Cont/Text Part I:
The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune
There is something rotten in the State of New South Wales, this is hardly “breaking news”, but here I refer to a specific field sponsored by the wealthy seemingly increasingly to the exclusion of everyone else. (Ordinarily, on this platform, I would be offering my fortnightly ekphrasis of one of my paintings, explaining arcane references and their strange contemporary parallels. But my worries concerning certain attempts at historical revisionism, and the kind of “feminism” that preaches that any criticism is a product of “sexism” will have to wait for the next fortnight, as much as it might be relevant to what I here address.) Recently, I caused a minor scandal with a painting questioning what will happen to the arts when only the wealthy can afford to practice them, and so I will write about the background to that conversation. I find it incredible to have reached such a moment in history as free expression, let alone disliking an artist’s work, has to be defended.
Zoë Marni Robertson, "The Divine Right... Sole Corporation (Art by Appropriation)", 2023. Lime wash on (discarded) polyester.
AGAINST A SEA OF TROUBLES
“Capital and state control of technological development, reacting against the struggles and the resistance of workers and citizens (of the worker-citizens), operates essentially through the attempt to reappropriate social cooperation, and therefore through the dissolution of the commonality of life, through the colonization of affects and passions, through the commodification and the continual reduction to financial entities of the places of resistance and antagonistic cooperation.”[1]
-Antonio Negri
The above quote is from Antonio Negri, who passed away on the 16th of December 2023. I first became aware of his work at a symposium at ARTSPACE, Sydney, about the 2001 polemic “Empire” (Negri co-authored with Michael Hardt). It must have been around 2010, because I can remember talking to (artist) Simon Denny about it, when he was on an international residency at ARTSPACE. He had read it (and seemed to have read most things). Walking around the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) with him I was reminded that I actually like art, where I had become very bored and disenchanted at the (then) UNSW College of Fine Arts by the drive towards professionalism and the lack of meaningful critical discourse. There was still, however, these forums for access to something better, real debate about what the world is and what it should be, that maybe at least existed overseas (or in Melbourne). It is hard to imagine now, what was an intellectual life in this city, that I also saw Alain Badiou speak at The Art Gallery of New South Wales (I had to text a friend to make sure it really happened, he called it “more affect than intellect’, but that was at least once something one could judge for oneself). It seems that everything that drew me towards art no longer exists within that framework, not even just here, but the world over. I see a divide widening between those artists who follow a moral imperative, which is fraught and difficult and messy; and those who are political for pay. This is not to say that there are not shining examples of subversion within fraught contexts in these dark times. I keep thinking, lately, of ARTSPACE Sydney resident Latai Taumoepeau’s “Repatriate” which I saw at Carriageworks in 2015, in which the artist was treading water just a bit too deep for her, struggling to keep her head above it in a small Perspex tank. Taumoepeau offers herself up mimicking the primitivising discourse (on which our museums are founded), a vitrine of Pasifika nations whose lands we are complicit in literally drowning. (Meanwhile, in a rare acknowledgement of our part in the rising seawaters, the Australian Government recently granted the entire nation of Tuvalu citizenship. I picture the strategic planning involved in that decision, those who maybe even reasoned long ago that it would be cheaper to repatriate the population, to assimilate the nation, than to try to do anything to reverse climate change, or even to stop worsening it with new coal and gas projects still being approved.)
THE OPPRESSOR’S WRONG
Even with my general cynicism keeping me basically peripheral within the arts, summer scandals are becoming something of a habit for me. In December of 2022 “Eddy”, a pop-up group exhibition staged by Minerva Gallery was (unlawfully) evicted from the premises owned by the New South Wales Transit Authority at Central Station, Sydney. The reason given for this was some beer bottles left inside the gallery after the opening. The site was being utilised like some kind of last-ditch attempt at a culturally relevant State Government (responsible for the infamous “lock-out laws”) that was then almost certainly about to be voted out. Disused, beautiful shopfronts on Eddy Avenue underneath the sandstone station (opened in 1906) were being rebranded “Eddy” with (douchebag) marketing featuring throughout the city. Eddy Avenue has long been a place where the homeless congregate, sheltered underneath the arches. So perhaps it was the “junk sculptures” of Philipa Hagon or the chewed canvas of Luke Sands that the representative from Transport New South Wales did not like, perhaps that the substrates of my own works were on found material (utilising found objects to critique the growing divide between rich and poor, along with concerns over sustainability). When one directly aims to gentrify such a space, an aesthetic alignment with the local homeless community and willingness to coexist is clearly the opposite of what one might expect from a commercial concern (which would surely “clean-up” such a street). Of course, two of my featured paintings were tongue-in-cheek “cephalophores” of tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk (medieval images of decapitated saints holding their heads), a comment on how the tech oligarchy seems to assert that our minds are somehow separate to our bodies. This may also have been deemed sensitive where the tech company Atlassian has been building headquarters (at a cost of $546 Million AUD). It would seem that everyone in Sydney would spare the wealthy any mention of dissent (self-censorship that, aside from anything, gives the wealthy little credit), and so this would hardly be surprising as another reason for the eviction. Apparently, some of the artists from Melbourne featured in the exhibition found the whole thing very funny and were essentially proud to be evicted like real-life subversives. But I live here. The experience was basically routine, but none-the-less devastating, when everything one does is immediately sanitised out of existence.
