Category: News

Art and art history related news. Please send news item and media releases to Katrina Grant webmaster@melbourneartnetwork.com.au The decision of what news to publish lies with the editors and their decision is final.

NGV calls for public help to find art from 1968 exhibition ‘The Field’

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The Field Original Poster

The National Gallery of Victoria is planning to re-stage the 1968 exhibition The Field in 2018 as The Field Revisited and is calling for help finding the final 14 missing works of art. See the NGV Find The Field website for details of the missing works: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/findthefield/ From the NGV The Field is regarded as a landmark exhibition in Australian art history – a radical showcase of 74 abstract and conceptual, colour field, geometric and hard edge artworks. Influenced by the American origins of abstract art, the exhibition opened to much controversy at the NGV in 1968 with its silver foil-covered walls and geometric light fittings, boldly launching the careers of a generation of young Australian artists including Sydney Ball, Peter Booth, Janet Dawson and Robert Jacks. Following a year-long search by the NGV, across Australian and international galleries, collections and auction houses…

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News | New gallery for the State Library of Victoria

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A new gallery space will be constructed at the State Library of Victoria, which will include the re-opening of the Russell Street entrance. Full details below or read more here. A partnership between the Victorian State Government and the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation is delivering a funding boost of $13 million to State Library Victoria and is set to reinvigorate an historic Melbourne precinct. The John and Myriam Wylie Foundation has donated $8 million to reopen the Russell Street entrance and to thoroughly transform the eastern end of the Library with the creation of a new world-class exhibition gallery and state-of-the-art collaborative spaces, along with a vibrant café and retail area on Russell Street. This donation is one of the largest in the State Library’s history and will be a major driver in achieving the aim of increasing the…

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New Book | Saige Walton – Cinema’s Baroque Flesh Film, Phenomenology and the Art of Entanglement

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New book by Saige Walton Cinema’s Baroque Flesh Film, Phenomenology and the Art of Entanglement published by Amsterdam University Press. To coincide with the Australian launch of the book, AUP are offering a 20% discount that is valid until 31st December – download the flyer here (pdf) What is the relationship between cinema and the baroque? How might it be figured and felt? Foregrounding the baroque as a vital undercurrent of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, Cinema’s Baroque Flesh opens up new avenues of embodied film theory that can make room for formal and experiential structure, signification, intelligence and sight, as well as the aesthetics of sensation. Walton argues for the baroque as its own aesthetic category of film and its own unique cinema of the senses. Combining media archaeological work with art history, Merleau Ponty’s phenomenological philosophy and film-phenomenology, the book provides close…

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Online Resource | The Artist’s Handbook from Taylor & Francis

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Taylor & Francis/Routledge have put together a range of popular and important articles on art history and art theory published in the various journals that they publish. This collection has been called ‘The Artist’s Handbook’ (why not the  The Art Historian’s Handbook?) and is divided into four sections on Genres, Eras, Icons (actually ‘Artists’ really) and How-to (Materials and Techniques probably a better name). These categories (and the descriptions of them) are all rather basic*, but the positive aspect of this initiative is that all articles included in the collections have apparently been made open access to read online or to download. From a quick scan the collection seems to include several hundred articles from important journals, making this a useful collection for anyone who doesn’t have ready access to online journal databases. You can browse the collection here.   *…

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Online Resource | University of Melbourne Cultural Collections

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The University of Melbourne has launched a new website dedicated to providing information about the objects in the university’s various collections, and information/suggestions on how these might be used in teaching across a variety of disciplines. The website is (unsurprisingly) primarily aimed at people teaching and studying at the University of Melbourne, but all information is readily available to anyone and the high-quality reproductions, potted histories of the objects, and links to further reading are likely to be of interest to a broader audience. You can browse the objects included here http://library.unimelb.edu.au/teachingobjects#home From the website: Teaching with unique collections provides resources, an online showcase, and a virtual setting for teaching and learning in many disciplines. It features objects, books, manuscripts, works of art and other items from the university’s Prints, Rare Books and Rare Music collections, Grainger Museum,  University of Melbourne Archives and Ian Potter Museum…

