Vale Steve (belatedly)

Steven Paul Jobs
Inventor
February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

Vale Ruby

Ruby Langford Ginibi 
Writer and academic
(26 January 1934 – 1 October 2011

Australian Art Notes | October

David Corbet's National artnotes appear in edited form in Art Monthly Australia (www.artmonthly.org.au)

________

ABC Arts cuts update

Following the ABC’s decision to discontinue the Art Nation program and disband the TV arts unit, protests have been widespread. A senate enquiry has been launched into, among other things, “the implications of this decision on Australian film and television production in general, and potential impact on quality and diversity of programs”. Some have accused the committee of acting with indecent haste (submissions closed on 9 September) with its report due on 12 October.

www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/ec_ctte/abc/info.htm

At press time, an open letter to the ABC board had been signed by 59 prominent arts figures, stating that the decision “will diminish the ABC’s irreplaceable role as the nation’s cultural memory”. Signatories include Peter Carey, Helen Garner, Tim Winton, David Malouf, Nick Cave, Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee, Oscar winners Geoffrey Rush and Adam Elliot, and Edinburgh Festival director Jonathan Mills. The letter adds that “without a strong in-house unit to create and to commission arts programming, the national broadcaster will fail its charter responsibilities. And it will fail us, by not reminding us that our national character is informed and shaped by the imagination and creativity of artists”.

Auction action

Two out of three major fine art auctions in August were cause for cautious optimism in a sector that has been somewhat soft in recent times. Sotheby's (Important Australian & International Art) sold Arthur Boyd’s The Frightened Bridegroom (1958) for a record $1.2 million, and Arthur Streeton’s Ocean Blue, Lorne (1921) for $276k, achieving a total of $4.9 million across 67 lots, a clearance rate of 78%. Deutscher and Hackett (Important Australian and International Art) also managed a respectable 78% by volume, total sales of $4.8 million across 165 lots, with John Brack’s The Fertility Goddess (1974) fetching $600k. Bonham’s (Australian Art) sold a more modest 40% of offerings. Topping their results was Brett Whiteley’s Nobby's Head and the Entrance to Newcastle (1991) at $576k, while his Vincent (bought for $1.02m four years ago) was passed in. This was an even worse clearance rate than Bonham’s disappointing result in June (Aboriginal Art), which sold 68 of 147 lots (46%) totalling $744k. Commentators have suggested that Bonham’s relative inexperience in the Australian market may be to blame for what appear to be under-trend results. 

In other news, Deutscher and Hackett have announced that their New Albion Gallery (NAG) has secured the current Sydney premises of the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) from 2013, with Doug Hall AM, Australia’s current Venice Biennale Commissioner, as Consulting Curator. SCAF will continue to be based at the adjoining annexe and will operate its popular Culture and Ideas forums from this location, with future exhibition projects relocating to the new Sherman-benefacted galleries at Gateway@COFA (see AMA 243).

National Cultural Policy

The Federal Government’s National Cultural Policy discussion paper is now available. Have your say on the future of arts, culture and the creative industries in Australia. Comments close 21 October.

www.arts.gov.au

National Gallery

The NGA Canberra has announced its summer blockbuster: Renaissance:15th & 16th Century Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo (9 Dec – 9 Apr 2012). It is hoped the exhibition, featuring works by Raphael, Botticelli and Titian among a host of others, will prove a big draw for the gallery this summer. Despite opening a new wing, the NGA has struggled to repeat the spectacular attendance of its 2010 Masterpieces from Paris exhibition, which attracted a record 476,000 visitors.

National Museum

The NMA Canberra has announced two new exhibitions: A New Horizon: Contemporary Chinese Art (from 30 Sept) features works from the National Art Museum of China, featuring painting, sculpture and new media art created since 1949. Off the Walls (from 28 Oct) features work by such artists as Rover Thomas, Narritjin Maymuru and Fiona Foley, drawn from the collections of various government bodies, made between 1967 and 2005. Opening on 16 November is Inside: Life in Children’s Homes and Institutions, featuring the voices and personal objects of the forgotten Australians and former child migrants who experienced institutional care as children.