Zoë Marni Robertson, “Benevolence (Emperor’s New Clothes/You Can Leave Your Hat On)”, 2023. Acrylic on (discarded drawing) board. Photo: Jessica Maurer.
Nevertheless, for the past two years I have been making a series of paintings that bear captioning, and later expansion to long-essay format (currently being published as “Ekphrasis/Ekphrasis”) which are critical of art world darlings and the wealthy, even those whom I admire. For example, I made a nude-ish painting of Australian tech Billionaire, co-founder of Atlassian, Mike Cannon-Brookes (alongside Marcus Aurelius), called “Benevolence (Emperor’s New Clothes/You Can Leave Your Hat On)” so impressed was I with his efforts to create a large-scale solar energy initiative in Australia (which unfortunately fell-through due to the actions of his then-business-partner and fellow Billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest). I have not written on that painting, but it was basically a reflection on why governments no longer provide such essential infrastructure, and how any individual could possibly have enough money to even consider such Nation-building gesture (Aurelius popped up when I “Googled” “benevolent dictator”). In Australia “(p)eople in the highest 20% of the wealth scale hold nearly two thirds of all wealth (64%), while those in the lowest 60% hold less than a fifth of wealth (17%).”[2] Australians represent 0.33% of the global population but are home to 23% of the world’s billionaires who, on a global scale, control half of the world’s wealth. There are 3311 of them. Meanwhile, the “left” Labor government has upheld “stage-three tax cuts” that will see more wealth accumulated to those earning above $180,000 per annum (while the poorest quadrant will see no relief).[3] Inequality is also unlikely to be reduced in a country where the media is controlled by the duopoly of the Murdochs and the Packers. Still, artists cannot seem to understand that advocating for a more equal distribution of wealth is actually in their interest.
(Greens counsellor/curator) Raffaela Pandolfini came across Cannon-Brookes in person not long after I painted him (early in 2023) and showed him the portrait I made of him, to which he replied, “Why am I naked?” I imagine that it was an odd interaction for Cannon-Brookes; but that he may well agree with me that the government should be building such infrastructure (though not necessarily that he should have less money). My friends and I had a laugh about it and that was the end of that.
THE PROUD MAN’S CONTUMELY
In August of 2023 I made a painting featuring Taylor Swift’s head on the body of the (rejected) tomb effigy of Catherine de’ Medici with local artist Julia Gutman in the foreground as though she had painted it (her image was taken from a photo of her in her studio). The following post featuring the painting was shared to Instagram on the 8th of September, advertising an exhibition I was in at ELAM:
"The Divine Right... Sole Corporation (Art by Appropriation)", 2023. Lime wash on (discarded) polyester. Painting of Girolamo Della Robbia's effigy of Catherine de Medici (that she hated, that is held at the Louvre while the one she chose rests above her body at Saint-Denis). There was recently a show made about her with Samantha Morton, making her some kind of "girl boss" (she was kind of a tyrant, which I suppose is impressive for a woman in the 16th century). Strange these unquestionable figureheads of feminist oligarchy. Also featured are Taylor Swift and Julia Gutman, who recently won the Archibald (daughter of a *millionaire former Westfield COO). I have always been pretty grossed out by that "you be the prince and I'll be the princess" song, never been a fan of feudalism, techno or classic. I am fascinated by "self-made" figures while the world becomes increasingly unequal. The Archibald seems to generally be decided by the best way to drum up controversy, but this year was quiet. I am sure the Gutman family are very nice people and probably generous patrons, but there is something quite weird about this feedback loop where the art is delivered from the top down. In the midst of a housing crisis where so many are becoming homeless it is hard to imagine starting out as an artist as someone that does not have family support.
This post received 37 likes at the time (consistent with my posts as I am not widely followed) and was the subject of no controversy that I am aware of. On Friday the 15th of December, 2023, ahead of the fundraiser auction, going live at 2pm on the 16th, for a local artist run initiative (what was Knulp) I re-posted a detail of the work (chosen as a sneak-peak for the initial advertising for the fundraiser by the gallery) to Instagram along with this caption:
I have a work in the last @knulpknulpknulp fundraiser (for a new space) that goes live tomorrow Saturday 16 at 2pm. This is a sneak peak of the painting, which features *millionaire heiress Julia Gutman, winner of Australia's most remunerative art prize, the Archibald, recipient of publicly funded ARTSPACE studio, and apparent authority on legendary sculptor Louise Bourgeois (at least that must be why she is speaking about her work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales alongside another artist/partner-of-a-celebrity-chef). While Gutman's meteoric, and unprecedented, rise on the Sydney art scene seems quite shameless to many, it is basically a natural conclusion to the deadening professionalism that has reduced art to a banal cultural output. Unfortunately, the intellectual laziness, lack of skill, and failure to understand context, that we have come to expect of contemporary art has made art and artists seem basically replaceable, to where *Millionaires/Billionaires can now also monopolise cultural output. Gutman's work is undoubtedly mind-numbingly mediocre, but hardly more so than what we have come to accept of institutional art, designed to fit the brief of a craven and wealth-obsessed curator class whose concern is to perpetuate state and billionaire class propaganda, even as the current order make inevitable climate collapse, famine and war. In these conditions independent spaces are more vital than ever to hold onto something that is all-but-lost. This is not to say that art can do anything or should be called upon to fix entrenched structural issues, or "raise awareness"; rather to raise awareness of art as just another casualty of a joyless world order. Something that used to be part of an examined life, that even now makes life richer. If art can do anything it can restore the will to fight against corruption. Because it is obvious that we are all the poorer for pandering to those who control the wealth.
The next day (Saturday) some strangers commented on the post in quick succession, almost suggesting that they were together and had not found the post via my rather pitiful scope on Instagram (I blocked them and will not repeat what was written as one comment in particular was quite inflammatory). On Sunday morning I woke up, read (highly successful artist, academic and ARTSPACE board member) Mikala Dwyer’s comment on my post:
“Sorry Zoe but I find your post really sad, with hatred and division so rife in the world I feel this just adds more. Singling out and slurring another artist in a small community where we are privileged with many freedoms just seems cruel and unnecessary. Truth to power yes but this isn’t . Im sure you don’t intend it this way but thats how it reads to many I know who are hurt by this. Happy to discuss off this platform , with bests mikala”.
I threw up and then replied:
“@mikaladwyer I am not singling out an artist but a culture that is bereft of critique. The freedoms that we are privileged to enjoy are tenuous in a world in which growing inequality means that fewer and fewer people can afford to be artists, exhausted by precarious work, trying to afford rent (let alone studio rent). I respect you Mikayla, but your response is patronising and out-of-touch.”
And went back to sleep until 2:30pm, (missing the rally against the genocide in Palestine). Apparently robust debate around what constitutes good art is lacking to the extent that one person’s opinion made public can be likened to hideous acts of violence currently being perpetrated around the world. Artist and AGNSW board of Trustees member (the body responsible for judging the Archibald) Tony Albert also commented on how he would be “mortified” if someone had said that about his work, which seemed an extraordinary statement from a public figure who has received significant public funding (such as a $500,000 public artwork commemorating indigenous Australian servicemen) (nearby the Hyde Park War Memorial which was recently “upgraded” at a cost of $40 million). These people think that coming down hard on someone with no job, no representation and limited institutional support, (likely successfully threatening their career as both artist and casual academic) is a proportionate response to any negative opinion on the work of artists of their calibre being voiced. It seems as though “niceness” has become a much more important measure of virtue than accountability, i.e., actual demonstrable virtue.
Dwyer has held highly lucrative positions at renowned Australian public universities since 1991. In university art schools one learns to justify what one does by attaching it to an ‘art movement’ of the past and/or tepid readings of philosophy or theory as it best justifies one’s practise. I only recently read in her bio that Dwyer’s work hearkens (the Italian art movement of the 1960s and ‘70s) “Arte Povera”, which was not something I had associated with her work. Materially Dwyer’s sculptures are consistent with the movement, however they have more of a contemporaneity in also evoking grunge, the kind of “junk sculpture” that has come back into vogue (with artist Jesse Darling recently winning the Turner Prize). Having been incredibly fortunate to have been awarded a grant to go to Italy, it was only recently that I first viewed many treasures of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, still staged in the incredible palaces that they were made for, commissioned by unfathomably wealthy benefactors (such as the Medici). The importance and power of Arte Povera became all the more apparent in context: artists making works out of quotidian materials in order to prove that art could be democratic, that with the application of ingenuity, what would otherwise be thought of as rubbish could be made to be precious. The intention is nothing less than the transformation of waste as a critique of power structures that had up to then been embedded into the financing of art, to reclaim those works from those that commissioned it, to free expression from the constraints of patronage. (Give me Philippa Hagon or Luke Sands any day).