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Launch | Art + Australia relaunch by Bill Henson at ACCA

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The new Art + Australia will be launched tomorrow (28th October) by Bill Henson at 5:30pm at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. From the University of Melbourne: Australia’s premier art journal Art + Australia will be launched in a new print format by celebrated Australian artist Bill Henson on 28 October. It will be the first edition under editor-in-chief and Director of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) Professor Su Baker. In an extraordinary gift, Art + Australia was presented to the VCA and the University of Melbourne in December 2015 by its former editor and publisher, Eleonora Triguboff, to ensure the publication continued to inspire and educate. Professor Baker said she was delighted that Henson would be re-launching the biannual journal. “Bill Henson is one of Australia’s leading artists. He represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1995, and…

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Five architectural teams shortlisted for SAM redevelopment in Shepparton

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Plans for the redevelopment of the Shepparton Art Museum have reached the next stage with five architectural teams selected to develop concept designs for SAM. The architects are Denton Corker Marshall Pty Ltd, John Wardle Architects, Kerstin Thompson Architects, Lyons, and MvS Architects. From SAM: The architecture competition for a new SAM attracted 88 applications through Greater Shepparton City Council’s tendering process. The tender was the first stage of a two-stage competition endorsed by the Australian Institute of Architects to select an architectural design for the new museum. A seven member jury assessed the applications and shortlisted to five. The seven member jury is a skills based board, with professionals drawn from the arts, architecture/design, academia, Indigenous architecture and related industries. The judging was based on Design Approach (50%), Capability (30%) and Experience (20%). The Design Approach judged the quality…

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News | Australian Catholic University appoints first curator

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Furthering its commitment to celebrating and sharing art Australian Catholic University (ACU) has appointed Caroline Field as its first curator. In the newly-created role, Ms Field will be responsible for managing the University’s extensive art collection and documenting, developing and displaying the collection across each of its seven campuses. “The University is very fortunate to be holding such magnificent treasures and artworks,” Ms Field said. “We want to use and enliven them and we want to share and promote them with the University community and the general public.” Previously the Curator and Manager of the Deakin University art collection, Ms Field is a well-known figure in the Australian art community. She has curated more than 20 major exhibitions and is currently writing a book on the history of the Australian Galleries, for which she has been awarded a Creative Fellowship…

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Online Resources | Nationalmuseum in Sweden releases 3000 images on Wikimedia Commons

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Always great to see another museum making high-quality images of their collection available online and into the public domain so they can be used freely for any purpose. The director Berndt Arell says ‘We also want to make the point that these artworks belong to and are there for all of us, regardless of how the images are used. We hope our open collection will inspire creative new uses and interpretations of the artworks’. Great stuff! From Sweden’s Nationalmuseum Nationalmuseum is making 3,000 high-resolution images of its most popular artworks available for free download on Wikimedia Commons. Zoomable images will also be added to the museum’s online database. The digitization project is a major advance in making Nationalmuseum’s collections more accessible. While the Nationalmuseum building is under renovation, only a small part of the collections is accessible to the public.…

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Crowdfunding Appeal | Duldig Studio’s ‘Flirt’ – From Vienna to Melbourne, Slawa Duldig, Artist and Designer

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The Duldig Studio is running a crowdfunding campaign to help fund their next major exhibition.  From the Duldig Studio Fund our next exhibition ‘Flirt’ – From Vienna to Melbourne, Slawa Duldig, Artist and Designer Duldig Studio is seeking crowdfunding for our next major exhibition which introduces the public to a remarkable female artist, designer and inventor, Slawa Duldig (née Horowitz c. 1902-1975). A modern woman ahead of her time, Slawa invented and patented ‘Flirt’, an improved compact foldable umbrella and inspired the setting up of the Duldig Studio (a house museum and sculpture garden). We are running our crowdfunding through the Australian Cultural Fund. To donate, go to https://australianculturalfund.org.au/projects/flirt-from-vienna-to-melbourne/ by 30 November 2016.  Every donor will be invited to the exhibition opening in March 2017. The raised funds will enable us to: •     Present a new exhibition opening in March…

