at Canberra Grammar School Oct 2014
There’s been a couple of short-run sculpture festivals in recent years in Canberra. It is a great thing to see these events as they provide opportunities for our sculptors who otherwise have trouble getting into the usual exhibition venues.
Flux Realities: A Showcase of Chinese Contemporary Photography
at Singapore Arts Science Museum till 2 Nov 2014
Canberra used to have a wonderful public art program. It was pressure from the local paper and the local bands of idiots that drove the local government to shut down the program.
About a year ago, we visited Linden Gallery in St Kilda (Melbourne). This was not long after the infamous raid by police following a very dubious complaint about the ‘sexual’ content of an artwork by Paul Yore.
The director of the centre was holding up well given the nature of the issue she was having to deal with. She deserved to have been paid a lot more for all the complex stuff that had come her way.
We meandered over to the museum on a Saturday afternoon to try their food and coffee.
As I have said before, I wonder why a country such as Australia with its amazing landscapes does not have a much stronger arts in the landscape profile, let alone many more robust public art programs.
We were fortunate to have a business reason to be in Sydney for the Monday, so allowed ample time on the weekend to get down to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) on beautiful circular Quay to see this once in a lifetime exhibition of Annetta Messager’s artworks. It was definitely worth the trip. We loved it so much we went back the next day for a revisit.
One of my many puzzles has been why within Australia, with all the diversity of natural landscapes, do we not see much landscape art.
What I mean by that are artworks that actually are designed in the landscape or at least using natural materials to be in the landscape. There’s an article online about an architect who works with nature. click here.
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for more on architecture – click here
Paul Costigan, 20 August 2014
Our public galleries are places you should visit often, and not just for the big blockbuster exhibitions.
There are many other exhibitions, especially collection exhibitions, that are a wonder to see and enjoy.
Continue reading NGA Visual Arts, Motherwell, Natori Shunsen, Contemporary Photography
till 19th October 2014, then touring.
The National Portrait Gallery in Canberra has done itself proud with this special exhibition of photographs produced from the archive of the photographer John Witzig. Full marks to the historian curator, Sarah Engledow.
There’s not much to add to this story online. Click on the image.
Annette Messager: motion/emotion at the MCA Australia (Sydney) till 26 October 2014Here’s an exhibition that you must see. If you are in Sydney or thinking about going to Sydney, you must allow ample time to wander through and contemplate this exhibition by this extraordinary artist. We were there on Saturday, and it was busy. Today (Sunday) we returned to watch the film and to walk through again. If you have any interest in contemporary art, a visit to the MCA will be worth it! Then go back for a second visit.
There will be a review to follow. Click here. The catalogue is a wonderful production but I suspect it is about to be sold out (I have one).
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Paul Costigan, 3 August 2014
Review: The imagined tableaux has been a fascinating area of photography from the beginnings of the art form. Personally I place this form of photography as being one of the most enjoyable and engaging forms of photography. Therefore I would always recommend an exhibition by Jeff Wall , no matter how many times you have seen his work previously.
Here’s a small group of photographs from a recent visit to Goulburn on a very cold winter’s day. I managed to take a few moments from the business trip to snap a few photographs.
Click on any photograph to enlarge.
From an article by Jori Finkel in the Art Newspaper:
In New York, Sperone Westwater comes in at 91 versus nine. Team Gallery at 85 versus 15; Matthew Marks at 84 versus 16, and Mary Boone at 83 versus 17. Some of the top galleries in Los Angeles tell a similar story: Blum & Poe is 89 versus 11; Prism is 88 versus 12; Thomas Solomon is 85 to 15, and Patrick Painter is 83 to 17.
The debate over what different people, institutions and township are doing with their formerly treasured artworks by Rolf Harris has been sad to watch. This style of artwork was always more of a populist marketing campaign. His art was and remains simplistic and very ordinary at best.
I was a little shocked when he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the Queen. Continue reading Unloved Art
Our public galleries have wonderful collections. Collection exhibitions are often overlooked by the public as the marketing foolishly concentrates on the block busters and special exhibitions. This is a shame as the collection exhibitions are wonderful.
I welcomed the opportunity to visit Harvest: Art, Film + Food. To see this mix of art was indeed a welcomed experience. Continue reading Harvest at GOMA
The centre of Melbourne has a tremendous network of laneways. Many are well established as alternate routes to the main streets. Many of the laneways have cafes, and in more recent years, many have become havens for all manner of street art.
