Lauraine Diggins Fine

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Lauraine Diggins Fine 5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101 L A U R A I N E · D I G G I N S · F I N E · A R T Memorial Service to celebrate the life of Lauraine Diggins OAM Monday 17th June 2019, The Pavilion, Arts Centre Melbourne TRIBUTES MC: Ruth Lovell, manager, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art Acknowledgement of Country: Professor Margo Neale, Senior Curator and Principal Indigenous Advisor, National Museum of Australia Speakers: Ms Lin Oke, O.T. Group Dr Daniel Thomas, Emeritus Director Art Gallery of South Australia Ms Antonia Syme, Director, Australian Tapestry Workshop Mr Adrian Newstead, Founding Director, Cooee Art Mr Steve Dimopoulos MP, Member for Oakleigh Mr Gerard Vaughan, former Director National Gallery of Australia Ms Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, former Director National Library of Australia (delivered by Nerida Blanche, daughter of Lauraine Diggins) Mr Michael Blanche, husband of Lauraine Diggins Tribute to Lauraine Diggins by Ms Lin Oke Reflections Occupational Therapy Back in 1965, 42 of us 17 and 18 year olds, from around Victoria started our journey into the Occupational therapy profession. Strong bonds of friendship developed amongst us. Lauraine stood out – vivacious, full of fun, elegant, tall – with those long legs that resulted in some of us calling her Lolly Legs. Following Lauraine’s passing we shared our memories and smiled on our reflections. I’m pleased to share some of these reflections with you today. One of our group summed up the closeness of Course 18 in this way: “In 1965 the small campus of the OT School at 33 Lansell Road provided an intimate atmosphere favourable for the development of strong bonds. The lunchtime conversations were sometimes philosophical and at other times simply sharing personal experiences. Many of these women made remarkable achievements in the OT profession, others, who had gained their confidence and maturity via the course, went on to new endeavours. The bond has remained strong for 50 years and the intimacies formed many years ago remained constant. Over quarterly lunches at Kooyong disclosures were respected and empathy and support given when difficult life events intervened. Lauraine was a respected member of the group and, in the last few years, her final journey was shared with her OT colleagues. We will miss her.” Lauraine’s skiing exploits were recalled: “I have my strongest memories of our sophisticated friend Lauraine in the Falls Creek ski lodges and on the slopes. She seemed so at home and in charge in those exotic places - I was in awe. While she remained composed and modelled for us, we novices fell about on the slopes, swilled alcohol in a new and unseemly attempt to keep up and fell for ski instructors too quickly!” Another added: “… we all had so much fun … the après skiing was almost as memorable as the skiing itself …a certain awesome (much loved by us) waitress - dancing on tables comes to mind.” And another: “I remember our time working for a few weeks at Diana Lodge Falls Creek in the September holidays of 2nd year. (I think we might have granted ourselves an extra week’s holiday!!). As soon as the guests were fed and their rooms tidied, we were free to ski for the day. Needless to say, we did everything in our power to encourage the guests to eat then leave their rooms as quickly as possible - definitely no lingering over coffee!” Others remembered aspects of our student days, with some mirth: “ … trips with Lauraine in her bright green, verging on fluorescent, Cortina. On her approach to a clear intersection she would ‘throw’ the car into neutral, coast through with a languid expression, before double declutching into appropriate gear for a rapid lift off. Meanwhile I was still holding my breath.” Whilst another remembered: “… piling into Lauraine’s and other cars escaping from Lansell Road at lunch times to watch practices for Moomba water skiing and Bird Man events on the Yarra - great fun and then - always the tension of arriving back late for lectures, especially Miss McArthur-Campbell’s.” ‘Swot Vac’ was remembered by one – as working with Lauraine at Peter Rowland’s at Sorrento - instead of hitting the books. Another reflection was: “I got to know Lauraine a little more as we continued to meet at our regular OT lunches and she spoke of the challenges she was confronting. What stood out was that she stated honestly and bravely how things were for her and she continued to maintain a sense of humour. I really valued attending several openings of exhibitions at her gallery.” And … “Lauraine certainly was an inspiration - we totally admired her courage and spirit and felt deeply for her family and friends for their loss.” One of our group said: “Since