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News | Kirsty Grant to leave Heide MOMA at the end of 2016

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News that after only two years, Kirsty Grant is to step down as director and CEO of Heide. Press release After two years in the role of Director and CEO of Heide Museum of Modern Art, Kirsty Grant will step down from the position in December 2016 in order to focus on freelance art and curatorial projects. At Heide, Kirsty has overseen a series of acclaimed exhibitions including Colour Sensation: The Works of Melinda Harper, Aleks Danko: My Fellow Aus-tra-aliens and the forthcoming O’Keeffe, Preston, Cossington Smith: Making Modernism. Prior to joining Heide, Kirsty held curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland Art Gallery. In her previous role as Senior Curator of Australian Art at the NGV, Kirsty curated major retrospective exhibitions on the work of artists including John Brack and Robert Jacks, as well as…

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Call for Community Participation | Women’s Mural Documentation Project

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The Women’s Mural Documentation Project will document the lifespan and significance of The Women’s Mural: From Bomboniere to Barbed Wire, located in Smith Street, Fitzroy. Created in 1986 by artists, Megan Evans and Eve Glenn, the mammoth 50 by 12 metre mural, a striking example of Melbourne’s world famous street art, was once again the source of much controversy in February 2016 when almost two-thirds of its area was defaced. The obliteration of many of the women from inner northern Melbourne depicted in the mural, provoked community outcry and reminded us of the importance of this women’s space.The City of Yarra has commissioned the Women’s Art Register (Danielle Hakim and Sally Northfield) to harness this community concern and we are seeking to engage the community in a discussion about the role and meaning of the mural including The signifcance of…

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Interview with Eike Schmidt, new director of the Uffizi

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Eike Schmidt was one of the new ‘stranieri’ directors of major Italian cultural institutions who were appointed last year as part of a ‘shake up’ intended to end a long period of stagnation. In this interview with Alain Elkann, Schmidt discusses the challenges and developments of the past year (including having to repurchase the uffizi.it domain name and set up a website..). He comments on the need to ‘slow visitors down in front of these masterpieces, to try and motivate people to actually study them’, rather than ‘rush to see the bucket-list masterpieces’. He also notes the need to marry good management skills with scholarly knowledge of the collection ‘Pure management without artistic knowledge might make decisions that work on paper but not in fact. And purely scholarly decisions might make sense to other scholars but not to those who come because they…

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Rose Nolan, Jon Campbell and Vernon Ah Kee among finalists in the R & M McGivern Prize

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Jon Campbell On For Young & Old 2016 enamel paint, cottonduck 150x150cm Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight Gallery

  Twenty-seven finalists are in the running for the prestigious $25,000 R & M McGivern Prize for 2016, the winner of which will be announced at the finalists’ exhibition launch, at 6pm on Friday 16 September at ArtSpace, Realm. The R & M McGivern Prize is awarded every three years for an outstanding artwork in oil, gouache, acrylic or watercolour. This year’s theme of “text” attracted entries from more than 200 emerging, mid-career and established artists from across Australia. The shortlist draws together artists working with text – or the idea of text – from a variety of perspective. Texta Queen’s work (below) ‘Congratulations’ shows a certificate awarded to a ‘Good White Person’. The work, in the words of the artist, ‘critically examines concepts of race by flipping the lens onto anti-racist identity.’ Jon Campbell’s ‘On for Young and Old’ explores the power and…

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News | National Art School appoints Michael Lynch CBE AM as Interim Director

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The National Art School has announced that it has appointed Michael Lynch CBE AM as Interim Director, commencing September 2016. The appointment follows the recent resignation of current Director Michael Snelling, who is relocating to Hong Kong to support his partner Suhanya Raffel as she takes up her position as Director of Hong Kong’s M+ Museum. Mr Lynch commented that: ‘The National Art School has an extraordinary history of creating great artists across genres. I recognize the difficulties that face the School over the coming months and hope to work closely with staff and the Board to find a solution that best benefits the arts, National Art School and all interested stakeholders of which the students are paramount.’ Outgoing National Art School Director Michael Snelling said: “Michael Lynch brings a wealth of experience in the arts, education and government at the…

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