Defining Contemporary Presentation notes 11 December, 2014 Emily FLOYD Australia 1972 Cuckoo 2003 wood, silver, steel, acrylic and enamel paint R H S Abbott Bequest Fund 2005 2005.3 TIME ACTIVITY PRESENTER/s VENUE 11.00- Exhibitions 2015 Helen, Leanne, Clayton Drury Court 12noon 12-12.30 La Trobe University School Hayley Cail, SPP Drury Court Partnerships Program Coordinator 12.30-1.15 Lunch and exhibition viewing Sculpture court 1.15-2.45 Afternoon workshops Various (1.5 hours) A. Drawing Margot Feast Paul Guest Prize C. Contemporary art Helen Attrill Drury Court D. Conservation Safari Sandra Bruce and Tansy Bolton Court and Curatorial Intent Curtin 2.45-3.00 Evaluation form completion Drury Court and prize draw 3.00-3.30 (optional) walk to Post Office Simone; Helen to Walk through park to Gallery for Anzac exhibition accompany POG 3.30-4pm Networking and free viewing time Education at Bendigo Art Gallery Student and Teacher Programs/ Education Resources: http://www.bendigoartgallery.com.au/Education Education Bookings: [email protected] To contact an Education Officer directly: Helen Attrill: [email protected]; t: 5434 6082 Margot Feast [email protected]; t: 5434 6082 Dates for the diary: Thursday 19 February 4-5.30pm – Teacher Welcome and Remain in Light exhibition preview Tuesday 24 and Thursday 26 February - Studio Arts Inspiration Days for students Tuesday 21 April 9.30-4pm Imagining Ned and Linocut Portraiture Professional Development Thursday 7th May 10am-4pm – AusVELs F-10 Arts Curriculum Full day Professional Development with Kathryn Hendy-Ekers, VCAA Arts Manager and Helen Attrill 2 Contemporary art in the Bendigo Art Gallery permanent collection Over the past twelve years Bendigo Art Gallery has acquired a significant proportion of its collection through the generosity and support of its donors and established bequest program. This legacy has been critical to the building of the art collection, both historical and contemporary and is comprised of direct gifts, artworks given under the cultural gifts program, financial contribution in the form of prize money and bequests specifically for the acquisition of art. A variety of individuals and initiatives have been integral to the success of Bendigo Art Gallery’s creative gifting program. The Gallery has been fortunate to acquire a number of key Australian contemporary works through the Cultural Gifts Program and donations such as funds from the Guy family, directed to the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize. Significant bequests such as the RHS Abbott Bequest and the $2.7 million Grace Craig Bequest have allowed the Gallery to become one of the more active collectors in the country. The gallery focuses on the contemporary Australian art in its Acquisition Policy and the major new architectural development of the gallery, which opened in March, 2014 enables the gallery to showcase new themes and practices in contemporary art. Projected artworks which require isolation from other rooms can now be shown in project spaces, and large scale sculptures and installations can be given their own space, enabling a full in the round or participatory experience from the viewer. Contemporary art in the Bendigo Art Gallery 2015 exhibition program After a year of showing back to back international exhibitions focusing on major art themes of the past, from British master painters of the 18th and 19th centuries; classical Greek and Roman sculpture through to a three hundred year history of underwear, the gallery is focusing is exhibition program on Australian contemporary art. A combination of Bendigo Art Gallery curated exhibitions, co-curated exhibitions partnering with other institutions and solo artist and single work exhibitions will showcase contemporary media such as installation, sculpture and multi-media works alongside contemporary re-workings of traditional media such as painting, sculpture and photography. Contemporary Art themes Film, Fashion, Advertising and Hyperreality: The contemporary obsession with media in the form of film, fashion and advertising has been reflected in a substantial number of works in Bendigo Art Gallery’s permanent collection Through the Gallery’s extended contemporary collection, we are also fortunate to be able to survey the development of a number of artists exploring these themes through multiple artworks acquired over time. The contemporary desire for physical perfection and the quest for perfect human relationships is explored in art across a range of media. The ability to alter our appearances through make up, plastic surgery and digital means seems to be referenced without irony especially through the mediums of film and photography. Throughout the history of Western art, colour was used symbolically. During the Renaissance, blue was seen as symbolic of virginity while red could be symbolic of blood or life. Bright clear colours were a reflection of the beauty of God’s creations, while mixed or murky colours were seen as corrupt. Aided by exposure to fashion and characters from colour television and film, many artists subvert the expected symbolism of their colour. In particular, the colour pink, once avoided in high art, is used strategically Rosemary Laing’s A dozen useless actions for grieving blondes, which also plays on our Western association of the use of the colour pink with innocence and femininity. The closely cropped figure in this photograph has apparently grieved for something with such violence that her face appears as pink as the clothing she wears, contrasting greatly with traditional views of mourning or grieving women as soft and demure. 