having a wonderful conversation with Lauraine at our last OT lunch, I have spent a lot of time reminiscing about special times we spent together back in the late sixties, as well as being reminded what a beautiful, kind, strong, brave, talented and fun loving woman Lauraine was.” How lucky we all are to have had Lauraine in our lives. Lauraine was to me a beautiful role model. When visiting Lauraine just before she passed, Michael asked why she was called ‘Lolly Legs’, as her grandkids referred to her as ‘Lol’. To me it was pretty obvious - in those muddy footy shorts way back in our student days to even just then, when she had swung those legs from under the covers and sat up - such strong, slender legs! What a role model Lauraine was, in facing the last lap in life’s journey. And a final reflection from one of our group: “When thinking of Lauraine the word ‘charisma’ comes to mind. Indeed she had charm, individuality, strength of character and a presence that was outstanding, whether on the snow fields or participating in student events. Recently I asked her if I could be praying for peace in her heart and healing that could only come from our faith. Lauraine turned to me with a reverence and warmth in her smile and replied “Yes, please do.” It was a great comfort to hear that towards the end of her life she was peaceful, beautiful and at rest.” In concluding, let me read our Course 18 Tribute to Lauraine which appeared in The Age: We will miss Lauraine, our dynamic and much loved colleague. Your talent and forthrightness were evident from Day One. We will miss you at our quarterly reunions. We feel proud of your diverse and honourable achievements in the art world - and warmed that you also remained one of us. Our thoughts are with Michael, Nerida and family. Tribute to Lauraine Diggins by Dr Daniel Thomas AM Emeritus Director, Art Gallery of South Australia SWEET LAURAINE Last week, in Sydney, at a Memorial event for art-museum director Edmund Capon, I collected views about Lauraine. “Eccentric.” “Sociable.” “Optimistic.” “Enthusiastic.” “Loved art history and art museums.” “We always came away from a visit with new information about Australian art.” My view: Not eccentric, just ardent about art. And it’s also a view of Melbourne from elsewhere, in my case from Tasmania, which is where I have been retired, for over 20 years, from art museums in Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide. At the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Max Carter Collection of Australian colonial art, worth many millions, was developed by our greatest donor, and major works came from Lauraine. I see that Lauraine Diggins Fine Art was established in 1974, when I was chief curator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and had just published a book Outlines of Australian Art: The Joseph Brown Collection. In Sydney there was no art dealer-cum-collector like Melbourne’s Joseph Brown who loved publishing high-quality exhibition catalogues filled with information about provenance and more, an example that Lauraine followed. In Sydney there were no gallerists who took convivial lunches seriously, like Georges Mora, Marianne Baillieu — and Lauraine Diggins. I was in and out of Melbourne a lot, always visited the interesting exhibitions at Malakoff Street, but moved too fast for lunches. Lauraine, and Michael, at times looked beyond our specialisations in Australian art. Very early, I was electrified to see they had bought, from Hans Heysen’s estate auction, a magnificent drawing, The Washerwomen by the great French artist Jean-François Millet. Lauraine knew of my Tasmanian origins, and would sometimes ask me about the Tasmanian landscape subjects in colonial paintings, for example by Melbourne visitors Arthur Boyd senior and Tom Roberts as well as by John Glover and W.C. Piguenit. On retirement from Adelaide, waiting for my tailor-made dream house to be built above a beach in northern Tasmania, Maudie Palmer organised a six-month loan house for me in Melbourne. That was when I enjoyed relaxed lunches with Lauraine. Around the same time, I wrote a catalogue essay for an Emily Kame Kngwarreye exhibition, and in 2002 an essay “Creating Australia” for Lauraine’s exhibition of Australian Modern Art and Contemporary Aboriginal Art at the Fondazione Mudima in Milan, a specially adventurous project. I don’t know whether she ever saw my 2005 book review, of an academic study of the Australian art world and art market, in which I sneered at the author’s misspelling of Lauraine’s name. Art dealers usually double as gallerists for living artists. One of Lauraine’s is Michael McWilliams, whose eight exhibitions at Diggins Fine Art since 1995 have been eccentric, humorous and serious; they titled one of his shows after a Sesame Street soft toy’s slogan, “It’s not easy being green”.
