Art History: Go Figure
Issue 26:1 | March 2006
Art History: Go Figure reconfigures Australian art history. While linear visions of heroic artists are often presented in art galleries, university teachers, researchers and other scholars are uncovering and disseminating a much more multi-faceted vision of Australian art history. The absence of Indigenous histories in educational curricula is chronicled, as well as a groundbreaking Dictionary of Australian Artists Online which is being developed. Joanna Mendelssohn, Associate Professor at the College of Fine Art in Sydney, is the guest editor of a collection of writings that pulls no punches. Writers include Rex Butler, Ian McLean, Juliette Peers, Vivien Johnson, Daniel Thomas, Anne Marsh, Sylvia Kleinert, Jonathan Holmes, Catriona Moore, Sasha Grishin, Peter McNeil, Tracey Clement and more - testing theories against each other and in the process enlightening us about how an understanding of Australian art ended up where it is today.
In this issue
Art History For Artists or For Others
Thomas looks at the role of Australian art history within many of the countries leading undergraduate art courses. Discussed in relation to art museums and globalised art practice. Artists featured in this text are Robert Macpherson, Rover Thomas, Sydney Long, David Hansen, Tommy McCrae, Howard Taylor, Hossein Valamanesh and Tony Tuckson.
Missing in the History Wars
This text presents thoughts on the near-death state of the public presentation of historical Australian art and art history missing in action in the history wars? Key figures discussed are Eugene von Guerard, Louis Buvelot, Judith Brett, John Howard, Desmond and Bettina MacCaulay, Frederick McCubbin, Ken Gelder and Jane Jacobs. Links to Your Gallery and My Virtual Gallery are provided. http://abc.net.au/rn/arts/deepend/features/gallery/gallery2005/gallery/default.htm http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ed
Round-tables and Square Holes: Recovering Ground
Examines the fragility of the cross-institutional and inter-disciplinary debate. Raises issues of political intervention, globalisation and indigenous and non-indigenous identity and aesthetic. Refers to key figures Joan Kerr, Daniel Thomas, Mary Eagle, Narelle Jubelin, Michael Riley, Ross Gibson, Ricky Swallow, Patricia Piccinini, Tracey Moffatt, Dawn Casey, Terry Eagleton, Ian Burn, Djon Mundine, Diane Moon, George Lambert, Will Dyson, Ruby Lindsay, Christobel Pankhurst, Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Barbara Campbell, Raquel Ormella, Regina Walters, Joanna Callaghan, Martin Mischkulnig and Esme Timbery.
Art History in a Post-Medium Age
Marshs article is largely in response to Bernard Smiths article In Defence of Art History (I&II) published in Art Monthly 2000. Smiths essays were part of a larger debate between art historians and those aligning themselves with either the new art history, or postmodern methodologies associated with cultural studies or virtual culture. Marsh refers to the works of key figures such as Rosalind Krauss, Hal Foster, Peter Greenaway, David Lynch, Caravaggio, Lyndal Walker, David Rosetzky, Versacci, Clement Greenberg, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, Thomas Crow and Marcel Proust.
On Radical Revisionism
This text looks at two key paintings by Melbourne magic realist artist Julia Ciccarone, which come from a 1996 show at the Robert Lindsay Gallery called Fictitious Voyages. These works are illustrations of the text A New Discovery of Terra Australis, or, The Great Southern Land, originally published in 1676 by one Gabriel de Foigny. These images are deconstructed in relation to past and present histories and what Butler believes are two major attitudes concerning the way things are seen and valued. Other artists here referred to include Gordon Bennett, Colin McCahon, Mondrian, Michael Stevenson, Scott Redford and Mikala Dwyer.
The Necessity of (Un)Australian Art History for the New World
McLean examines the current state of art in Australia as both a positive force and one essentially unAustralian. As he states There may be plenty of interesting artists from Australia but few aspire to make Australian art. McLean looks at the work of artists Tracey Moffatt, Gordon Bennett, John Citizen, Henri Matisse, John Peter Russell, Tony Nathan and John Mawurndjul in an attempt to address some of the issues surrounding the case for unAustralian art.
Indigenous art: how should it be taught?
Respected educators, artists and curators took part in a no-holds-barred workshop coordinated by Dr Vivien Johnson on the teaching of Indigenous art at tertiary level. Appropriation of imagery, bicultural education and the delicate balance between serving the market for overseas students and the needs of local and indigenous students were among the issues discussed.
Indigenising Art Education
Far from being at the forefront of Art History/Theory curricula, Indigenous art is frequently missing or relegated to the margins. Kleinert explores this fact through looking at the results of a recent report by Gregory Leong, Bronwyn Power, Penny Mason and Belinda Wright into the percentage of indigenous art material taught in Australian art schools. Furthermore this text focuses on a few recent initiatives which have attempted to strengthen the content of local art education in Australia.
What Should Australian Art Historians Teach?
Grishin looks at the earliest teachings of Australian art history in Australian universities, commencing in the year 1946 with gradually diminishing staff and resources in more recent years. This text further examines some of the pressures against and valued roles of Australian art history in education institutions. Key figures referred to are Sidney Dickinson, Bernard Smith, James Mollison, Wally Caruana, Robyn Maxwell, Bea Maddock and William Morris.
