While both parties are championing the arts and culture sector, after years of swingeing cuts these promises dazzle but offer little hope to struggling institutions
The biggest ever display of Islamic art at the Art Gallery of South Australia holds breathtaking masterpieces, and important lessons for all.
Art Gallery of South Australia/Saul Steed
No god but God at the Art Gallery of South Australia looks at over 1000 years of Islamic art, from Indonesia to Spain. It is a magnificent and necessary exhibition.
Dorrit Black, The Bridge, 1930.
Oil on canvas on board,
60.0 x 81.0 cm.
Bequest of the artist, 1951, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Dorrit Black, Grace Cossington Smith and Grace Crowley were some of many talented modernist women artists. But only with the advent of second wave feminism in the 1970s was their work properly acknowledged.
An Instagram post from Gerhard Richter’s exhibition at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.
Instagram/@gracie_yu
The Dobell is a celebration of drawing. And the work in this year’s show, from Noel McKenna’s beautifully rendered drawings of dogs to Richard Lewer’s depictions of states of mind – is first rate.
That traditional monolith of culture, the museum, has begun to embrace the digital world. As a series of projects reveal, the possibilities are endless.
The marketing of Australian art largely remains a provincial exercise within a global art environment.
Image: Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, 2015. AAP Image/NEWZULU/THINKING MEDIA
Despite rhetoric positioning Australia as a clever and creative country, its artists, particularly in the visual arts, are doing it tough, and things are progressing from bad to worse. Why is that?
Museums should follow the example of the Met and sell off stock.
Luciano Mortula / Shutterstock.com
Artist Mike Parr’s career might be best described as a series of alarming acts - he’s cut his legs with a scalpel and used his blood as paint. His latest act is erase his work by painting it white.
Front doors closed as indefinite strike continues.
Andy Rain/EPA
Just as we have become accustomed to two worlds of consumption – online and “location-based” retail (what we used to call “shops”) – the concept of museums and galleries as solely physical repositories…
Does the movement of art diminish its cult status?
Laurence OP/Flickr
Among the millions of works of art that are being transported around the world, one that is currently doing its promotional tour is Jack Kerouac’s famous manuscript for On the Road, written entirely on…
The art and antiquities market is notorious for taking the word of the seller at face value.
Quinn Dombrowski
The announcement today that the Australian government will return the US$5 million Chola-era Dancing Shiva to India, after months of scandal focused on the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and art dealer…
Monet’s Garden has already proved popular but why does it take so long for “new art” to be accepted and understood?
AAP Image/David Crosling
As the curtains rise on the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) latest blockbuster, Monet’s Garden, it is a good time to reflect on a connection between this acclaimed modernist painter and the art world…
Women need to play a greater role at the top of Australia’s art institutions.
Man in gallery image from www.shutterstock.com
One of my favourite paintings in the Art Gallery of New South Wales is Emanuel Phillips Fox’s Art Students. It’s particularly notable because all the Melbourne Art School students pictured are women. In…
Art galleries need to measure visitors’ engagement with modern works, like this one by Tomas Saraceno at the Museum for Contemporary Art in Berlin.
EPA/Maurizio Gambarini
There seems little doubt that the rise of widespread international interest and investment in contemporary art and contemporary art museums has stimulated a demand for diverse and compelling programs that…
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne