Dinh Q. Lê Erasure (installation view), 2011, single channel video, boat, found photographs, rocks, online archive, dimensions variable
Photo: Aaron de Souza. Courtesy the artist and Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation
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David Corbet's National artnotes appear in edited form in Art Monthly Australia (www.artmonthly.org.au)
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Are we there yet? (the year in review)
Well, there goes another one – and has it been a good year for the visual arts, nationally speaking? The answer, as always, is mixed. National Artnotes aims to cover issues of national arts policy and funding, the art market, national institutions and significant regional developments. We also try to view Australian art with an international perspective. We get to see some great art, but in general it is left to others to review and evaluate individual artists and exhibitions.
Export
One of our themes has been presentation of Australian art in an international context, whether at home or abroad, and how our governments, funding bodies and institutions perform. With a small population, we need to grow our markets for art and culture beyond our borders. The primary vehicles for offshore promotion are Ozco and DFAT, which support Australian art through institutional touring shows, along with key events like the Venice Biennale. Apart from Hany Armonious in Venice and Papunya Painting: Out of the Australian Desert (National Museum of China, from the NMA collection) it hasn’t been a big year for touring exhibitions. Australian Cultural Attachés in the world’s capitals continue to lament a diminution of resources for presentation. Ozco supports participation (by artists) in overseas biennales, and attendance (by commercial galleries) at art fairs, while many other quasi-government and University-based grant programs support overseas residencies. The commercial galleries play a major self-funded role, and 2011 has been a growth year for commercial art fairs in our region. We saw a significant Australian presence at Art Stage Singapore, India Art Summit (New Delhi, renamed India Art Fair for 2012), Art Hong Kong (recently acquired by Art Basel), the Auckland Art Fair, and the Korea International Art Fair. Further afield Anna Schwartz showed at the invitation-only Armory Show in New York, and Breenspace at VOLTA.
Import
On the import side there was a steady stream of international semi-blockbusters flowing into national and state institutions, including Vienna: Art & Design (NGV); Peggy Guggenheim (AGWA); Saatchi in Adelaide (AGSA); Surrealism (GoMA); The First Emperor, The Mad Square and Picasso (AGNSW); Annie Liebovitz and (from 16 Dec) Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (MCA) and Renaissance (NGA from 9 Dec). Apart from these (often pre-existing) shows, more international art has been seen in institutions, for example the NGA’s excellent Life Death & Magic (Indonesian traditional arts) and AGNSW’s specialist Asian galleries exhibitions. It has been a big year all round for the AGNSW, with the superb Kaldor Collection of late 20th century art now housed alongside the rest of the contemporary collection in spacious new galleries, a spectacular swan song for outgoing director Edmund Capon. But for contemp-o-holics keen to see current and edgy overseas work, the above are slim pickings, with only the MCA consistently programming ambitious stand-alone shows of current international art. In Hobart and Sydney, three privately funded institutions help fill the gap, with MONA, the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) and White Rabbit Gallery consistently presenting new work. Commercial gallerists Anna Schwartz and Roslyn Oxley operate in the remaining gap, with significant private wealth and some major international artists, alongside a handful of well-heeled dealerships. The prestigious Melbourne Art Fair attracted a smattering of overseas galleries, including a modest Canadian participation.
Biennale-land
It is to Australia’s three major curated international bi/triennials that one must look for currency. The Biennale of Sydney (BoS) and Brisbane’s Asia Pacific Triennial (APT), both with 2012 editions in planning, are regarded internationally as ones to watch, and their attendance figures compare with major events worldwide, in part because of a policy of appointing curators of international renown. The Adelaide International, a de-facto biennial staged alongside the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art (ABAA), is also well-regarded, with Victoria Lynn’s Restless (from 2 March, various venues) eagerly anticipated. It is expected that the 2nd edition of the NGA’s National Indigenous Art Triennial (NIAT 2012: unDisclosed, re-scheduled for May) will live up the promise of Brenda Croft’s first (2008) instalment, which toured nationally and to Washington DC to some acclaim.
