
Sometimes I want to cheer online publications that combine politics, fashion and beauty for the way they are mainstreaming feminism. On closer inspection, though, it has produced some odd results.
A new work by playwright Patricia Cornelius tackles the prevalence of sexual assault in Australia’s sports culture. In The Club is engaging, poetic and relevant to our times.
A new virtual reality film showing at the Australian Museum immerses viewers in remote Indigenous communities. Such films can be a path to reconciliation and understanding.