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Impresario: Paul Taylor Art & Text I Popism

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Impresario: Paul Taylor Art & Text I Popism MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART MEDIAIMPRESARIO: KIT PAUL TAYLOR I ART & TEXT I POPISM IMPRESARIO: PAUL TAYLOR ART & TEXT I POPISM A PUBLIC SYMPOSIUM SATURDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2012 Presented by Monash University Museum of Art in association with the School of English, Communications and Performance Studies, Monash University Ground Floor, Building F www.monash.edu.au/muma Robert Rooney, Paul Taylor 1984 Monash University, Caulfi eld Campus Telephone +61 3 9905 4217 from the series Robert Rooney – 900 Dandenong Road [email protected] Portrait Photographs 1978 – 1987 Caulfi eld East VIC 3145 Australia Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm Image courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART IMPRESARIO: PAUL TAYLOR I ART & TEXT I POPISM Adrian Martin: INTRODUCTION “Paul Taylor revolutionised the way we write, perform, publish and live Impresario: Paul Taylor I Art & Text I POPISM is a public symposium which art criticism in Australia. Fusing the most dynamic, new intellectual celebrates and refl ects upon the life and achievements of the eminent editor, ideas with the most stylish forms of subcultural rebellion, he dragged art critic and curator Paul Taylor (1957-1992). It explores Taylor’s legacy and the 1970s into the 1980s, and blazed a trail for the young critics and example by investigating his impact and enduring infl uence on Australian cultural entrepreneurs of today, who are still looking back to and learn- visual culture through the many aspects of his work: as a publisher, curator ing from his fl amboyant, cheeky, informed, risk-taking approach.” and critic, an advocate of post-structuralist theory, and a ground-breaking Janine Burke: impresario who forged signifi cant national and international networks of “Paul Taylor changed Australian visual culture. In the early 1980s, with artists, critics, gallerists and curators. charm, wit and intellectual brio, Paul gathered around him, in the art Paul Taylor was the founding editor of the internationally renowned journal world and at his memorable parties, a diverse and intense cultural Art & Text. He was also an infl uential critic and curator who had a dynamic scene. Artists and writers, young and older, some formerly at logger- impact on the discourse of the visual arts. heads, suddenly found a forum – and friendship – in the networks that Paul fostered. Taylor was a true impresario – stylish and imperious as The symposium marks 30 years since the landmark exhibition POPISM, Diaghilev, canny and cool as Warhol. He was a writer, editor and cura- which Taylor curated for the National Gallery of Victoria, and twenty years tor of exceptional fl air and generosity. Taylor was unabashedly ambi- since his untimely death. The title of the symposium is derived from tious for Australian art and worked energetically to locate it in a global Impresario: Malcolm McLaren and the British New Wave, which Taylor context. His vision of Australian culture as unique, vigorous and utterly curated for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, in 1988. relevant remains inspiring.” Convenors: Janine Burke and Adrian Martin Max Delany: Janine Burke, Monash Research Fellow, School of English, Communications “Paul Taylor was a charismatic, dynamic, polemical and ground- and Performance Studies; breaking fi gure, whose work has important legacies and relevance to Adrian Martin, Associate Professor, Film and Television Studies, School of subsequent generations of artists and critics. The history of exhibitions, English, Communications and Performance Studies publications and curatorial practice in Australia is a fl edgling area of academic and professional focus. It is timely to consider Paul’s work as a pioneering fi gure in the recent history of critical and curatorial practice. Monash University Publishing will publish the proceedings as a major book in 2013–14.” Ground Floor, Building F www.monash.edu.au/muma Janine Burke Monash University, Caulfi eld Campus Telephone +61 3 9905 4217 At Heide: Paul Taylor 1982 900 Dandenong Road [email protected] Monash University Collection Caulfi eld East VIC 3145 Australia Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm MONASH UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART IMPRESARIO: PAUL TAYLOR I ART & TEXT I POPISM SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS PAUL TAYLOR: ABRIDGED BIOGRAPHY The symposium involves leading academics, museum direc- Paul Taylor (1957-92) founded the infl uential journal Art & Text in 1981, and he remained its editor and publisher until 1986. He also edited Anything tors and curators, artists and critics, and will involve close Goes: Art in Australia 1970-1980 (1984), Juan Davila: Hysterical Tears colleagues of Paul, as well as a younger generation of edi- (1985), and Post-Pop Art (MIT Press, 1989). tors, critics and publishers. Confi rmed participants include: Taylor curated the landmark exhibitions POPISM (National Gallery of Victoria, 1982) and Impresario: Malcolm McLaren and the British New Wave (New Janine Burke, art historian, author and Monash Research Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1988), among others. He was the Fellow Offi cial Australian Representative at the 1986 Venice Biennale. Adrian Martin, critic, editor and Associate Professor, In 1984, he moved from Melbourne to New York where he regularly contrib- Film and Television Studies, Monash University uted interviews and criticism to Connoisseur, Flash Art, Interview, The New Patrick McCaughey York Times, Parkett, Vanity Fair, and The Village Voice, among others. His , emeritus professor, Monash University; interviewees and subjects included art-world luminaries – Cindy Sherman, former Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, Wadsworth Anselm Kiefer, Jasper Johns, Jenny Holzer, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Map- Athenaeum, and Yale Centre for British Art plethorpe, Yoko Ono and Rover Thomas. Famously, he conducted the last Dr Rex Butler, Associate Professor, School of English, Media interview with Andy Warhol. Studies and Art History, The University of Queensland Paul Taylor returned to Melbourne in 1992, suffering from an AIDS-related illness, and died in July of that year. After Andy: SoHo in the Eighties, a col- Dr Edward Colless, Head, Visual Art History and Theory, lection of Taylor’s major New York articles, was published by Schwartz City, Victorian College of the Arts Melbourne in 1997. Judy Annear, Senior Curator Photographs, Art Gallery of New South Wales SYMPOSIUM DATES Juan Davila, artist Saturday 1 September 2012 Lyndal Jones, artist and Professor of Contemporary Art, 9.00am–5.30pm RMIT University Lecture theatre G1.04, Monash University, Caulfi eld campus Helen Hughes & Nick Croggon, Co-editors, Discipline followed by a reception at MUMA Lauren Bliss, Centre for Ideas, Victorian College of the Arts Registration is essential, fee $10 includes lunch and refreshments Rosemary Forde, Board member, un Projects and Register online: www.monash.edu.au/muma/events/2012/taylor.html Communications and Publications Coordinator, Monash University Museum of Art CONTACT & ENQUIRIES Kelly Fliedner , Program Coordinator, West Space Russell Walsh Philip Brophy, artist and fi lm maker Symposium Co-ordinator & Research Assistant [email protected] Rosemary Forde Communications & Publications Coordinator, MUMA [email protected] T: +61 3 99054360 Ground Floor, Building F www.monash.edu.au/muma Art & Text, selected issues 1981–84 Monash University, Caulfi eld Campus Telephone +61 3 9905 4217 Published and edited by Paul Taylor 900 Dandenong Road [email protected] Caulfi eld East VIC 3145 Australia Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm.
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