National Portrait Gallery

The NPG Canberra has announced two upcoming exhibitions for its summer programme. Of kings and men: Celebrating 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection
(3 Nov - 5 Feb 2012) celebrates 100 years of the Historic Memorials Collection and its role in commissioning portraits of parliamentary and judicial figures in Australia. Impressions: Painting light and life
(25 Nov- 4 March 2012) presents portraits by, and of, artists at the heart of Australian impressionism including Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin, featuring well-loved icons of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Australian art, as well as rarely-exhibited works drawn from public and private collections. The $25k National Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 (16 March to 20 May and touring) is now open to entries, closing on 31 October.

www.portrait.gov.au

London Museum Fellowships

Two Australians will travel to London to continue work on the repatriation of Indigenous ancestral remains as part of new fellowship positions at the Natural History Museum. Arts Minister Simon Crean announced that Carol Christophersen from Darwin and Emma Loban from Thursday Island will spend six months with the Museum working on projects associated with the repatriation of human remains to their community of origin.

Creative Australia Artists Grants

OzCo has launched the Creative Australia Artists Grants, a five year program which delivers on the Federal Government’s budget commitment of $10 million in new funding to the arts. The program will support artists across all artforms to deliver new artistic works, undertake fellowships and create additional presentations to Australian audiences over the next five years. The focus will be on attracting applications from artists facing access barriers such as artists with a disability, artists from non-English speaking and culturally diverse backgrounds, and artists in regional and remote areas.

www.australiacouncil.gov.au/grants/creative_australia

Indigenous Art Code update

Indigenous Art Code Ltd is conducting a renewed recruitment drive. When the Code was first released in mid-2010 it quickly received almost 100 signatories, an enthusiastic first response. Now that the Code has more resources in staff and marketing funds, CEO John Oster is currently travelling and meeting with artists, dealers and galleries across Australia. One of the priorities is to enlist the support of the leading institutions and arts agencies for the principles of the Code, as well as artists and other stakeholders.

www.indigenousartcode.org

Sport and Art

Australian artists are invited to participate in the International Olympic Committee’s Sport and Art Contest, in two categories: Sculptures and Graphic works. The theme of the contest is ‘Sport and the Olympic Values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect’. The contest consists of a national phase from August 2011 – January 2012 and an international phase from March – June 2012. Participants must submit their work for the national phase to the AOC by Tuesday 31 January 2012. There is no age restriction. For further information contact Frances Cordaro on 02 9247 2000 or email frances.cordaro@olympics.com.au

WetlandCare Australia National Art and Photography Competition 

The Wetlandcare Australia National Art and Photography Competition is now open for entries. With five categories available, there is a chance for people of all ages to submit their photographs and artworks on paper exploring the theme of Wetlands, Tourism and Recreation for the chance to win great prizes.

www.wetlandcare.com.au

Vale Cy Twombly

Edwin Parker 'Cy' Twombly, Jr 

Artist

April 25, 1928 – July 5, 2011

Photograph: Francois Halard

Vale Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE 
Screen icon
February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011

Vale, Ian Abdulla

Ian Abdulla
Painter
1947-2011

Vale Makinti Napanangka

Makinti Napanangka
Painter
c1925 - 2011

AUS/NETHERLANDS: The Namatjira Project - 2011

The Namatjira Project has announced preliminary dates and venues for its 2011 tour - see below.
If you didn't catch this during its all too brief Belvoir St (Sydney) season, book now!
International Community Arts Fesitval, Rotterdam, Holland.
30th March - 4th April
Creative development and showing in the Pilbara, WA.
18th July - 30th July

Melbourne season (announcing soon!)
10th August - 28th August

Drum Theatre at Dandenong Town Hall, Dandenong, VIC.
1 September - 4th September

Geelong Performing Arts Centre, Geelong, Victoria.
8th September - 10 September

Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra, ACT.
14 September - 17th September

Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong, NSW.
21 September - 24th September

Big hART and the Namatjira Project continues to nuture a close relationship with the Namatjira family, and will continue to work with them both in Alice Springs and on tour. For more info: hhttp://www.namatjira.bighart.org/

See our blog item from earlier this year: http://leflaneurblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/sydney-big-harts-namatjira.html

Sydney: Annie Leibovitz at MCA

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

until 27 March 2011

Above: Susan Sontag, Vandam Street Studio, New York 1999 © the artist and MCA Sydney


This large show is notable  for its inclusion of many personal family photographs, and little-seen travel and landscape images, as well as many of the iconic images of celebrities for which she is best known.
The exhibition started its world tour at the Brooklyn Museum in 2006 and has since been seen at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Atlanta High Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the National Portrait Gallery in London, C/O Berlin, Alcala 31 in Madrid, Kunsthaus Wien and Fotografiska museum Stockholm.
Buy the book, Annie needs the cash!

Vale Roberta

Roberta 'Bobbi' Sykes 
Writer and activist
1943 – 2010

Vale Gregory

 Gregory Anthony Isaacs 

Musician

15 July 1951 – 25 October 2010)

Canberra: James Turrell's new 'skyspace'

James Turrell
Within without 2010

Australian Gardens
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

3 years and A$10 million in the making, this astonishing underground installation continues Turrell's  series of 'skyspaces' around the world.

The Quaker artist's ongoing masterwork is Roden Crater, an extinct volcano in Arizona's Painted Desert which he has been transforming into a celestial observatory for the past thirty years - see the video below.


Photo: Within without 2010
Courtesy the artists and NGA

Sydney: Big hART’s 'Namatjira'

Namatjira 

Upstairs Theatre at Belvoir Street 

until November 7

www.belvoir.com.au


This piece of 'community theatre', about the early 20th century Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira, transcends the genre, delivering an intimate spectacle with heart, soul, humour and profundity in equal measure. It's effectively a 2-hander and Trevor Jamieson and Derek Wyatt are both compelling in their multiple roles. See it if you can. The Sydney season is nearly sold out but an extension and wider tour is likely.


More about the project:
http://www.namatjira.bighart.org


Flickr photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/namatjiraproject/5092303482/


Pictured: Trevor Jamieson
Courtesy Belvoir St Theatre

Vale Benoît Mandelbrot

Benoît B. Mandelbrot
Scientist
20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010

Vale Joan Sutherland

Joan Alston Sutherland
Singer
7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010

New Zealand: Taika Waititi's 'Boy'

Boy
Dir: Taika Waititi, New Zealand
88 minutes

Sundance Film Festival January 22, 2010
World Cinema – Dramatic

Audience Award Winner at Sydney Film Festival QANTAS BEST FEATURE FILM

The highest grossing NZ film of all time may be the best movie to come out of Australasia this year. Many films attempt to get inside the mind of a child, with mixed success. Here, success is total. James Rolleston (pictured) and his little brother Rocky, played by Te Aho Eketone Whitu, are both superb on screen. Their feckless father Alamein is played by director Taika Waititi, also to good effect.
The narrative maintains a fine balance between deadpan Maori humour, poignant observation and profound insights into the world of a child teetering on the edge of adolescence. Often played for laughs, there are also heartrending moments. Feelgood? Well, maybe, but in a way that is truthful and universally relevant.

More info: http://www.boythemovie.co.nz/

Vale, Kevin

Kevin Hough
Outsider artist
May 27 1956 – July 9 2010

Vale Louise

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois
25 December 1911 – 31 May 2010
Image: © Estate Robert Mapplethorpe

Biennale of Sydney: a few standouts from preview day

Newell Harry

Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay

Cai Guo-Qiang
Cockatoo Island

Brook Andrew

Cockatoo Island

Janet Laurence

Botanical Gardens

Janet Laurence

Botanical Gardens

Fiona Hall

Botanical Gardens

Choi Jeong Hwa
Sydney Opera House

More to come soon.