3 Postmodernism Although removed from the heavy 1990s device of direct appropriation of other artists, more recent contemporary art continues the postmodern enquiry into the past, sometimes in a playful manner. Prue Venables’ Large black bowl and ladle, pierced on first glance, appears like a simply glazed bowl with ladle, but the artist has rendered the thrown ladle to become completely without function by carefully piercing the piece into a series of repetitive dots. Although we could imagine a humorous occurrence if the ladle was used to contain liquid, instead, the meticulous patterned decoration positions the vessel on the same level as other art forms rather than purely as functional or craft. Other artists enjoy toying with the failures of technologies of the past to give their artworks a nostalgic feel. In Untitled, David Noonan, rather than utilising today’s technology to produce high resolution enlargements of his borrowed imagery, retains the dot matrix effect of the enlarged imagery he collects from 1970s archives, making his source both obvious and nostalgic. Identity In the Postmodern 21st century, Australian identity has never before been so religiously, culturally and regionally diverse. Artists now explore identity from a broad range of perspectives. Australian masculine identity is explored in the paintings of both Ben Quilty and Adam Cullen. Although each artist employs the age-old theme of portraiture, the idea of the heroic, hardworking Australian male, as depicted in late 19th century paintings is replaced by images of outsiders, drunks, and infamous characters, often drawn from personal experiences. A residency in Spain inspired Quilty to look at his own surroundings on the outer suburbs of Melbourne for subject matter and this influenced him to depict his own Torana car and mates in the paintings of 2003. In recent years he has turned his brush (or palette knife) to depicting subjects that say something about Australian identity but where there are two sides to the story. This includes the works in Bendigo Art Gallery’s Ben Quilty exhibition, including Captain Cook and landscapes of Kuta Beach and Fairy Bower. As part of Quilty’s portfolio of Australian males, including popular culture figures such as the singer Jimmy Barnes, Captain Cook is famous for being the first white male to land on Australian soil. There is, however, an inherent violence in what Cook produced as many Aboriginal people were massacred as a result of Australia’s colonisation. Kuta Rorschach 2 (2014) and Fairy Bower Rorschach 2012 (Art Gallery of NSW Collection) both depict landscapes of iconic tourist destinations for Australians. Like his portraits, though, these landscapes present another side; Bali has been the scene of two bombings, perhaps directed at Australians and Fairy Bower was once the site of Aboriginal massacres. Quilty’s postgraduate studies into indigenous Australia have inspired him to investigate landscape and identity in Australia with a Postcolonial filter. Whilst Quilty draws on his experience of risk-taking with mates as a young man, Cullen draws on disturbing imagery he witnessed in his youth. Having a father who walked around nude from the waist down and witnessing the torturing of a kangaroo that had his tail cut off, leaving him to try to move around unbalanced and in agony may have influenced Cullen to depict losers, outsiders, criminals and disturbing hybrid creatures. Unlike traditional landscape painting, Cullen’s portraits are pushed up against a foreshortened picture plane with luridly bright and flat backgrounds. Contemporary use of traditional materials Bendigo Art Gallery has utilised the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize regularly showcase contemporary painting practice and also to build its collection. Stieg Persson, Dale Frank and Stephen Bush demonstrate the huge diversity in technique and style seen in contemporary painting today. While Bush dazzles the viewer with swirling psychedelic swathes of paint, Persson proves that technology is no match for a steady hand and meticulous masking technique. Philanthropy also showcases examples of the Gallery’s growing photography collection with examples by renowned photographers Julie Rrap, Tracey Moffatt and Rosemary Laing while the exhibition also introduces the viewer to Andrew Browne’s photographs, which, through their intimate subject matter, heightened contrast and shallow depth of field become brooding glimpses into the nocturnal landscape rather than merely studies for his larger paintings, two of which are also part of the Gallery’s collection.