Zoë Marni Robertson, "Pure Colonial Backwaters/Academic Art (Don't Cross Daddy)", 2023. Acrylic on (discarded drawing) board.
BE ALL MY SINS REMEMBER’D
In response to the palpable backlash a friend reflected that perhaps what is different this time is my proximity to the subject (whom I have never met, as I have oddly never run into her at any of the hundreds of openings I have attended in this city). I replied that there was no backlash against what I painted and wrote about the aforementioned Simon Denny, who is one of the most prominent artists to come out of the Antipodes. In the painting "Pure Colonial Backwaters/Academic Art (Don't Cross Daddy)" and accompanying ekphrasis “On Academic Art” I questioned Denny’s decision to remain neutral towards his subjects, such as Tech Billionaire (and major donor to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for President) Peter Thiel. And so, I don’t know if Denny is talking to me anymore (I would be sad if he wasn’t)(he did say he was flattered and compliment me on my “mark-making” -before the title was apparent) but no one suggested that I should not be allowed to be critical of his work. I debuted “The Divine Right…” alongside “On Academic Art” in an exhibition at ELAM, an art school in Auckland, New Zealand (Denny’s alma mater). “Pure Colonial Backwaters…”/”On Academic Art” also features a well-loved work in the collection of the AGNSW the “Sons of Clovis II”, and mentions the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes essentially as throw-backs to the art of the 19th century that are embarrassing as the most talked about and financially well-rewarded prizes in the country (the Archibald is worth $100,000 before tax). The Archibald’s bland parochial nationalism, choosing a figure that best represents an enforced “Australian” identity is widely derided by the “contemporary” art community, and rightly so. After all, no one is any longer obliged to make work expressly for patrons, or pander to the powerful (lol). And no one is painting portraits of the wealthy and influential (lol).
When I started out as an artist it was already difficult to express any critical opinion of another artist’s work, but it has now become impossible to do while retaining any kind of relationship with the mainstream. My previous work may not have caused any real controversy, but the uneasiness caused by the critiques has certainly limited my scope (I do not have gallery representation and have only ever “sold” works in charity auctions for Artist Run Spaces and good causes). “Art” as it stands, is, after all, a popularity contest, made to be immediately understood and liked by the greater majority of people, deliberately inoffensive, which is in large part, why it is so terrible. For years the art world has been dumbing-down content for an audience they perceive to be less discerning and far more ignorant than they are (I find it hard to imagine such an audience). When the general public leave galleries underwhelmed their opinions (often completely in line with my own) are dismissed, because they don’t “get it”: they are not insiders. The level of arrogance is quite staggering.
THE SPURNS THAT PATIENT MERIT OF THE UNWORTHY TAKES
Every year there are hundreds of entrants to the Archibald from all kinds of people who see it as a kind of lottery, as opposed to something deeply embedded in the politics of the local art scene (my brother had a friend growing up whose mother used to enter it every year and did exactly nothing else as an artist). It seems sad for these people that one of these mythical great works of art, painstakingly laboured over in a garret room, is unlikely to break through for sheer immediate beauty; there can be no art without context, it is important to be actively engaged in the environment one lives in. Art is an exchange. That does not mean that the way that art is currently ‘judged’ and distributed is anything short of corrupt. In Sydney, institutional curators are basically unknown to the wider art community, few can ever be seen at commercial galleries, let alone Artist Run Initiatives, which given their publicly-funded roles as experts in Australian art, is tantamount to defrauding the taxpayer. In terms of the Archibald, due to the volume of high entrants, the information on each painting that the judges view is the name of the artist, the subject, the name of the painting and the gallery representing the artist. Gutman is represented by Sullivan and Strumpf (and judging by their post upon her win, was represented by them in advance of the Archibald). Albert is also represented by Sullivan and Strumpf. Even were institutional curators actively engaged in the community, there are no curators on the AGNSW board of Trustees; aside from Albert, the only other member whose expertise comes from within the arts is (artist) Caroline Rothwell (represented by Roslyn Oxley9). Though, one may well argue that Anita Belgiorno-Nettis (who also sits on the Guggenheim foundation in Venice, as well as the Sydney Theatre Company) must surely be afforded some acknowledgement. Andrew Cameron sits on both the board of Trustees and the ARTSPACE board, and formerly was director of the Biennale of Sydney (there is a video of him speaking about its importance on the Transfield Holdings website).[4] The other seven members hail from the business community, including director David Gonski (listed on the AGNSW website as: chancellor of the University of New South Wales and chairman of the UNSW Foundation Ltd., president of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Trust, non-executive chairman of Barrenjoey Capital Partners Group Holdings Pty Limited, chairman of Sydney Airport and chairman of Levande Living, member of the Board of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, a non-executive member of LeapFrog Investment’s Global Leadership Council, a patron of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation and Raise Foundation, founding panel member of Adara Partners, previously chairman of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, chair of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools for the Commonwealth Government of Australia, he was also a member of the Takeovers Panel, the ASIC External Advisory Panel and director of Singapore Airlines Limited, the Westfield Group and Singapore Telecommunications Limited, chairman of Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd, the Australian Securities Exchange Ltd, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Guardians of the Future Fund, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Board of Trustees of Sydney Grammar School and Investec Bank (Australia) Ltd.). I have never heard of artists sitting on the board of major corporations without expertise in the field, but it is accepted that buying art makes one an expert. This effectively means that for a relatively meagre donation, collectors are given an incredible amount of power to increase the value of their investments through inclusion in prizes and State-sponsored collections: blatant insider trading. The threshold for special mention of extraordinary donations towards the recent expansion of the AGNSW, for example is listed on the website as gifts over $5 million AUD ($88 million was privately funded and $244 million came from the State Government, though the taxpayer does not seem to be represented in any of the decision making). The individuals mentioned are the Ainsworth family; The Lowy family, including former Board presidents Sir Frank Lowy AC and Steven Lowy AM (of the Westfield group); Kerr Neilson; Mark Nelson, Board vice-president and chair of the campaign committee, with his wife Louise Nelson; and Gretel Packer, AGNSW Trustee and campaign committee member.
Natalie Thomas “Good Weekend”, 2023. Acrylic on 250gsm paper. (Lifted from the Darren Knight.) Lest we forget that Ben Quilty once posed on the cover of “Good Weekend” magazine wearing a barbed-wire ‘crown of thorns’.
In 2011, artist Richard Bell famously judged the Sulman prize by tossing a coin, scandalising many (including the winner), explaining it in an interview that is a masterpiece of irony (“More than 20 of the artworks he selected contained animals. Asked why, he said: ''I like animals. I was tempted to put in all animals. I was going to make that the criteria but I had to choose some of my friends.'') [5] (Giving fitting weight to judging artists like sportspeople.) This was after Bell himself won the Telstra National Aboriginal Arts Award in August 2003, with a work titled Scienta E Metaphysica (Bell's Theorum), or "Aboriginal Art Its a White Thing".[6] These prizes would almost seem to court controversy in order to stay in the public eye. In 2017 the Archibald was won by Mitch Cairns in a decision called by veteran painter, John Olsen: “the worst I’ve ever seen”. Olsen also said of the work that “"It's entirely surface, the drawing is just not there, and the structure, which is a summation of what makes a thing good, isn't there”.[7] As far as I am aware there was no retaliation against Olsen, but then Olsen is actually powerful in the artworld. Of course, in 2013 when an exhibition of Australian art was staged at the Royal Academy in London, critic, Waldemar Januszczak said that Olsen’s contribution, “Sydney Sun”: “successfully evokes the sensation of standing under a cascade of diarrhoea.”[8] Nonetheless, there is increasingly less critical feedback within the arts. Where artists once belonged to communities of peers that held room for healthy antagonisms and debates, today any personal distaste is treated as outright betrayal. Instead, the formula for fame (and fortune) within the arts is to exhibit alongside artists featured in major collections, ultimately having little to do with merit and everything to do with money. Gutman, for example, is also currently is also featured in an exhibition at Ngununggula gallery (set up by our lord and saviour, Ben Quilty) and featuring the works of other feted artists (local and international, living and dead): Billy Bain, Del Kathryn Barton, David Beal, Adam Cullen, Aleks Danko, Max Dupain, Marc Etherington, Todd Fuller, David Grigg, Louise Hearman, Nadia Hernández, Jeff Koons, Guido Maestri, Noel Mckenna, Hal Missingham, Lewis Morley, Jason Phu, Robert Walker, William Wegman and Madeleine Pfull. I like to think Del Kathryn Barton and Quilty as the ‘mom and pop’ of the Australian art scene, where Barton makes pretty, girly work and Quilty pictures of cars and traumatised returned servicemen (not their victims), paralleling the regressive gender politic of a nation. Barton is Australia’s highest-selling female artist of all time, featuring in the collections of so many wealthy and powerful people that any reckoning over the blatant cultural appropriation in her work is basically shut down. There are only two mentions of it that I can find, one in the blog “Natty Solo” blog by Natalie Thomas, which references Barton’s 2007 Archibald entry[9] (featured in the exhibition): “Vasili Kaliman and contained familiar together within the Dreaming”. This is (verbatim) from the AGNSW website entry on the work:
“For Kaliman, she chose the owl, ‘poised as if custodian of more hidden aspects of the psyche’. The stylised decorative background relates to Kaliman’s interest in Aboriginal art. ‘He deals in it, collects it, and regularly visits Aboriginal communities,’ says Barton. ‘Aboriginal cultures speak about a connectedness to place. It’s harder for Australians per se to find a language system that speaks about a spiritual connection with the land.’ This portrait is an expression of that connection.”[10]