Recommended publications
  • Mr R Peters 1934 - 2020, Springvale Station, Turkey Creek, WA
    Mr R Peters 1934 - 2020, Springvale Station, Turkey Creek, WA BIOGRAPHY: Rusty Peters is a senior Gija man of Juwurru skin. His bush name Dirjji refers to dingo pups looking out of a hole at the sunrise. He was born under a Warlagarri or Supplejack tree on Springvale Station south west of Turkey Creek the same day as his jimarri or age mate Charlie McAdam. His spirit came from a crocodile his father had killed when his mother became pregnant. He grew up on Springvale learning traditional law and working as a stockman and at other things such as welding fences and stock yards. When his father was killed in a tragic riding accident at Roses Yard, the family moved to Mabel Downs where he became renowned as a horse breaker. He lived for some time at Nine Mile reserve at Wyndham after the introduction of award wages forced people off stations but then moved to Turkey Creek where with other senior Gija artists such as Hector Jandany and George Mung-Mung he helped start the school. In 1989 he moved to Kununurra where he was employed at Waringarri Aboriginal Arts as an assistant. He was a long time friend of Rover Thomas, caring for him on most of the trips he made in the later part of his life. He made prints and did some painting while working for Waringarri Arts. He moved to Crocodile Hole when Freddie Timms based the Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts group there in 1997 and began to paint on large canvases. His detailed knowledge of the land and stories from Springvale and neighbouring Moolabulla stations is reflected in distinctive paintings in traditional red and yellow ochres and black charcoal.
    [Show full text]
  • Ngarranggarni Gija Two-Way Learning and the University of Melbourne Gabriel Nodea and Robyn Sloggett
    ngarranggarni Gija Two-Way Learning and the University of Melbourne Gabriel Nodea and Robyn Sloggett Introduction knowledge and are responsible for many of the cattle stations, in the Warmun is a small township owned keeping it strong, and for teaching it early 1970s Warmun became a refugee and managed by Gija people in the to future generations. This knowledge camp. People were physically removed east Kimberley region of Western cannot be passed on without the from their country, so that simple acts Australia. Situated between Kununurra permission of the Old People. like finding food and water, as well as and Hall’s Creek, Warmun is also On one level, this article is about complex activities like ceremony and located on the ancient Wirnan an educational partnership between caring for country, could no longer be (sharing and trading) exchange the Grimwade Centre for Cultural carried out. This made Gija people route that stretched inland from the Materials Conservation at the feel disempowered and sad. They coastline around Derby to the west, to University of Melbourne and the felt as if they had been pushed aside that around Wadeye to the north-east. Warmun Art Centre, but it is also from the country they had looked Trade and shared knowledge have about the contemporary influence after through all time, and that they always been an important part of the of Ngarranggarni, which has become could no longer make decisions about social, cultural and spiritual fabric of an important part of the education caring for country. It brought down Gija life, and it was along this route programs at the Grimwade Centre, their spirits and made them feel that Gija people—working through and is now extending beyond like they were losing their strength.