Biennale of Sydney: AES+F – The Feast of Trimalchio - part 1

This work was also shown at the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2009.
Three simultaneous channels are projected onto a circular screen, each taking up a third of the space.
The three channels are shown here as layers.

Vale, Lena

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne 
June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010

Mexico: Daniel Lezama

Daniel Lezama showed some extraordinary new works at Zona Maco 2010. This series shows highly stylised encounters between colonial/literary and Mexican archetypal/mythological figures, combining beautiful facture with potent symbolism. Characters such as Malcolm Lowry’s fictional Geoffrey Firmin (from Under the Volcano), explorer/artist J.M Rugendas and other ‘nomads’ are depicted in complex allegorical tableaux. Lezama is highly articulate about his work, and his website is worth a visit (www.daniellezama.net). 

El Ecuador (nuevo pintor, nuevo modelo), 2009

Oil on linen, 320 x 240 cm

Cortesía Galería Hilario Galguera

Cita bajo el volcan, 2009

Oil on linen, 320 x 440 cm

Cortesía Galería Hilario Galguera

El dia de Diablo, 2007

Oil on linen, 320 x 240 cm

Cortesía Galería Hilario Galguera

Cape Town: Dada South

Dada South? 

Exploring Dada legacies in South African art, 1960 to the present.
Curated by Roger van Wyk and Kathryn Smith with Lerato Bereng
Iziko: South African National Gallery
12 December 2009 - 28 Feb 2010


Above: Installation view, courtesy the artists, curators and Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town

This is one of the most fascinating exhibitions we've seen in recent times, even without any special knowledge of the South African contemporary scene. Works by some of the original European Dadaists  (Picabia, Duchamp, Ray, Tzara et al) are mingled with a wide array of local artists perceived to have a neo-dadaist connection, covering a period from the 1960s to the present day. Many of these artists are of some renown in their home country, and a number of them (e.g. Jane Alexander, Candice Breitz, William Kentridge, Kendell Geers, Robin Rhode) have significant international reputations, with a few living, working and/or teaching abroad. 
There was no catalogue published to coincide with the show, but this may emerge in the future. The independently-curated exhibition is 'an ongoing, participatory project of documentation and research' and more information is available at: http://dadasouth.blogspot.com. To contribute to the Dada South archive of experimental practices, you can email dadasouthza@gmail.com


From the Dada South blog:
It is nearly a century since Dada first touched the central nerve of western culture, attacking its logic, denouncing its ideas of community and nationhood, and demanding total freedom of thought. One of Dada’s primary revolutions is the reinvention of art as a form of tactics. Seen in this way, their work represents the origins of many of the forms we see in contemporary art. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dada attitudes found refreshed expression in Neo-Dada movements such as Fluxus, Arte Povera, the Situationist International and Pop Art, which preceded and deeply influenced Minimalism and Conceptual Art. It was in the 1960s that these ideas began to filter into South African art. Dada South? presents a collision of artistic strategies and forms that reflect the impact of Dada; works that are conceived and enacted in the spirit of Dada, which seek to question the conventions, values and function of art in a troubled society. The exhibition surveys an alternative history of resistance in a culture of isolation and repression, one that intersects with the canon of ‘resistance art’, but which deviates into forms that are less didactic, more eclectic and experimental. In the recuperation of these lesser-known histories, Dada South? proposes new vocabularies for South African art.

One of Dada’s lasting legacies is a style of provocation that postures as politics, but in fact ridicules its forms and institutions. Is it not paradoxical then, to host museum exhibitions about a movement that sought to destroy conventions, institutions and value systems? How we can talk about anarchy and the radical when we are bound by conventions of display and the inevitable fetishisation of the art object that the art museum supports?