In 2014 Bell also accused Barton of appropriating indigenous designs as “decoration and fluff” in a work featured in the Adelaide Biennale. The response to a well-respected indigenous artist had flagrant colonial undertones. As stated by Bell: (then director of the Art Gallery of South Australia and current director of the National Gallery in Canberra) “Nick Mitzevich stepped in and shut the thing down. This exhibition is supposed to be a place where people can have discussions you can’t have elsewhere. And this being a Biennial of Australian art, about Australian issues, I would have thought Aboriginal art and Aboriginal issues would have been a significant part of it. I didn’t see much of that in the show to be honest.”[11]
I can well understand how Gutman’s work was (apparently unanimously) selected for the Archibald: work in the aesthetic of the contemporary art, the aesthetic of progressive feminist values (comprising of textiles), made by a person who I imagine is probably pleasant and whose family is supportive of the arts. She is one of the youngest ever winners, and one of only thirteen women to win the award (since it began in 1921). Karen and Michael Gutman were even kind enough to donate between $100,000 and $500,000 to AGNSW in 2023 (they are listed as “Visionary Donors in the annual report)[12], which I suppose could be because they do not really have need of the money and wish for the prize to continue to enfranchise artists for years to come. My point is that these decisions cannot fail to be influenced by proximity to wealth, which institutions such as these are increasingly reliant on to function.
THE INSOLENCE OF OFFICE
The last time I saw the director of ARTSPACE, Alexi Glass-Kantor, she almost immediately asked me where my studio is, aware that I had not applied for a studio at ARTSPACE. (Doubtless this was a result of her anxiety that the new studios should be highly sought after.) I replied that I was not in need of a studio as I complete my PhD mid-next year, that I didn’t need it. This attitude is out of keeping with how opportunities within the arts are managed, where the “line on the CV” has become demonstrably more important (in Sydney) than the development of work. It is an open secret that artists are essentially tapped on the shoulder to apply for the major studio programs. (I doubt if next round I will be addressed by name in the callout.) It is unlikely that anyone has imagined studios at ARTSPACE on the level of need since its inception. These new studios seem almost to be designed as luxury spaces for an artist elite (I was told by a friend that they are twice the size of her apartment). These opportunities go to the same people time after time and tend to skew much older, as it generally takes over a decade to create a name for oneself within the arts, creating artist brands that effectively monopolise the national conversation.
I have never entered the Archibald, though I have considered painting curator and poet (and the first director of ARTSPACE) Judy Annear, who resigned from her long-held senior position at AGNSW over the direction the gallery was taking/has taken. (But $50 felt a little prohibitive to enter for the satisfaction of rejection.) AGNSW director, Michael Brand, likes to refer to the recent redevelopment, “Sydney Modern” as a ”Public-Private Partnership”[13], where AGNSW in particular would appear now to be reliant on the generosity of the business community (as of April of 2023 the business case for the redevelopment had not been made public despite concerns over its continuing viability being repeatedly raised)[14]. ARTSPACE too, has recently undergone redevelopment and boasted of securing significant private funding. In an article from 2015, entitled “Michael Brand's plan for the Art Gallery of NSW is about money, not art”, former Prime Minister Paul Keating remarks that “Brand is telling us he proposes to build a large entertainment and special events complex masquerading as an art gallery”[15] and further argues that “The Art Gallery of NSW is an arts institution; it is not a function centre or an observation platform. Nor is it a retail outlet. It is an arts museum and deserves to retain the integrity of a museum.”[16] Keating also expresses a lack of surprise that the (mysterious) ‘business case’ should centre on the potential for the hosting of “revenue-generating private functions.” It seems, from Keating’s reaction, as though being attractive to private funding is a metric that is relatively new to state institutions, and it is right to question whether it is one appropriate to Institutions funded in the public interest. Keating was also not the only critic of the expansion to voice concern that without the continuing generosity of private individuals the AGNSW would not be able to continue to afford to manage its own collection. Whispers of red wine droplets appearing on plinths over weekends; and sculptures being moved out of areas by teams of installers (and then moved back again) on the occasion of a high-profile wedding, would seem to confirm these fears. Brand has built the world’s most expensive function centre (with very appropriate architecture). Almost none of the generous philanthropy that is channelled into “funding the arts” goes toward funding art, less still to the artists who make it. Institutional Artist Fees sit at about $2000, which rarely covers material costs let alone the hours of work artists put in. (One year of the ARTSPACE based NSW Fellowship of the Visual Arts, the director even bragged that the artists had sought alternative funding as their artist fees were not enough to cover materials for works they would then use to compete for a rigidly-monitored self-directed program of “education” valued at $30,000.) Thus, multimillion-dollar institutions amount to little more than more inflated Sydney real estate, massively underdelivering in terms of artistic output (and potentially collections management), while simultaneously overdelivering in terms of their being any return on basically no investment in artistic output. NSW ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) anyone?