    [Show full text]
  • Sunday 24 March, 2013 at 2Pm Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Australia Tional in Fi Le Only - Over Art Fi Le
    Sunday 24 March, 2013 at 2pm Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Australia tional in fi le only - over art fi le 5 Bonhams The Laverty Collection 6 7 Bonhams The Laverty Collection 1 2 Bonhams Sunday 24 March, 2013 at 2pm Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Australia Bonhams Viewing Specialist Enquiries Viewing & Sale 76 Paddington Street London Mark Fraser, Chairman Day Enquiries Paddington NSW 2021 Bonhams +61 (0) 430 098 802 mob +61 (0) 2 8412 2222 +61 (0) 2 8412 2222 101 New Bond Street [email protected] +61 (0) 2 9475 4110 fax +61 (0) 2 9475 4110 fax Thursday 14 February 9am to 4.30pm [email protected] Friday 15 February 9am to 4.30pm Greer Adams, Specialist in Press Enquiries www.bonhams.com/sydney Monday 18 February 9am to 4.30pm Charge, Aboriginal Art Gabriella Coslovich Tuesday 19 February 9am to 4.30pm +61 (0) 414 873 597 mob +61 (0) 425 838 283 Sale Number 21162 [email protected] New York Online bidding will be available Catalogue cost $45 Bonhams Francesca Cavazzini, Specialist for the auction. For futher 580 Madison Avenue in Charge, Aboriginal Art information please visit: Postage Saturday 2 March 12pm to 5pm +61 (0) 416 022 822 mob www.bonhams.com Australia: $16 Sunday 3 March 12pm to 5pm [email protected] New Zealand: $43 Monday 4 March 10am to 5pm All bidders should make Asia/Middle East/USA: $53 Tuesday 5 March 10am to 5pm Tim Klingender, themselves aware of the Rest of World: $78 Wednesday 6 March 10am to 5pm Senior Consultant important information on the +61 (0) 413 202 434 mob following pages relating Illustrations Melbourne [email protected] to bidding, payment, collection fortyfive downstairs Front cover: Lot 21 (detail) and storage of any purchases.
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering Forward: Paintings of Australian Aborigines Since 1960 240 Pages, Hardback, 310 X 240 Mm, 150 Illustrations
    Paul Holberton publishing THIRD FLOOR 89 BOROUGH HIGH STREET LONDON SE1 1NL TEL 020 7407 0809 FAX 020 7407 4615 [email protected] WWW.PAUL-HOLBERTON.NET Remembering Forward Paintings of Australian Aborigines since 1960 Edited by Kasper König, Emily Evans and Falk Wolf The publication Remembering Forward accompanies the exhibition at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, 20 November 2010 to 20 March 2011, which presents the work of nine of the most prominent Australian Aboriginal artists of recent years: Paddy Bedford, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Queenie McKenzie, Dorothy Napangardi, Rover Thomas, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri and Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula. This is the first time that an art museum outside Australasia has devoted an exhibition to the works of these artists. The title Remembering Forward refers to the tension among tradition, present and future that determines the demands made of artists. On the one hand, they usually take as their subject the so-called ‘Dreamtime’ of prehistory from which myths of the earth’s and humankind’s creation have been handed down. In that regard they are deeply traditional. On the other, these artists have radically changed their medium and method of art-making over the last forty years. Inherited practices of sand- and body-painting have been transformed such that the paintings are executed in acrylic on canvas or other portable media. These changes afforded the artists entry to the global art market. Thus they have adjusted to address an outside public and keep the images free of those parts of the Dreamings that, in their own culture, are reserved for the initiated.
    [Show full text]
  • WAC-Info-Booklet-2-Spread-LR
    warmunart.com.au Warmun Art is here to celebrate and encourage the expression of Gija culture through the arts, and to support the continued development of innovative contemporary art by both established and emerging Warmun artists. We strive to facilitate this through developing and maintaining a commercially viable arts enterprise, which provides a diverse range of cultural and economic opportunities for both individuals and the community as a whole. Background Art: Jimbirla Ngarrangkarni (Spearhead Dreaming), Lena Nyadbi, 2010. Cover Art: Yunnur (Spring Creek), Patrick Mung Mung, 2010. warmunart.com.au supported by: Everything is rolling in my mind, I can’t stop painting, I like to do it and bring it out through my heart, with the stories. - Kathy Ramsey, Warmun artist and finalist for the John Fries award, 2017 Background Image: Kathy on country with one of her boards. warmunart.com.au Warmun Art Centre (WAC) is a non-profit Established in 1998, Warmun Art Centre quickly Aboriginal Corporation situated in Warmun achieved local and international recognition, Aboriginal Community (previously Turkey Creek), thanks to the leadership and guidance of off the Great Northern Highway, some 200km successful predecessors including the late artists: south of Kununurra. It is a 100% Gija-owned and Rover Thomas, Queenie McKenzie, George Mung controlled community enterprise, specialising in Mung and Paddy Jaminji. The distinctive Warmun fine aboriginal art featuring locally sourced ochre. style of art continues to inspire a new generation The income made from sales of Warmun artworks of Warmun artists who represent Gija art and is split between artists and the centre, with the culture with bold character and exciting diversity.
