The Archive Project: Charles Merewether on Artlink’s history

Having lived in Australia for only seven of Artlink’s 41 years, reading through the magazine’s archive is an encounter giving some insight into the changing character, and breadth of issues surrounding contemporary art practices in Australia. I have a personal stake in Artlink’s history as it began publishing as I began, with Ian Burn, Nigel Lendon and Ann Stephen, a collaborative revision of the history of Australian art in light of new contemporary demands, which was published in 1988 as The Necessity of Australian Art. We and Artlink were part of a generational shift, but as I left the country in 1984 taking my career in other directions, Artlink continued the cause within its Australian context. Reading its back issues is, for me, getting a glimpse of where I might have travelled had I stayed in Australia.