Guest Relations at Jan Manton Art
I had a chance last week to see Guest Relations, the exhibition of Robyn Stacey in Brisbane. As I had pointed out in my earlier review, it is a show not to be missed.
Click here for my former post.
Click here for words in Art Almanac
Click here for Jan Manton Art.
Click here for Stills Gallery, Sydney.
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Paul Costigan, 6 July 2014
A good news story from the Art Newspaper about paintings that were destined to shunted off the scene as they were obvious fakes. After some work by clever conservationists, some secrets were revealed and the paintings are in fact highly prized treasures. To featured in an exhibition: Faked, Forgotten, Found.
A good news art story. click here.
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Paul Costigan, 29 June 2014
On Exhibit at Parliament House in Canberra are the commissioned photographs by Anna Zahalka (click here). The photographs are of the staff who are normally behind the scenes and whose work is vital to so many operations within the building.
I have stayed in many hotel rooms in many cities and towns. The experience of being in a hotel room, although now it is mostly apartments, is usually enjoyable but always with a tinge of weird. You enter this borrowed space and establish your presence while always being aware of the temporary nature of your stay.
At the seminar at the National Gallery of Australia, the Indonesian artist FX Harsono made a presentation as an Indonesian of Chinese decent who is now researching and making art about the treatment of the Chinese communities in the early days of the Indonesian republic.
There’s a fantastic video on exhibition in which FX Harsono deals with his Chinese name, in that he is writing it continuously while other forces are washing it away.
It was while visiting the Canberra Gallery for another exhibition that we spotted these six works by the artist/photographer Ian North. On exhibition were colour photographs from Ian’s suite of 24 images, the Canberra Suite Series (1981).
Several months back there was an article by Christopher Vernon, of the University of Western Australia, putting forward the background and argument for a permanent memorial in Canberra for Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. Click here for that article.
There are various things scattered around Canberra that tell their story.
Continue reading Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin
National Gallery of Australia
Garden of the East: photography in Indonesia 1850s–1940s
21 February – 22 June 2014, free entry to exhibition (note the exhibition is on two floors)
Continue reading Garden of the East: photography in Indonesia
One of the unfortunate outcomes of the marketing of our major art galleries is that so much emphasis has been placed on the special and blockbuster exhibitions. This form of marketing may be assisting with budgets, but this success is at the cost of letting people know about the galleries’ own collection exhibitions.
The iconic library at Glasgow School of Art has been lost in the fire which swept through the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building on Friday. click here
And an interesting piece from a researcher – click here.
Once upon time Canberra had heaps visual arts galleries to visit on weekends. Now there are but a few left. Last weekend I visited two publicly funded visual art spaces; being the M16 Gallery in Griffith and the Canberra Contemporary Art Space (CCAS) in Braddon. I can happily report that things are looking good and suggest you get out there and see for yourself just how both of these are traveling.*
This exhibition of the photography of Sue Ford (1943 – 2009) at the Victorian State Gallery (National Gallery of Victoria*) is a curious one. Click here – for their media statements.
As an opening statement I have to say that I did not find this exhibition as satisfactory as I had anticipated. Parts of the exhibition worked reasonably well, whereas other sections look as if someone was not sure what to do with the work, or that maybe they did not understand Sue Ford’s work.
I have been a follower of David Hockney’s work from the early 1980’s, when I first read a book on his early UK works. Since then I have followed his merry career as he has switched medium and taken on a range of subjects.
In general I like most of his work and remain intrigued by lots of the other. It was with interest that I spotted this London exhibition, all done on the iPad, listed online. Have a look and open up the images in large format. There is definitely something interesting going on here. Hope one day to get to London again to see some of these.
Click here for the exhibition notice and then click ‘full screen’ for the slide show.
Photographer, Fabrice Fouillet, has a series of images of Colosses that were created to dominate and dwarf the landscape and buildings around them.
I have just come back from Brisbane and had the wonderful experience of seeing more photographs by Anna Carey. I have mentioned her work previously — click here for that post.
There was much ado about this whole precinct development when it was being built and this continues through to today. Having visited the site a few times now, to meander, to eat, to meet for coffee and the occasional business, I have to say that it is a very mixed result. It is worth a visit on a busy day to see for yourself. But it does not match some of the rhetoric that has been put about – click here for an example of some project-porn spin*.