    [Show full text]
  • Paintings from Warmun ST PAUL St Gallery One 25 September – 23 October 2015
    Paintings from Warmun ST PAUL St Gallery One 25 September – 23 October 2015 These paintings all come from artists working in Warmun, a community of about 400 people located 200 kilometres south of Kununurra in the Kimberley region of far north Western Australia. The Warmun Art Centre there was founded by Queenie McKenzie, Madigan Thomas, Hector Jandany, Lena Nyadbi, Betty Carrington and Patrick Mung Mung, members of the contemporary painting movement that began in the mid-1970s. Warmun Art Centre is owned and governed by the Gija people, its income returned to the community. Today some 50 emerging and established Gija artists work there. The works are by Warmun artists Mabel Juli, David Cox, Lena Nyadbi, Churchill Cann, Gordon Barney, Phyllis Thomas and Shirley Purdie. In these paintings the material is the work; they are earth and mineral as well as images. While they are stylistically very different in approach, all share the ochre, charcoal and natural earth pigments that typify contemporary Aboriginal painting in the Kimberley region. Coloured by iron oxide, ochre ranges from subtle yellow to deep red-brown. Mawandu or white ochre (extensively used in Mabel Juli’s work, alongside black ochre) is distinctive to the Kimberley area. This is a naturally occurring white clay that forms deep in the ground along certain riverbeds. Mixing natural pigments with mawandu provides range of colours including lime greens, greys, and a rare pink, all of which are produced at Warmun and traded with art centres across the region. ‘I don’t paint another country, I paint my own’, says Mabel Juli.
    [Show full text]
  • View Article
    Rover Thomas leats 29, 301 and Paddy JaminJi (cat.28) initiated a renewal of painting in the Eastern Kimberley by lifting the lid on the secret histories of Australia with paintings of country drenched with the blood of Aboriginal victims of massacres; in 1990, with Trevor Nickolls, Rover Thomas was the first Aboriginal artist to appear at the Venice Biennale. Djambawa Marawili leat.81 and John Mawurndjul leats 3, 6, 71. two of the most renowned contemporary Australian artists with a string of international contemporary art appearances to their names, have revolutionised bark painting to make us feel the hum of ancestral powers in the earth itself. And that is not even to mention Albert Namatjira, who beguiled a generation but whose life ended in tragedy. The strong photographic and video component in the last part of the selection reflects the burgeoning of these media around the globe. Tracey Moffatt, one of the most internationally acclaimed contemporary Australian artists, came to prominence in the 1990s with her vibrant, quasi-narrative series of photographs [fig.71, and her film and video compilations looking at gender, popular culture, racial politics and stereotypes leat.1911. Simryn Gill, representing Australia at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, considers questions of place and history in her work leat. 1881. The displacement of objects in her photographs echoes our modern-day journeys and migrations. The Australian population, now 23 million, has more than quadrupled in size since 1918, much of that increase from immigration. Since 1945 more than Fig. 8 CHRISTIAN THOMPSON, Black 7million people have settled in the country as new Gum 1, from the series Australian immigrants, including more than 800,000 refugees.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Bibliography for Ancestral Modern: Australian