ARTSPACE came into existence as a result of lobbying on the part of what was once a very active and effective “artists union”, which was brought to my attention in an exhibition staged between the Artist Run Initiative “Sydenham International” the “Sydney College of the Arts Gallery”, dedicated to the work of (artist/filmmaker) Helen Grace. At Sydenham International Grace had all those present perform the minutes of the meeting in which it was decided to open the space that would become ARTSPACE. I was encouraged to read the part of (prominent performance artist) Mike Parr (as I was deemed the most pompous of the participants). Parr continues to be politically active and was recently dropped from Anna Schwartz Gallery for a performance highlighting the Palestinian genocide. Anna Schwarz Gallery was one of the two galleries (the other being Roslyn Oxley9) that were once responsible for almost all of the artists selected for Australian Pavillion of the Venice Biennale (over a 35 year period)[17] and Schwarz’s partner is the owner of Schwarz Media, who publish The Saturday Paper, one of the few publications to have a robust art criticism section, as one of the few dissenting voices in the Australian political landscape (whose coverage in support of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament was exemplary). Its unwavering, blind support of Israel has done little for the cause but to sully the names of the many excellent journalists it employs. Nothing is clear except that in the Australian art landscape, nepotism is the rule rather than the exception and that this tenuous situation puts all artists in danger. The stagnation in the arts is borne of self-censorship that was evidently proportionate to the outcome of dissent. However, subtle operators such as Grace provide these moments of hope, sharing with a new generation previous means of redistributing artworld power.
Of course, the international art world has been rocked by the events in Palestine. In Germany, Jewish artist Candice Breitz (along with numerous others) has had an institutional exhibition withdrawn over comments denouncing the violence being perpetrated by Israel.[18] The editor of ARTFORUM, a New York based publication, was dismissed for publishing a signed letter against the genocide.[19] In Sydney, the atmosphere of silence is palpable. Local luminary, Sebastian Goldspink chimed in with an Instagram post (since removed), asserting that the divisiveness is down to those who would like artists who have traded off their “politicism” (regarding the Ukraine war and Indigenous Voice to Parliament, for example) to denounce the murder of innocents.[20] In it he wrote that he “prays for a two-state solution”. (I am hardly qualified to offer solutions on this issue but find the argument of Anthony Loewenstein in ‘Two-state solution won’t deliver peace for Israel/Palestine. But this might”[21] very compelling). However, I would like to propose a two-state solution for the arts, where perhaps, as Sydney’s answer to Bill Clinton, Golsdpink might act as intermediary between those artists who aspire to compete against each other for a very limited number of spaces (and basically no funding) in multimillion dollar harbourside properties; and those of us who would prefer spaces that actually pay artists and support the broader community (and do not focus merely on the building).
Yours truly with Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio “Medusa”, 1597. Oil on Canvas mounted on wood(en shield). (A self-portrait/gift that was planned for Ferdinando I de' Medici that now rests in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.)
CURTAIN CALL (After Brian Fuata)
Recently viewing the work of Caravaggio for the first time in the flesh (a tour guide lovingly referring to him as “a revolutionary”) the full weight of his rebellion became apparent, in gilded rooms with the most beautiful and extravagant marble inlay, the dark and paired back paintings made other well-executed paintings fade into the background as basically decorative. Into these rooms dedicated to impressing the power and prosperity of the church, Caravaggio introduced images of the poor and oppressed, he used sex workers as models for biblical figures, unravelling the hypocrisy of the church with such eloquence and precision as could not be denied. I have thought for a long time that as circumstances become more oppressive, we will have to look at such strategies, subversions of what was a very limited scope (for a way to make sense of the present). It is funny to find oneself at such a juncture that it feels more comfortable to be in alignment with a literal murderer than all the “nice” people of the Sydney art scene. And it seems more important than ever that we find a way to communicate with one another that we are still human and that every life is valuable.
[1] Antonio Negri, translated by Giussepina Mecchia “Contemporaneity Between Modernity and Postmodernity” in Antinomies of Art and Culture: Modernity, Postmodernity, Contemporaneity. 1st ed. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822389330.