Federal, State and City
Federal Arts Minister Simon Crean has maintained a steady-as-she-goes approach, with predecessor Garrett’s policy initiatives (notably the Resale Royalty Scheme and Indigenous Art Code) proving uncontentious, and a steady stream of reviews and reports under consideration. The arts are not seen as an election-winner by Labour or the Coalition, and hopes that a change of government signifies funding increases, or even enthusiasm, long ago gave way to acceptance that continuation, indexed for inflation, is the best one can hope for. Queensland bucked the national trend, with a 5% real increase in arts funding for 2011/12.
Ozco and the other nationally funded institutions, the NGA, NPG, NMA, NLA, NMM, Artbank, ABAF, Screen Australia and Bundanon Trust, all continue to do good work on limited resources, and we should certainly never take their existence for granted. The University galleries nationwide are an often underrated asset, supplementing a well-developed network of state regional galleries and some arts-aware city and local governments across the country. The major capitals in particular are attempting to nourish an inner city creative revival, with a noticeable increase in small-scale support for beach art, laneway art, urban art projects, ARIs and creative networks of many kinds. It’s not such a bad picture, and art may even be said to be gaining space in the imaginative life of nation.
Markets
Fact: people do buy art. All sorts of people buy it, and they buy it at all levels, from village fêtes to prestige auctions. It’s certainly true that many smaller galleries have been doing it tough for several years, struggling to keep afloat, much less returning to pre GFC (2007) levels. It appears that at the more accessible end of the market ($1-5K), people are keeping their credit cards in their pockets. Above that, it’s all about who’s ‘collectable’, and if you are, the $10-30K range appears surprisingly robust. Above these levels it’s likely there’s already a waiting list for your work, and you’re being re-sold at auction or dealerships. After a bit of re-shuffling, the auction scene has settled down again, with most major players still in the game, and an ambitious, new-ish kid on the block (Deutscher and Hackett) stalking the established houses. It’s widely believed that the heady sales of the noughties, especially for Indigenous art, are over – it was a bubble that was never going to be sustainable. But despite worldwide economic jitters, 2011 has been an encouraging year at re-sale, with clearance rates and revenues holding up in most cases, and a number of million dollar plus individual sales. Verdict: cautious optimism.
The zeitgeist
Across the year and across the nation we’ve seen ample evidence of a diverse art scene that sustains many thousands of artists, many galleries large and small, and a significant curatorial and academic infrastructure, extending beyond capital cities via regional institutions, supported by a broad political consensus that this is a worthwhile use of taxpayer money. Surveys regularly show that more Australians follow artistic pursuits than sporting ones. The audience for contemporary art, including Indigenous artists, is growing modestly, but imported ‘old master’ shows and well-worn favourites like the Archibald remain the most popular offerings. Our educational institutions are adequately resourced. There are reasonable opportunities for young artists with talent and industry to get ahead, get noticed, get a grant, even make a living if they are lucky.
GenY artists in Australia seem a remarkably cheerful bunch, and a self-protective carapace of techno-savvy irony seems to be de rigeur. Self-destructive, garret-like attitudes are out, and passions are not worn on sleeves, or even on lapel buttons. Understatement is what it’s all about, either that or full-on overstatement. GenX artists are establishing themselves in institutional positions to augment modest returns on art practice, and increasingly run University art departments, as the Boomers approach retirement. Across the generations, only a handful of Australian artists have achieved significant international recognition. That most of those are Indigenous artists may tell us something about how we are perceived globally.
We’ve heard it said that it’s all too easy. That a complacent and risk-averse curatariat presides over a parochial system of patronage, meekly followed by a compliant constituency of artists. That without social challenge, political upheaval, blood and guts, great art will not emerge. That most Australian visual art is a half-hearted, cynical business, a watered-down version of what is going on ‘overseas’. That most video art is banal and easy to do. That there is too much unexceptional photomedia, too much dot painting, too much portraiture, too much… well, you know how it goes. We don’t have the answers, but the questions are always interesting. Can you think of any art experience this year past which changed your worldview, made you see with new eyes, provided an epiphany? We can, but if you can’t, get into that studio and start making it!
All best wishes for 2012 – keep the comments and emails coming.
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