    Bibliography for Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection Prepared by Traci Timmons, SAM Librarian Resources for Adults: The Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library Books and videos are available in the Bullitt Library (Seattle Art Museum, Fifth Floor, South Building). 1. EXHIBITION CATALOGUE: Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art: Kaplan & Levi Collection. Pamela McClusky et al. Seattle: New Haven; London: Seattle Art Museum; Yale University Press, 2012. N 7401 M33 A73. 2. Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art: Collection Highlights from the National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: National Gallery of Australia, 2010. N 7401 C27 2010. 3. Aboriginal Art. Wally Caruana. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1993. DCT N 7401 C2. 4. Aboriginal Art. Howard Morphy. London: Phaidon, 1998. N 7401 M67. 5. Aboriginal Art Papers. Pamela Z. McClusky et al. Various Publishers, 2005. DCT N 7400 M33. This is a gathering of a number of articles on Australian Aboriginal art gathered by SAM Docents. 6. Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert: A Biographical Dictionary. Vivien Johnson. Roseville East, NSW: Craftsman House: Distributed by Craftsman house in association with G+B Arts, 1994.N 7401 J65. 7. Aboriginal Title and Indigenous Peoples: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Louis A. Knafla and Haijo Jan Westra. Vancouver: UBC Press, c2010. K 3248 L36 A93. 8. Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge. Howard Morphy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. DU 125 M67 A6. 9. Art + Soul: A Journey into the World of Aboriginal Art. Hetti Perkins. Carlton, Victoria: Miegunyah Press, 2010. N 7401 P37. 10. Art + Soul: A Journey into the World of Aboriginal Art (video).
    [Show full text]
  • The-Presence-Of-Greatness.Pdf
    THE PRESENCE OF GREATNESS EARLY WANJINA PAINTINGS & INDIGENOUS ART OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA TIM KLINGENDERFINE ART SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY 13, BOOTH B 102 Carriageworks September 19-22, 2013 /2 ALL WORKS IN THIS CATALOGUE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE THE ART OF THE WANJINA ANATOMY OF A WUNAMBAL WANJINA Within the rock shelters and caves of the northern and central areas of the (after Akerman field notes) Kimberley are preserved a staggering history of cultural change in the form of a complex sequence of rock art that may extend back more than 20,000 years into the Pleistocene era. Within the oldest art forms can be seen beautiful examples of naturalistically depicted fauna - fish, birds, reptiles and marsupials. It is in the earlier phases of the rock art sequence that the elegant paintings of human beings known as Gwion or Bradshaw Paintings are located. At a later phase, possibly only several thousand years old, the art form associated with Wanjinas, shape-changing anthropomorphic beings, began. The Wanjinas, their associated mythology, religious practices and rock art played a central part in the cosmology of the people of the north-central Kimberley into the 20th century and today are still major identifying and unifying cultural elements for the Wunambal, Worora and Ngarinyin peoples. The identification with Wanjinas is reflected in their inclusion as major motifs in contemporary art of the north-central Kimberley that has seen shifts from paintings executed on the walls of caves and overhangs, to paintings on sheets of bark and ultimately industrial materials, from chipboard to the finest artist canvases. Regardless of actual size the proportions of good Wanjina paintings project a sense of cyclopean grandeur – a massive, looming ruggedness from which the large, penetrating eyes quizzically regard the viewer.