This is a proposal to enhance some present green infrastructure within inner north Canberra.
The North Canberra Greenway could be formed by linking and then enhancing the present green infrastructure elements throughout inner north Canberra.
Neon Lights and The Museum of Neon Arts
I happen to like all things neon. I have been fascinated by neon lights for years. We have twice visited the Museum of Neon Art in LA; noting that they have moved again to another new home, this time in Glendale. (above)
photo by Paul Costigan, 2002
Here’s a few YouTube presentations on Neon (see below):
Canberra had until recently an envious program of public art under the previous Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope. The city has a mix of public art. That’s the nature of the beast. But!
Why Getty Going Free Is Such a Big Deal
The company has made tens of millions of its photos free for noncommercial use.
To quote from The Atlantic:
Exhibition title: Australian vernacular photography
Once again, the Art Gallery of NSW has brought together an interesting exhibition of Australian photography – click here.
This is a must see for anyone with interests in photography. Judy Annear, the curator, has brought some gems from their vast collection.
University of Sydney, Macleay Museum
This exhibition is advertised as being of historic photographs from the Pacific spanning a century beginning from the late 1850s. With these words both in advertising and online, the expectations were for an extensive exhibition of photographs of the pacific islands.
NGA Garden of the East: photography in Indonesia 1850s–1940s
from the Canberra Times, March 8 2014, comes this review by Sacha Grishin. Click here for the review.
For more on the National Gallery of Australia exhibition – click here. Note that the exhibition is free and runs till 22 June 2014.
An article appeared in the Fairfax press on March 1st 2014 under the by-line: A long-lost print has rewritten the story behind one of Australia’s most famous photographs.
Alas, the story was not quite a full representation of the facts!
A post on ARTnews talks about the links being made in contemporary visual arts to the work of Pablo Picasso.
I am sure there are many more examples of artists making direct links — or being in conversation with Picasso’s works.
and yes, we should be looking after them.
During times of heat, drought, and extreme temperatures, it really demonstrates how the planning of Canberra, ‘the garden city’, was based on serious misunderstandings.
click on any photograph to enlarge it
Late in 2013, there was much ado in Canberra about the completion of the new Cotter Dam. The new wall is a replacement and enlargement of the previous dam on the Cotter River. It was built as a result of the ten-year drought and the need for water security for Canberra.
The surrounding recreational areas had been devastated in the 2003 bush fires and the whole area has been rejuvenated to once again be a reaction area for locals and visitors on the outskirts of the capital.
It was just this week that I managed to get myself down the wonderful National Gallery of Australia’s sculpture garden to have a look at the Angel of the North. The piece has been on location for several years. This was the fist time I have seen this piece. Of course, this is the life-size marquette of the original Angel of the North, being about one tenth the size of the original.
Centenary of Women’s Suffrage
This is an unfortunate case of how things can get out of hand and go wrong in a huge way.
The Souvenir Genre, an essay by Mel Campbell on exhibition catalogues, published in Meanjin January 2014.
One aspect of visiting exhibitions is the catalogue. Sometimes we flick through it and sometimes we purchase a copy. The catalogue may be purchased as a souvenir of the exhibition but once away from the exhibition, the publication has a life of its own.
There are several exhibition catalogues in the queue to be reviewed through this blog. The first in line is most likely to be Australia, from the 2013 Royal Academy exhibition in London. This exhibition was partnership with the National Gallery of Australia. There is an interesting story there to come concerning reviews and the response from the NGA as well as an interesting perspective from a Sydney commentator.
Meanwhile here’s a recommended article by Mel Campbell on exhibition catalogues.
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Paul Costigan, 4 January 2014
Sculpture of Ben Chifley and John Curtin, Canberra
I have driven passed this sculptural piece, by Peter Corlett, many many times. The pair of sculptures look very natural on the corner to the extent that I dare say the casual observer and busy drivers may pass by and miss that they are bronze figures. There’s no plinth. They have been attached directly onto the footpath.
An overview of accessing Australia’s major visual art gallery exhibition programs though their websites. Date: Christmas 2013.
This is an overview of what visual arts major art galleries are telling us is available around the country this Christmas. Our major art galleries endeavour to have their local audiences come through the doors. The challenge is to convince someone interested in all manner of visual arts, including photography, to spend some of our discretionary leisure time and dollars to travel (pay airfares and accommodation) to see the collections and special exhibitions.