[2] ACOSS (the Australian Council of Social Service) and UNSW Sydney “Inequality in Australia” report, 2023, https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/inequality/
[3] Paul Karp, “Stage-three tax cuts cost blowout predicted, with men and the wealthy to benefit most”, The Guardian, 16 May 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/16/stage-three-tax-cuts-cost-blowout-predicted-with-the-wealthy-and-men-to-benefit-most
[4] https://www.transfield.com.au/THfirst60years/23-sixty-years/316-m23-p-06-acameron The Belgiorno-Nettis family have long been patrons of the arts in Australia. In 2014 the Biennale of Sydney (founded by the Belgiorno-Nettis’) was rocked by ties to Transfield, which was then operating Australia’s “offshore detention centres”. The argument was made that Transfield Services, not Transfield Holdings was the company responsible.
[5] Andrew Taylor, “Confessions of an art judge: I tossed a coin to decide” Sydney Morning Herald, April 24, 2011. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/confessions-of-an-art-judge-i-tossed-a-coin-to-decide-20110423-1ds4l.html
[6] Gary Foley, “Rampaging Richard Bell Wins Telstra National Aboriginal Arts Award” http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/great/art/rbell.html
[7] The article opens “The Archibald Prize has once again sparked controversy…” Garry Maddox, “John Olsen says Archibald Prize win is 'the worst decision I've ever seen'” Sydney Morning Herald, Updated July 29, 2017 — 8.12amfirst published July 27, 2017 — 10.55am. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/john-olsen-says-archibald-prize-win-is-the-worst-decision-ive-ever-seen-20170728-gxl4ze.html
[8] “UK critic slams Australian art as 'a cascade of diarrhoea'” SBS News, 23 September 2013. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/uk-critic-slams-australian-art-as-a-cascade-of-diarrhoea/cv5k9xs18
[9] Natalie Thomas, “Unwoke Money” Natty Solo blog, November 28, 2018, https://nattysolo.com/2018/11/28/unwoke-money/
[10] https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2007/28453/
[11] https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/adelaide-festival/aboriginal-artist-richard-bell-accuses-adelaide-festival-artist-of-using-indigenous-designs-as-decoration/news-story/c288f7cedce9c01cc3c04e48f90fc9dc
[12] chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.datocms-assets.com/42890/1701735976-art_gallery_of_new_south_wales_annual_report_2022-23.pdf
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/support/campaign/about-donors/#major-and-visionary-donors
[13] Linda Morris, “Sydney Modern Project approved as critics appeased”, Sydney Morning Herald, November 21, 2018. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/sydney-modern-project-approved-as-critics-appeased-20181120-p50h6u.html
[14] Maddison Connaughton, “Too cramped? Too big? No name: Sydney’s newest art gallery weathers critique in its first months”, The Guardian, 16 April 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/apr/16/too-cramped-too-big-no-name-sydneys-newest-art-gallery-weathers-critique-in-its-first-months
[15] Paul Keating, “Michael Brand's plan for the Art Gallery of NSW is about money, not art” Opinion in Sydney Morning Herald, November 24, 2015. https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/paul-keating-michael-brands-plan-for-the-art-gallery-of-nsw-is-about-money-not-art-20151124-gl6j7x.html
[16] Ibid.
[17] Gina Fairley, “Art titans wield power over Venice Biennale selection”, ArtsHub, 26 March 2017. https://www.artshub.com.au/news/opinions-analysis/art-titans-wield-power-over-venice-biennale-selection-253427-2355722/
[18] Philip Oltermann, “‘A frenzy of judgement’: artist Candice Breitz on her German show being pulled over Gaza” The Guardian, 7 December 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/dec/07/a-frenzy-of-judgement-artist-candice-breitz-on-her-german-show-being-pulled-over-gaza
[19] “The Editor of ‘Artforum’ Has Been Fired Over the Publication of a Pro-Palestine Open Letter” Artnet News October 27 2023 https://news.artnet.com/art-world-archives/artforum-editor-fired-over-pro-palestine-open-letter-2385950
[20] With a confusing reference to a Guercino painting, “Abraham Casting out Hagar and Ishmael”, 1657 which is presumably because Abraham is pointing in the painting, thereby appearing judgmental (like Goldspink’s critics) and not because of who he is choosing to expel: his illegitimate son, who in the Bible is the founder of Islam. (This one hurt my theological brain.) (It seems important to cultivate an understanding of what one is looking at, of art history.) I see you that painting and raise you Tintoretto’s “The Massacre of the Innocents”, 1587, as infanticide actually used to be seen as utterly horrific.
[21] This was published in noted lefty publications The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Anthony Loewenstein “Two-state solution won’t deliver peace for Israel/Palestine. But this might”, Opinion in The Sydney Morning Herald, November 18, 2023. https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/two-state-solution-won-t-deliver-peace-for-israel-palestine-but-this-might-20231117-p5ekse.html