    [Show full text]
  • SPIRIT in the LAND Education Resource Primary and Secondary Schools
    SPIRIT IN THE LAND 1 Education Resource PrimarySpirit in the Land Education andResource – Primary Secondary and Secondary Schools Schools A McClelland Gallery+Sculpture Park and NETS Victoria touring exhibition SPIRIT IN THE LAND Education Resource Primary and Secondary Schools 2 Spirit in the Land Education Resource – Primary and Secondary Schools CONTENTS 4 Introduction to the exhibition 5 About this Education Resource 6 Curriculum links and connections 7 Pre-visit activities 10 Learning activities: artists & their works 11 Lorraine Connelly-Northey 13 John Davis 15 Russell Drysdale 17 Rosalie Gascoigne 19 Emily Kame Kngwarreye 21 Dorothy Napangardi 23 Sidney Nolan 25 John Olsen 27 Lin Onus 29 Rover Thomas 31 Fred Williams 33 Glossary 34 List of works 39 Further references 40 Acknowledgements Spirit in the Land exhibition initiated by McClelland Gallery+Sculpture Park. A national tour managed by NETS Victoria and supported by Visions of Australia. Curatored by McClelland Gallery+Sculpture Park’s Director, Robert Lindsay and Senior Curator, Penny Teale. Education Resource written and prepared by Education Coordinator, Grace Longato. Spirit in the Land Education Resource – Primary and Secondary Schools INTRODUCTION TO THE EXHIBITION Robert Lindsay, Director and Penny Teale, Curator The landscape has been an enduring subject in the history of Australian art and vital to the on-going formation of images of a national identity. Within this tradition Spirit in the Land explores the connection between eleven Australian artists, historical and
    [Show full text]
  • Exhibiting Western Desert Aboriginal Painting in Australia's Public Galleries
    Exhibiting Western Desert Aboriginal painting in Australia’s public galleries: an institutional analysis, 1981-2002 Jim Berryman Introduction Contemporary Aboriginal art, and the Western Desert painting movement in particular, now occupies a central position in the story of Australian art history. However, despite this recognition, Western Desert painting was slow to receive widespread critical and art-historical attention in the Australian art institutional setting. Eluding standard systems of art-historical classification, Australia’s public galleries struggled to situate Aboriginal acrylic painting within the narrative formations of Australian and international art practice. This paper charts the exhibition history of the movement, commencing with Papunya’s first appearance at a contemporary art event in 1981 until the movement’s institutional commemoration some two decades later. An analysis of catalogues from key exhibitions reveals three common strategies used by curators to interpret this new visual culture. Based on art-historical and anthropological discursive formations, these interpretative frameworks are called the aesthetic, ethnographic and ownership discourses. This investigation concentrates on the activities of Australia’s public galleries.1 As the traditional guardians of artistic standards, these institutions occupy positions of authority in the Australian art world. Comparative interpretations: aesthetic, ethnographic and ownership It is beyond the scope of this paper to explain the circumstances that gave rise to the
    [Show full text]
  • IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN and ABORIGINAL ART Including Works from the Estate of Mary Macha AM Sunday 19 November 2017 Sydney
    IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN AND ABORIGINAL ART Including works from the Estate of Mary Macha AM Sunday 19 November 2017 Sydney IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN AND ABORIGINAL ART Including works from the estate of Mary Macha AM Sunday 19 November 2017 at 4pm NCJWA Hall, Sydney MELBOURNE VIEWING BIDS ENQUIRIES PRESS ENQUIRIES Como House Online bidding will be available Merryn Schriever - Director Emma Miller Como Avenue for the auction. For further Australian and International +61 (0) 401 642 535 South Yarra VIC 3141 information please visit: Art Specialist [email protected] www.bonhams.com +61 (0) 414 846 493 mob Friday 10 – Sunday [email protected] PHYSICAL CONDITION 12 November All bidders are advised to OF LOTS IN THIS AUCTION 10am to 5pm read the important information Alex Clark PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE on the following pages relating Australian and International IS NO REFERENCE IN THIS SYDNEY VIEWING to bidding, payment, collection, Art Specialist CATALOGUE TO THE PHYSICAL NCJWA Hall and storage of any purchases. +61 (0) 413 283 326 mob CONDITION OF ANY LOT. 111 Queen Street [email protected] INTENDING BIDDERS MUST Woollahra NSW 2025 IMPORTANT INFORMATION SATISFY THEMSELVES AS The United States Government Francesca Cavazzini TO THE CONDITION OF ANY Bonhams has banned the import of ivory Aboriginal and International LOT AS SPECIFIED IN CLAUSE 97-99 Queen St into the USA. Lots containing Art Specialist 14 OF THE NOTICE TO Woollahra NSW 2025 ivory are indicated by the symbol +61 (0) 416 022 822 mob BIDDERS CONTAINED AT THE Ф printed beside the lot number francesca.cavazzini@bonhams.
    [Show full text]