Bernard Smith: Reluctant Icon

Generations of art students have been encouraged to read his books on the history of Australian art. He has been revered, rejected, loved and loathed by young and old. Julie Copeland of ABC Radio Nationals Sunday Morning Exhibit A has interviewed Bernard Smith many times over the years, about his books, his art criticism, his autobiography. In the lead up to his new books publication The Formalesque, and on the occasion of his 90th birthday in October 2006 she asked him to recap for Artlink readers, how the varied influences of his early life came together to produce Place, Taste and Tradition in 1945 when he was 29 years old.

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pvi collective

reform pvi collective Northbridge, Perth 25 May - 4 June 2006

Sarah Miller

Butcher Cherel Janangoo: Imanara

Butcher Cherel Janangoos birth took place around eighty-five years ago. His mother was a Gooniyandi and Kija woman and he cites this as his heritage. He is first and foremost a markmaker. The lexicon of dots, dashes, strokes, washes, lines and imprints of brush, carving tool and sponge that Butcher employs are played out on canvas and paper as well as on etching and lithography plates and lino blocks. He is happy to work in any of these media yet regardless of the form or content of Butchers works, the subjects are all spectres of the same country, his riwi or home country that he calls Imanara.

Karen Dayman

Bert Flugelman: Still Flying

Bert Flugelman is a sculptor and painter. His influence on generations of students is legendary, in major art schools in Sydney, Adelaide and Wollongong whose sculpture departments suddenly spring into life when he arrives. He has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wollongong, whose Friends association raised the money to pay for his gigantic winged sculpture on Mount Ousley overlooking the city an Icarus in the ascendant. At 82, he is still hard at work making large-scale works in his studio and workshop in Bowral, NSW, where Tamara Winikoff interviewed him on 23 June 2006.

Tamara Winikoff

Daniel Thomas: Empathy and Understanding

Steven Miller talked to Daniel Thomas AM, much-loved curator and Emeritus Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, at his house overlooking the wild north coast of Tasmania about what he has discovered about art and artists during his long career across three major Australian art museums.

Steven Miller

Milton Moon: Approaching the Intangible

In his 80th year the eminent potter Milton Moon, AM, continues to make pots, working in a studio at his home in Adelaide. He exhibits with Aptos Cruz Galleries at Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Over a long career Moon has received many awards and honours, including a Churchill Fellowship (1965) and is represented in many major public collections, including all the State galleries and The National Gallery of Australia. On a mild morning in early spring 2006 Margot Osborne sat with Moon to discuss his career as outlined in this article.

Margot Osborne

Arthur + Corinne Cantrill: The Film's the Thing

Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, arguably Australias most important experimental filmmakers, have been making films since 1959, when they worked on films on child art. They bought their Bolex camera in 1960, and their first experimental films followed in 1961-62. Films like Mud, Kinegraffiti, Galaxy and Nebulae, were more or less stylised or abstracts with sound-tracks inspired by musique concrete experiments. In the years that followed, they made a large number of films, published 100 issues of Cantrills Filmnotes and gave innumerable screenings of works by themselves and other experimental filmmakers. Included is an edited version of an interview conducted by Warren Burt via telephone on 2 September 2006.

Warren Burt

City of Perth PhotoMedia Award

City of Perth PhotoMedia Award Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) 5 October - 5 November 2006

Thelma John

Donald Horne: The Power to Transform

While Donald Hornes contributions as a writer and public intellectual are widely known, his contribution to our understanding of the importance of culture in the lives of ordinary people is less so. He was someone who was moved by symbolism and ideas. He publicly championed the importance of cultural life something no other chairman of the Australia Council, with the possible exception of Nugget Combes, has attempted. Artlink asked Deborah Mills to unpack the ways in which Horne operated in this arena.

Deborah Mills

Irrunytju Arts

Irrunytju Arts: Senior Artists from Irrunytju 12 August - 9 September 2006 Raft Artspace, Parap, NT

Jane Hampson

Creativity in an Ageing World

Anna Haebich

Eldertorial

Dr Pat Hoffie worked with Stephanie Britton to realise this themed issue. They networked across the nation to collect together a set of fascinating interviews and tributes to a dynamic and charismatic group of elders who helped create the identity of Australian art today. They wish to thank all the talented and dedicated interviewers some of whom travelled great distances to do face to face interviews with artists, curators and gallerists.

Stephanie Britton

Louise Weaver

Taking a Chance on Love: Selected Works 1990 - 2006 Louise Weaver 9 July - 27 August 2006 McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria

Kate Just

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