Creativity in an Ageing World
Am I to die now?
More from this Issue
A Man's World
A Man's World John Beard, Gordon Bennett, Jon Campbell, Adam Cullen, Andrew Curtis, Dani Marti, Noel McKenna, Euan McLeod, James Mellon, Glenn Morgan, Ben Morieson, Charles Robb, Gareth Sansom, David Wadelton Curated by Frank McBride Museum of Brisbane 18 July - 19 November 2006
Joan Kerr: Unfinished Business
Art historian critic, essayist, heritage consultant, the late Joan Kerr was writing of the Irish-Australian women who passed though the Hyde Park Barracks wondering whether their presence was effectively mediated into the Irish Famine sculpture. Furthermore she added we dont want to remember them solely in piety as what has melted away in dismemberment and loss. Ironically Joan could be prophetically setting out the appropriate moodscape for her own memorialising. In the words of her husband who has compiled a partisan and intimate memoir of this distinguished artworld figure, Joan had a natural capacity to prick pretension and kick against the pricks of perceived injustice
Rewards, Awards and Living Treasures
Thelma John provides an insight towards the National Trust Living Treasures Program, which recognises outstanding Australians that have contributed to our society with invaluable knowledge and experience within different disciplines such as visual art, acting and sport. John goes on the say that the program was initially for the elderly but has recently included more youthful luminaries. Although in retaliation to this John continues to elaborate on Australia's consistent movement towards a suitable Living Treasures program that includes awards that recognise such achievements within the Australian community.
Hector Jandany 1927-2006: Teacher of Culture
Hector Jandanys work was informed by the ever-present knowledge of his country, and the ngarranggarni or Dreamtime the time the world and the rules for life began. He was renowned as a teacher of Gija language and culture in Warmun since the 1980s and he helped spread knowledge of song and ngarranggarni throughout the East Kimberley. Jandany was part of an amazing cultural team including George Mung Mung, Jack Britten, Henry Wambiny, Queenie McKenzie and others supported at Texas Downs by the kindness of manager Jimmy Klein.
Richard Larter: The Seasons of Art
For Richard Larter the material act of making paintings is an essential part of his daily life. He has written that my first mature paintings were pointillist abstracts done in house paints and enamels on lilac coloured masonite (Larter, 1998). Larter is an artist well aware of the visceral qualities of paint. Larters syringe paintings, made by forcing paint in raised lines onto hardboard, became the signature works for his initial Australian success. His role as assistant to the ceramicist Zora Merabek who was restoring the Marabout Tombs in Algiers led to a continuing interest in the visual forms of Islamic culture and a love of strong pure light. This article follows Larters prominent career and a lifetime of travel throughout Australia, New Zealand and abroad.
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.
Pioneering Gallerists: Bruce Pollard
The spirit of Pinacotheca burst forth in 1967 with Bruce Pollards opportunistic purchase of an elaborate seafront mansion at St Kilda, Melbourne. After three years Pollard was prompted and moved into a large raw, multi-level former factory in Richmond where Pinacothecas era erupted with an exhibition of large works by Peter Booth, Mike Brown, Peter Davidson, Bill Gregory, Dale Hickey, Robert Hunter, Kevin Mortensen, Ti Parks, Robert Rooney, Rollin Schlicht and Trevor Vickers. This article goes on to briefly explore the success of Pinacotheca and the many artists who emerged and blossomed here.
Clifford Frith: perpetuating the bloodlines
Pat Hoffie talked to Clifford Frith, about his life as an artist and a teacher, about where and how your essential focus is born and shaped and the possibility of passing some of this on to students and others. She has admired and watched his way of working and living for two decades and as Frith continues to outlive in energy and inventiveness so many younger than himself she probes into how this came to happen. He is a prolific artist, moving between painting, sculpture and drawing.
Irrunytju Arts
Irrunytju Arts: Senior Artists from Irrunytju 12 August - 9 September 2006 Raft Artspace, Parap, NT
Ray Crooke: The Stillness and the Colour
Though born and educated in Melbourne, Ray Crooke spent most of his career in the tropics away from the metropolis, risking anonymity, at a time when equity funding and regional issues were unheard of. Despite these odds he is recognised as one of Australias visionary artists, his tropical and outback paintings suffused with a contemplative stillness. What are some of the pivotal points that shaped his independent career? What is he involved in at present? These were some of the questions put to him in Cairns where he and his wife June, now in their early eighties, live. Some of Crooke's artistic influences and contemporaries here discussed are Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman, Russell Drysdale and Sidney Nolan.
Primavera 06
Primavera 06 Curated by Aaron Seeto Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 13 September - 19 November 2006