South African art is often thought to suffer from an ‘anxiety of influence’ from Western artworld centres. Part of this perception is a poor understanding of our own art history. Dada South? intends to invert this by asserting South African practice as part of international art history; acknowledging a range of remarkable artistic positions that have called upon western influences selectively, even randomly, to develop local, indigenous responses to specific conditions of South African history.A major part of this process is about recuperating lost histories, practices and experiments. It is difficult to tell this story, as many works produced in a radical spirit were temporary interventions. They were not necessarily intended as art objects in the traditional sense, and certainly not expected to be purchased by museums for future preservation. As such, many such gestures exist only as oral histories and anecdotes that are occasionally backed up with an ephemeral document, like a poster, photograph, flyer or newspaper article found during an archival hunt.



Above © Robin Rhode Juggla 2007, digital print, courtsey the artist


One has indeed to come to the end of the world, and for me at least to Africa, to find the most ancient, the most archaic things and also – surprisingly though it may seem – the most up-to-date, the most extraordinary things which were dreamt of forty or thirty years ago and are now becoming a reality on this soil of Africa…this new world, which is in a state of ferment…is clearly going to be the world of the future.
- Tristan Tzara, after visiting Zimbabwe and Mozambique, 1962


Interesting? You betcha.

Vale, Ruby

     Ruby Hunter 1955 – 2010

Sydney: a ketchup edition

Apologies for the break nos chers lecteurs, even bloggers have to have holidays. Normally we try not be retrospective, but unavoidably this is something of a rear-view take on some Sydney exhibitions that caught our eye from late 2009 into 2010. We'll try to be more current in future.

MCA SYDNEY: SPRING/SUMMER 09/10

• Olafur Eliasson Take Your Time 
• Fiona Foley Forbidden
• Making it New: Focus on Australian Contemporary Art
• Primavera 2009
• Almanac, the Gift of Ann Lewis AO
• Louis Bufardeci & Zon Ito
• Avoiding Myth and Message: Australian Artists and the Literary World

It has been a strong season for the MCA, with a good blend of local and international offerings, and none of them too obvious.


Above: © Olafur Eliasson. 360° room for all colours (2002) courtesy the artist and SFMoMA.

Eliasson (Denmark/Iceland) is of course approaching art megastar status, and it's the sort of international contemporary one-person survey show (initiated by San Francisco MoMA in 2007 and already seen at NY MoMA and MCA Chicago in 2008) at which the MCA excels - a youngish artist of great international interest, but not yet a household name. It is one of the few Australian institutions to do this, with some credit also to AGNSW, GOMA and NGV.

Eliasson  is famously anal, demanding and precise, and it has to be said that the production/installation values of this show are fabulous. This particular body of work, dating from the early to mid noughties, is all about precision and the 'science' of light, yet it delivers quite playful results, sometimes merely interesting, at times poetic and transporting. The absolute standout piece for us is one of the less 'optical' ones, Beauty (1993), achieved by projecting dim white light through a fine mist of falling water in a darkened space. While obviously an installation challenge for the electricians, the work is very simple in execution and effect – a wraith-like 'entity' dances just above floor level, a hallucinatory will-o-the-wisp. This piece is one of the few in this exhibition that gives the clue to Eliasson's wider preoccupations with natural phenomena, and that is a pity, because at his best he is an artist that can deliver an almost theatrical magic and, like Andy Goldsworthy, a simple wonder at the beauty of the elements.

At Primavera, Michaela Glaeve's Cloud Field (2007), explored similar territory, though with less vivid effect, possibly because the space, with a fine mist rising from jets at floor level, was brightly lit. Christine Eid's installation Your Place (2006) featuring taxi-top lights with various Anglo and Middle-Eastern names was another memorable piece. Whatever one may think of individual Primavera selections (09 was curated by Jeff Khan), they are always worth seeing and a good MCA tradition.

