I’m a keen doodler who turned a hobby into a PhD and then a career. I’ve also seen what hurdles people face when it comes to learning to draw and how they can be overcome.
Jeffrey Smart, Margaret Olley in the Louvre Museum.
1994–95 Tuscany, Italy. Oil on canvas 67 x 110 cm
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Bequest of Ian Whalland 1997. 85.1997
Jeffrey Smart is admired for his carefully structured paintings of Tuscany and Rome. This National Gallery of Australia’s centenary celebration of his birth takes the viewer back to Adelaide.
Arika Waulu (Koolyn, Gunnai, Djap Wurrung, Peek Wurrung, Dhauwurd Wurrung), Yuccan Noolert (Mother Possum) 2021. Wood, red ochre, yellow ochre, charcoal, acrylic, ink, melaleuca bark, crushed granite, koolor (lava stone). Dimensions variable. Installation view, WILAM BIIK, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2021.
Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andrew Curtis
Wilam Biik (Home Country) at TarraWarra offers a different way to look at Country. Not by the roads we travel, but by the relationships embedded in it.
Sculptor Margel Hinder with the model for Interlock in 1973. Photograph: Richard Beck.
Heide
Margel Hinder was responsible for some of Australia’s most significant public sculptures in the 1960s and 70s. A major exhibition now examines the totality of her career.
Claire Roberts new book on Ian Fairweather looks at the influence of China on his art and ideas, and concludes the ‘Australian artist’ was free of any national allegiance.
Anida Yoeu Ali’s Lava Rising, The Red Chador: Genesis I.
(2019).
Studio Revolt/Photo: Masahiro Sugano
A new exhibition at Flinders University Art Gallery highlights Barbara Hanrahan’s sensory spirit, celebrating nature and unbinding social constriction.
Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens.
Flickr/Helen.2006
A special gallery in London’s Kew Gardens allows the visitor to travel the world via the 800-plus detailed paintings of Marianne North, Victorian-era adventurer and botanical artist.
Australia’s love and rediscovery of terrazzo floors form the foundation for a new exhibition.
Dušan Marek, born Bítouchov, Czechoslovakia 1926, died Adelaide 1993. Analysis of Substance, 1952, Kings Cross, Sydney. Oil on canvas, 36.5 x 88.2 cm.
Purchased with the assistance of James Agapitos OAM and Ray Wilson OAM 2007, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Australian surrealism has long been understood as if it was imported from Paris. This new exhibition places two Czech-Australian émigrés at the heart of the movement.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, made between 1622 and 1625.
Stefano Chiacchiarini/Shutterstock
This ancient myth, in which a nymph transforms herself into a tree to escape the lustful attention of the god Apollo, has inspired countless retellings in art. Its themes resonate today.
Hilma af Klint, Group IX/UW, The dove, no 2. 1915. Oil on canvas, 155.5 x 115.5 cm.
Courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation. Kak174. Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
The once secret paintings of Hilma af Klint are a revelation both for their beauty and for highlighting the impact of spiritualism on how artists see the world.
Peter Wegner’s Guy Warren in his 100th Year, winner of the 2021 Archibald Prize.
AGNSW/Peter Wegner/Photo Jenni Carter
In its centenary year, the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales could not resist the symbolism of awarding the Archibald Prize to Peter Werner’s portrait of the 100 year old Guy Warren.
A gallery view of Paul Kaptein’s current show.
Ted Snell/author provided
It takes time and money to create large scale sculptures. A new exhibition of works in cast concrete is testament to a remarkable philanthropic project.
With 350 artworks created by 320 Indigenous artists who are in or recently released from prison, The Torch is making a difference to how people are seen and how they see themselves.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne