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.

News | Finalists for Bowness Prize announced

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The judges for this year’s Bowness Prize have announced the list of finalists. From MGA: Judges of the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, including well-known Filmmaker Fred Schepisi, have this week confirmed the 60 emerging and established photographers to secure their positions as finalists in Australia’s most sought-after photography prize, edging closer to winning the $25,000 prize to be announced in September this year. Schepisi was joined by Professional Photographer John Gollings and MGA’s Director Kallie Blauhorn in determining the 2016 finalists of the coveted award, following the review of works submitted across a diverse range of contemporary and traditional photographic genres including street, fashion, art, architectural and documentary styles. “The diversity in both subject and technique in these photographs is fantastic,” said Schepisi on reviewing the 2016 submissions. “It is something to be truly encouraged.” John Gollings continued,…

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Weekly News Round-Up | Art and Art History | 13th July 2016

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Vesna Pavlović, GREEK: ARCH: ATHENS GEN: ACR: PARTHENON: EPEDIMENT GODDESSES, Endura metallic color print, 30 by 30 inches.

The Art Newspaper has a story about Orhan Pamuk’s keynote address to the ICOM conference in Milan. In his talk Pamuk reflected on the museums we have and the museums we need, saying that in the future we need ‘small and economical museums that address our humanity. All museums are genuine treasures of humankind, but I am against these precious and monumental institutions being used as models for the institutions to come. Museums should explore and uncover the population as a whole and the humanity of the new and modern man that emerges from the growing economies of non-Western countries. I address this manifesto in particular to Asian museums that are experiencing an unprecedented period of growth. The aim of the great state-sponsored museums is to represent a state and that is neither a good nor innocent aim. Here are…

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Weekly News Round-Up | 6th July 2016 | Cows for poems, Fact Checking the SCA UNSW merger, More concerns over Indian sculptures at NGA + more

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In this chaotic moment of uncertainty (ahem) with no government in Australia perhaps we might have to return to arts funding arrangements of yesteryear and inspire artists with… cows. Amanda Smith of RN has this story about the history of arts funding in Australia in which she reveals that the first arts grant was in the form of two cows ‘from the goverment herd’ given as payment to nineteenth-century poet Michael Masset Robinson for a series of ‘odes for George III and Queen Charlotte on their birthdays. In other signs of the apocalypse (though admittedly this was reported on the eve of the election) an artist has managed to hang his own painting on the wall at the NGV next to Picasso’s weeping woman. The artist, Ben Butcher, declares that ‘We live in an age where monolithic cultural institutions no longer have a…

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News | Mami Kataoka appointed Artistic Director of 21st Biennale of Sydney

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The Biennale of Sydney has announced that the artistic director for the 21st Biennale in 2018 will be Mami Kataoka.    Mami Kataoka, is the Chief Curator at the Mori Art Museum (MAM) in Tokyo, and she is the first curator from Asia to be appointed as Artistic Director of the Biennale of Sydney. She was one of thirteen eminent international advisors to this year’s 20th edition and already has strong connections to local curators and artist. Ms. Kataoka is regarded as a key figure in analysing socio-historical and generational trends within Japanese and Asian art. From the BoS   Ms. Kataoka is renowned internationally for her curatorial practice, having engaged in many projects including ‘ROUNDTABLE: 9th Gwangju Biennale’ (2012) as co-artistic director and guest curator of ‘Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past’ (2012) at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. Ms. Kataoka also…

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Arts Funding and the 2016 Federal Election

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For the first time that I can remember Arts Funding has been a Federal Election issue (this article from Ben Eltham is a reminder that arts and culture barely rated a mention in 2013). This year there have been stories every week and we even saw a National Arts Debate between representatives of each major party. There wre a number of other forums where politicians, artists and others discussed the many issues surrounding arts funding and making a living in the arts. Although arts funding has no doubt been foremost in many of our minds, the fact that the Coalition has not released an arts policy suggests it is hardly foremost in their minds. It is also unfortunate that the reason it has turned into an issue is not because our potential leaders have broad and expansive visions for the arts…

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Wednesday News Round Up | 29th June 2016 | Arts Funding, Brexit, SCA and UNSW merger + more

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News The Daily Review has come out with an editorial saying that ‘A Vote for the Coalition is a Vote against the Arts’ and with Arts Minister Mitch Fifield yet to release an arts policy and only the coalition’s past performance on arts funding (de-funding more like it) it’s a pretty straightforward claim. I am aiming to a pre-election round-up on Friday of all the latest arts funding news and debates and links to the policies of the main parties (where they exist…). The protests over cuts have been making international news with stories in Hyperallergic and Apollo Magazine. The other major news is the recently announced merger of the Sydney College of Art with UNSW. The VCA’s Su Baker has a great opinion piece in The Australian where she makes the point that the SCA has been punching well above its weight and…

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Invitation to submit material – Women, Feminism and Art in Australia since 1970

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Call out for submissions from Australian artists who engage with feminism in their work. Women, Feminism and Art in Australia since 1970 – Invitation to submit material Professor Anne Marsh has commenced work on her Australian Research Council project ‘Women, Feminism and Art in Australia since 1970’. The project will investigate the impact of feminism on contemporary Australian art, revealing the roles and interactions between gender, race, class and ethnicity. It will analyse and interpret the history of feminism in the visual arts during the critical decades since the 1970s, and the impact of feminist thought on the ways in which Australian society views representations of women across cultural differences. At its best, feminism must embrace the diverse nature of lived female experience. The challenge of a project such as this is to find a method that both acknowledges and celebrates…

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NGV acquires Degas sculpture

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Edgar Degas Dancer looking at the sole of her right foot (Second study) c. 1900–10, cast 1919–37 or later bronze 47.3 x 24.3 x 20.8 cm Czestochowski/Pingeot 59 (cast T) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased with funds donated by Leigh Clifford AO and Sue Clifford, 2016

At today’s preview for the new Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition – Degas: A new vision – the NGV announced that one sculpture in the exhibition will be staying in Melbourne. Degas’s ‘Dancer looking at the sole of her right foot (Second study)’ has been purchased for the NGV collection with funds donated by Leigh and Sue Clifford. Many of Degas’ sculptures were unknown during his lifetime. After the poor reception of his now-famous ‘Little Dancer’ (a cast of which is in the exhibition) in 1881 he kept much of his work in sculpture secret. He modelled in wax and is known to have remade and often destroyed works. Around 150 wax studies were found in his studio when he died in 1917 and 74 of these were salvaged and cast in bronze by the Adrien-A. Hébrard Foundry, Paris, and their Milanese master craftsman Albino Palazzolo. The NGV’s new sculpture is…

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Wednesday News Round Up | 15th June 2016 | Writing about art, Arts Funding, Australian Museum Director’s salaries + more

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A new column from Burnaway will examine ‘Artspeak’ – the first column takes apart that the arts press release, the forum where I personally read some of most breathlessly nonsensical statements about art. Matthew Terrell observes that ‘A bit of simple explanation goes a long way in engaging the public. Tell us what it is: a dance show, an art installation, a DJ performance, an online event, etc. Don’t overinflate your words until your sentences are bulging at the seams. Keep it short. Keep it simple. Keep it clear.’ Yes! Fisun Güner in the Spectator observes that good art writing is not necessarily simple, while she agrees that ‘art-speak should be blasted, I dread the spread of the far more cynical and bland approach’ of dumbed-down accessible writing. Pac Pobric’s review of Liam Gillick’s new book Industry and Intelligence, drawing…

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News | NGV Senior Curator Dr Ted Gott awarded Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government

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On Thursday 9 June 2016, Dr Ted Gott, Senior Curator of International Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, received a Knighthood from the French government for services to French culture, The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters). The insignia was presented by His Excellency M. Christophe Lecourtier, Ambassador of France, in a ceremony which took place at Alliance Francaise, St Kilda. Ted Gott is Senior Curator of International Art at the National Gallery of Victoria. He has curated and co-curated 26 exhibitions, including The Impressionists: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay (2004), Kiss of the Beast: From Paris Salon to King Kong (2005), Modern Britain 1900-1960 (2007), Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire (2009) and Napoleon: Revolution to Empire (2012). He has published widely on Australian, British and French art, and in 2013 co-authored a cultural history…

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Wednesday News Round Up | 8th June 2016 | Arts and the election, the rise of the Private Museum, NGV MoMA + more

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The recent cuts and restructure of the Australia Council means that the arts sector is pushing harder than usual for arts to be a factor in the election. This week the Greens have proposed the idea for a ‘living wage’ for creatives to cover the fact that many artists are paid very little, or nothing at all, as they try to establish themselves. A report in Arts Hub on the first of several discussions organised by NAVA (National Association for Visual Arts) and Artspace looking at how to push a vote for culture onto the stage. Labor has promised to boost arts funding by $160 million if elected and promises to dump the Catalyst program. An article by Sharon Verghis in The Australian on the rise of the private museum and how they’re changing the landscape and dynamics of art markets, cultural patronage and…

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New Book | Representations of Renaissance monarchy Francis I and the image-makers

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New book Representations of Renaissance monarchy Francis I and the image-makers by Lisa Mansfield from the University of Adelaide. About the book Representations of Renaissance monarchy analyses the portraits and personal imagery of Francis I, one of the most frequently portrayed rulers of sixteenth-century Europe. The distinctive likeness of the Valois king was widely disseminated and perceived by his French subjects, and Tudor and Habsburg rivals abroad. Complementing studies on the representation of Henry VIII, this book makes a dynamic contribution to scholarship on the enterprise of royal image-making in early-modern Europe. The discussion not only highlights the inventiveness of the visual arts in Renaissance France but also alludes to the enduring politics of physical appearance and seductive power of the face and body in modern visual culture. Coinciding with the five hundredth anniversary of Francis I’s accession, this book will…

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News | Wurundjeri group raising funds to purchase William Barak painting

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A group representing Melbourne’s Aboriginal population is trying to raise money to buy a work by William Barak From The Age Ceremony, a relatively small work in earth, ink and charcoal on paper, will go to auction at Bonham’s in Sydney on Tuesday night. The picture was created by Wurundjeri elder Barak – known by some in the Aboriginal community as “Uncle William” or “Grandfather” – in 1897. It was exchanged by its creator for a glass work by English craftsman Frank Piggott Webb, and has remained with Webb’s descendants until now. You can find their crowdfunding page here: https://chuffed.org/project/bringing-barak-home

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New Book | Hegel’s Owl: The Life of Bernard Smith – Sheridan Palmer

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A new book by Sheridan Palmer documenting the life and work of Bernard Smith has recently been published. ‘Better to make history than to write about it. What is needed is a brotherhood of some kind, compact, devoted, with a colourful title . . .’ Bernard Smith, letter to Robin Boyd, 1957 Bernard Smith’s ‘brotherhood’ was to become the famous group of Australian artists called The Antipodeans, and Smith was to write their manifesto. ‘The Antipodeans’ exhibition in 1959 was a watershed moment for Australian art. The exhibition included work by Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, John Brack, Robert Dickerson, John Perceval, Clifton Pugh and, of course, Bernard Smith. But this is just one of Smith’s significant contributions to the history of Australian art, and one of many instances where he sought to highlight the importance of contemporary Australian…

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Wednesday News Round Up | 1st June 2016 |

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The rediscovery of a portrait by Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) was announced this week. As announced on the Villa Ludovisi website the subject shows “Costanza Sforza of Santa Fiore (1560-1617), wife of the Duke of Sora, Giacomo Boncompagni (1548-1612). Giacomo himself was the legitimated son of Ugo Boncompagni = Pope Gregory XIII (1505-1572-1585). So at the time of her marriage in 1576—at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, with the whole College of Cardinals in attendance—Costanza Sforza found herself in the unusual position of daughter-in-law to a reigning Pope.” Plans for a Ballarat Biennale of Australian Art that would ‘draw in $10 million to Ballarat’s economy from an anticipated 100,000 visitors‘ were flagged last week. The proposal is headed by Julie Collins, previously curator of Lorne Sculpture Biennale, she has proposed that the ‘Biennale will be held over six weeks in September…

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