As is the (biennial) Focus on Contemporary Australian Art (FOCAA) series, of which this was the fourth installment, curated in-house by the recently appointed Glenn Barkly. Unlike Primavera, which features only artists under 35,  FOCAA has a mix of old and new, emergent and venerable. Featured in Making it New were Alison Alder, Micky Allan, Jon Campbell, Lou Hubbard, Matthew Hunt, Bob Jenyns, Linda Marrinon, Archie Moore, Tom Moore, Marrnyula Mununggurr, Raquel Ormella, Alwin Reamillo, Khaled Sabsabi, Neil Taylor, Ken Thaiday Snr, Ruth Waller, Toni Warburton and Ken Whisson. This was a very strong show, with our standouts being Neil Taylor, Bob Jenyns and Micky Allen.

Fiona Foley's recently-closed mid-career retrospective Forbidden was also very solid, but somehow failed to be more than that. She is an artist working across a wide repertoire of contemporary media, and it's appropriate for a survey show to cover the gamut, but therein lies the problem - it fails to satisfy in the way that a more concentrated or themed body of work may do. She undoubtedly has many exciting years ahead of her. A fine independently-published book is available.

The Bufardeci/Ito collaboration was a worthy offering, and the Ann Lewis bequest is a very fine collection indeed, but very special mention is due for Avoiding Myth and Message: Australian Artists and the Literary World, featuring mainly work from the collection. For anyone curious about text in contemporary art this was a fascinating exhibition for which the catalogue is still available. 

Martin Sharp, Sydney Artist

Museum of Sydney


Until 14 February, 2010

This exhibition closes soon. it feels like an age since LF attended the packed opening in late October. And quite an event it was, with the OzMag generation out in force. For quizzical bystanders that weren’t around in Sydney or London during those heady days, it was a who’s who of the era, resplendent in a flurry of silver manes, white goatees and embroidered waistcoats.

Before Mambo there was Martin Sharp. Much has been written about the show, hung salon style in that single large shoebox on the first floor, the walls painted cobalt blue for the duration. Even if you’re not a fan of Sharp’s oeuvre (and this writer is not especially), the massed Tiny Tims, Luna Parks, Harbor Bridges and Eternities achieve definite critical mass in a riot of primary colour. It’s vaguely chronological, and some of his very early work is included, offering a useful if eccentric survey of one of Australia’s most distinctive painter/designer/savants. If you ain’t seen it you should have, shame on you!

Martin Mischkulnig  Smalltown

Museum of Sydney


Until 14 February, 2010

Also closing soon is this excellent photography show, the subject of a handsome book with a text by Tim Winton. Highly reminiscent of Trent Parke’s Welcome to Nowhere series (2006), this is fine stuff.

The exhibition is described ‘a dialogue between photographer Martin Mischkulnig and author Tim Winton, travelling through out-of-the-way parts of Australia’, and Winton says ‘The wild landscapes of Australia are routinely described as desolate and forbidding… [yet] for all the talk of hostility and harshness, there is nothing so bleak and forbidding in country Australia as the places humans have built there…"


The same images were also featured at the Evan Hughes Gallery in October/November 2009. The book is excellent, so if you missed the show, get that.

Vale Claude

Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1908 - 2009

Sydney: White Rabbit Gallery

Jonas Burgert
Hitting Every Head
Haunch of Venison, London
Until 7 November


German painter Jonas Burgert (b.1969) makes huge, fantastical paintings that evoke weird hybrid mythologies, apocalyptic dreamscapes, disturbing and horrific visions, whimsical or spooky childhood worlds. He has often been described as a latter-day Heironymous Bosch, however his very painterly approach is utterly contemporary, and somehow very German.

© Jonas Burgert

Hitting every Head, 2009, Oil on Linen, 380 x 500 cm

© Jonas Burgert

kopfschluss (head end), oil on canvas, 2008, 260 x 340 cm

© Jonas Burgert

laengst vertraut, 2008, Oil on canvas, 140 x 120 cm

© Jonas Burgert 

Waffenschwestern, 2004, oil on canvas. 300 x 280 cm

Courtsey Saatchi Gallery, London