Blindspot: Regional Art Histories in Australia
Holmes focuses on Ian Burns essay regarding the exhibition Popular Melbourne Landscape Painting Between the Wars to explore the nature of the regional landscape as it is depicted and analysed in Australian art and art theory. Discusses the works of: Penleigh Boyd, W.B. McInnes, Arthur Streeton, Harold Herbert, W.D. Knox, John Rowell, Will Rowell, Kenneth Clark, Stephen Bann, Geoff Parr, Marion Hardman, Max Angus, Olegas Truchanas, Peter Dombrovskis, Hamish Fulton, Mario Merz, Ger van Elk, Jan Dibbets, Richard Long, Mark Boyle, Nikolaus Lang, Raymond Arnold, Bea Maddock, Caspar David Friedrich, David Stephenson, Anne McDonald, Paul Zika, Wally Barda, Virginia Coventry, Adrian Hall, Old Mick Tjakamarra, Max Tjampitjinpa, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Don Tjungurrayi, Dick Pantimatu Tjupurrula, Greg Burgess, Norman Day, Jennifer Hill, Michael Viney, David Keeling, Richard Wastell, Tim Burns, Tim Morrison, Geoff Dyer, Kenny Gregan, Michaye Boulter, Sue Lovegrove, Jan Senbergs, John Caldwell, David Hansen, Lynne Andrews, Leigh Hobba, Philip Wolfhagen, Tim Burns, Martin Walch, Christl Berg, Nick Waterlow, Victoria Hammond, Tim Bonyhady, Margaret Scott, Edward Colless, Heather B Swan, Mary Knight and Peter Timms.
Chronologically Unsound
In 1982 Ian Burn wrote an incisive essay for the exhibition Popular Melbourne landscape painting between the Wars. The exhibition, curated by Doug Hall for the Bendigo Art Gallery, included a range of landscape paintings by artists such as Penleigh Boyd and W.B. McInnes.
Dictionary of Australian Artists Online 2006
Respected educators, artists and curators took part in a no-holds-barred workshop coordinated by Dr Vivien Johnson on the teaching of Indigenous art at tertiary level. Appropriation of imagery, bicultural education and the delicate balance between serving the market for overseas students and the need of local and indigenous students were among the issues discussed.
Istanbul Biennale the 9th Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul is wonderful, especially when a major contemporary art event the 2005 9th International Istanbul Biennial - complements Ottoman glories, the odd bit of 5th century Christian Emperor Justinian, eponymous baths, acres of bazaar, and an elegant gloss on life.
2005 JamFactory Biennale
2005 JamFactory Biennial JamFactory, Adelaide 19 November - 19 February 2006
Vital Signs: Creative Practice and New Media Now
Exhibition Review: Convenor Lyndall Jones School of Creative Media, RMIT with the Australia Council, Australian Film Commission and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image ACMI, Melbourne, 7 - 9 September 2005
St Sebastian: Fiona Tan
Fiona Tan Anna Schwartz Gallery Melbourne International Arts Festival 8 - 22 October 2005
Doldrum, Nicholas Folland; Gloria Novi Saeculi, Genia Chef
Gloria Novi Saeculi (Glory of the New Century), Genia Chef Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide 7 October - 5 November 2005
Judy Watson: Selected Works 1990 - 2005
University Art Museum University of Queensland, Brisbane 26 November 2005 - 5 February 2006
Adam Costenoble: The Chamber
Adam Costenoble: The Chamber 17 - 27 November, 2005 Pelt Gallery, Sydney
Strange Strolls
Strange Strolls Curator: Perdita Phillips Participating Artists: Begum Basdas (Istanbul), Paulo Bernardino and Maria Manuela Lopes (Lisbon), Viv Corringham (London), Robert Curgenven (Katherine), Lawrence English (Brisbane), Aaron Coates Hull (Wollongong), Minaxi May (Fremantle), Roxane Permar (Shetland Islands), Perdita Phillips (Fremantle), Virve Pulver and Aili Vahtrapuu (Estonia), Ric Spencer (Fremantle), Kieran Stewart (Perth), Dorothee von Rechenberg (Switzerland), and Walter van Rijn (Netherlands) 18 November - 18 December 2005 Moores Building, Fremantle
Tides Apart: Pippa Dickson and Justy Phillips
tides apart Pippa Dickson and Justy Phillips 3 - 23 December 2005 Inflight Gallery, Hobart
Plots from the Left
Plots from the Left A series of installations based on the notion of collecting and collections Penny Malone and Shaz Harrison-Williams Moonah Arts Centre, Moonah, Tasmania 1 - 14 December 2005
Painting Ghosts: 'Australian Women Artists in Wartime'
Book Review: Catherine Speck Painting Ghosts: Australian Women Artists in Wartime Craftsman House/Thames & Hudson, 2004 ISBN 1 877004 22 7 HC, 239 pp, 121 illus, rrp AUD $70