Claudia Terstappen: In the shadow of change, Monash Gallery of Art
There’s a must see exhibition of landscape photography on at Monash Gallery of Art (Melbourne). This gallery is the Home of Australian Photography.
This body of work is an example of an artist expanding the great traditions of photographing our planet. It is obvious from the photographs that Claudia Terstappen has a romantic view of our landscapes and wants us to be positive about appreciating the world around us.
You are urged to set off for the Monash Gallery of Art and allow time to sit and enjoy.
The exhibition closes 26th January 2014 – check the website here. and ..
It was this story on Crikey “Packer’s Sydney arts donation a lay-down misere‘ that took me back to discussions I had been involved with over several decades including when we used to debate such issues openly in the arts. In recent years, all sorts of Sydney groups joined the public debates about the horrors of gambling and in this instance campaigned, unsuccessfully, against the granting of the license for a second casino.
As the deal was signed, it was arts organisations in Sydney who had agreed to take money from James Packer as the payment demanded for the granting of the new casino license. James Packer has never shown an interest in the arts.
How photographing events stops us living them
I identify with Jillian’s comments – click here or on the image above. Many times I witness people wander up to an art work or some scene, and without any thought, they quickly pull up the camera, iphone or ipad, snap and then walk on. They do not even take the time to really look. Got the photo, move onto the next one.
Outside the National Gallery of Australia, people sometimes bring their car to a halt, jump out, snap a few, then it is back in the car and off they go. They have done the National Gallery! and have the photo to prove it. Where was the enjoyment in all that.
The Nolan Collection at the Canberra Museum and Gallery
Canberra has been blessed with two major collections of Sidney Nolan. One is on permanent exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. There is also the important special collection at the Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG)
I recommend a visit to the Canberra Museum and Gallery to see this collection (and at times maybe the other exhibits). Although you may have to bring in your own chairs to spend any time in this exhibition. I am not sure who thought that to perch on those silly vinyl foot-stools in the middle of the room would enhance a visit.
The story starts here: (allow 4 minutes)
and then..
The current state of Cultural Reviews and Critical Comment
Recently the Guardian ran an opinion piece on the Barangaroo development on the eastern edge of Sydney’s CBD. The author pointed out that she had been involved in the project.
I suggest that the author failed to declare that they had been more than just simply ‘involved’. In fact they had been a leading professional on the team that had won the design competition, that had then seen their designs criticised publicly by people such as Paul Keating, then had their wining design rejected by the client and a new design developed and the contracts awarded to other teams.
An exhibition at the Getty in LA on the link between photography and architecture. Check it out and note the partly illustrated check list at the bottom of the page.
click on the image for the Getty site
Recently announced installation of art. Always good to celebrate an artist who has chosen the difficult path of sculpture and public art. Click on the image above for the Canberra Times article.
Dan has other pieces….
Canberra 16-17 November 2013
Take a quiet little street in Downer. Local artist Stephen Harrison is a resident. Stephen asks the neighbours if he can take over the street and their front yards for the weekend. They say yes. Stephen then brings in the work of about three dozen artists. And so a fun weekend arrived……
For travelers of urban space and cities, there is nothing more enjoyable as roaming streets and observing both the unusual and the ordinary. In reality most of time the ordinary and the unusual do tend to blend. Anyone who is an observer of street behaviour realises that there is not much that is ordinary about how people behave as they wander, rush or simply promenade about our urban thoroughfares. The streets of our cities are packed with these constantly changing tableaux. The realities are fun to observe as well as those things we conjure up in our imaginations about the buildings and the streets and the parks and the cosmopolitan mix of people.
Turner From The Tate
exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, June – September 2013.
Having visited this exhibition three times while it was in Canberra , once in Adelaide and having five times visited Turner in the Tate in London, I have been contemplating these experiences and offer the following comments as a review.
Much of the current crop of graffiti and street art consists of the signatures and/or some brightly coloured clichéd scrawls. There’s also the more subtle and creative.
The latter is so much more fun. And things that bring a smile when everyone wants to be ever so serious about anything and everything, must be a good thing. Bring it on.
This image includes a view of a work by one of my favourite painters, Mark Rothko. This image was taken in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
The Search for Debt and Deficit Emergency: A Day with the Bowral Yacht Squadron
It’s early dawn and the famous Bowral Yacht Squadron sets out for a day’s adventure on the high seas. This is much anticipation about the task ahead!
The visitor experience – seating
The entry spaces and seating within our major public galleries are not the most user-friendly. For reasons I cannot understand, most of our public art institutions have not made their foyers friendly spaces so that it could be easy to meet up and to have that initial chat before moving off to see what there is to enjoy.
William Eggleston, Paris, 2009
I like William Eggleston’s photographs. Big Time!
I purchased this book having seen London exhibition by William Eggleston in January 2010. The exhibition had more recent work than was in the book. It was great.
The book I purchased later and have just been looking through it again. I also took out a copy of the 1976 William Eggleston’s Guide. I was fascinating to read the essay by John Szarkowski after all these years. He mentioned Kodachromes; wonder how many remember what they were? The essay still makes for a good read.
Richard Avedon at National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
August – November 2013
Christopher Chapman of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra is to be congratulated for curating this exhibition of a diverse range of Richard Avedon’s work.
For people not too familiar with his work, it is a great introduction to the scope of photography produced by this famous artist.
Comment on altering a piece of public art
The ANU has wonderful array of public art throughout their very nice campus.
One of my favourite pieces has been surrounded by fence.
I visited the site today and walked around and pondered:
Why the fence? Its presence just did not make sense.
Here’s a link to more on this topic, and more photos
Let me know if you can throw any light on this mystery.
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Paul Costigan, October 2013
Adrienne Doig at Martin Browne Contemporary
September – October 2013
I was introduced to Adrienne’s current work when visiting the 2013 contemporary art fair in Sydney in September.
I was intrigued. Her use of eBay purchased embroided patchwork struck a chord and I was hoping to see more soon.
The next day we were wandering over to see another exhibition when we realised we were near to Martin Browne Contemporary and took the chance to see if her work was on exhibition. It was and I was again very interested. Continue reading Splendid
Roslyn Oxley Gallery, Sydney, September 2013
I like a lot of Tracey Moffatt’s work and have seen quite a lot of it over the years. Some of her more recent works have been mixed and my jury is still out on whether they are great works. In most cases they no longer are photographs as they are mixed media usually based on some photographic manipulations. Continue reading Spirit Landscapes
originally published September 2010
One quiet Saturday afternoon in mid August 2010, while visiting the National Gallery of Australia, I observed that the barriers were down on the new NGA forecourt garden and that the new James Turrell sculpture was open and awaiting a visitor.
A work in progress – reviewing the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra
The National Portrait Gallery of Australia opened in 2009 to much acclaim. This national cultural institution has become a very popular tourist destination. The gallery sits in amongst trees in the National Parliamentary Triangle alongside the National Gallery of Australia and the High Court of Australia.
While I have seen nothing but praise for the building, I beg to differ. Particularly when talking about the outside of the building and how it ‘sits in the landscape’. More on that later.
City of Trees, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 5 July – 7 October 2013
This review originally published August 2013
One lazy Saturday afternoon I took myself over to the National Library of Australia. I had read all the advertising and was very much looking forward to an exhibition on the trees of Canberra.
Any exhibition that focused on the trees of Canberra has to be something to see, something to talk about, and something that would be most embraced.
the entrance with two light boxes
In short, this one did none of those things for this reviewer. This exhibition in this prestigious national library exhibition space just left me wondering just what happened. Did the exhibition curators sign up a feel good Centenary Exhibition about one of the core features of the national capital; its fabulous trees. And then the pieces arrived and there was nothing to do but to make a good show of it. In this case it has been well laid out with all the usual fine aesthetics of good curatorship. But the content is just not there.
When roaming the art galleries in Sydney recent, I came across a couple of women in Martin Browne Contemporary. As they slowly walked through the exhibitions they were chatting endlessly about all sorts of gossipy things and were not really stopping to look at any of the art on display.
They managed to meander through the two floors of the space without actually stopping to look and without pausing their conversations.
Amazingly I ran into them twice more at different galleries and they put on the same performance. Chat, slow wander, and no contemplation or discussion of the works.
They were not whispering. They spoke reasonably loudly, so it was hard to ignore, and the conversations were just plain boring!
what the F? was going on – it seems they were going through the motions of visiting galleries and exhibitions but in fact it was simply a meaningless social occasion.
