Tag Archives: melbourne art

Melbourne Events, National Gallery of Victoria

Escher X Nendo

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Between two worlds

With the St Kilda Festival scheduled on a Sunny Sunday, I set off in the opposite direction of the beach and into town to the Art Gallery, hoping that the festival would draw crowds away from the Escher exhibition. What I wasn’t expecting was a Metro meltdown.

No buses, no trains and no trams! The 246 bus decided to by-pass my area, in an effort to avoid picking up or dropping people off to the bayside shuffle. The trains were off, due to track work and the trams had a ‘disruption’. The lone carrier was the notorious ‘Replacement Bus’ that answers to no schedule.

Boarding the bus required tactful manoeuvring as the commuters jostled for a seat and standing room, the less skilful were left behind. Just as the ‘Replacement Bus’ has no timetable it also has no set route and maundered it’s way through the inner suburban neighbourhood, like a scenic tour.

I passed places where I used to live and Cafes I once frequented and what began as a commute had become a journey, instead of taking 45 minutes to reach my destination, I arrived at the Gallery, after 2 hours. The girl at the ticket desk, attempted to talk me out of buying a ticket, as only an hour of viewing remained. My restraint was thinning.

Despite being rushed through the exhibition by enthusiastic guards saying;

“30 minutes to go and 6 more rooms!”

“20 minutes to go and 4 more rooms!”

“10 minutes to go and 2 more rooms!!”

The one prediction in my favour was that it was not crowded.

The exhibition soothed my fatigue and quickened the light of inspiration that thrives beneath the surface of mediocacy. Escher is a Master printmaker, designer, artist and architect; it is of no surprise that his father was an engineer. The exhibition weaves through the development of his style and skill, which is illustrated within landscapes and town streets, that journal his travels through Europe

The exhibition combines the Art Star with the works Nendo that compliment the show, with ambient structures and light shows. Like an Escher’s design; the art patron is led through props and floor space that dupes the eye and challenges those that are prone to vertigo. The layout of the show combines the physical and visual journey, it incorporates the optical illusion within the simple building blocks of drama. Beautiful work and a brilliantly curated.

by A. Forward

Until April 7 2019

 

Australian Art

The Other Art Fair

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Get on your bike and head off to the other art fair.

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Before entering the building, graffiti artists have already marked the journey.

 

Outside
Inside

 

It’s a fabulous space, housing a catacomb of galleries and a cafe

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JC

Upon immediate entry we are reassured that the art is going to be world class with the work of JC.

 

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Jo White

The nostalgic work of Jo White is a delight.

 

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Cynthia Ellis

and Cynthia Ellis lays it on thick.

 

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Leah Emery at work

Leah Emery applies the cross-stitch of random pornographic spam as the new temptation

 

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Time Jones, Kittens 

and Tim Jones brings it home.

 

Christina Popovici explains Action Art

This is just a slim slice of The Other Art Fair at Kensington. I could have stayed all day. Go and be stimulated. Adorn with Australian Art.

The Other Art Fair presented by Saatchi Art   May 4-7

 

National Gallery of Victoria

The seasons of David Hockney

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Current

Hockney is both artist and philosopher and does not leave ‘Art for Arts-sake’,. He has a dilemma and a relationship with the camera. It’s an interesting journey. Hockney wants to break free from the ‘window to the world’ and look upon life with fresh eyes but memory draws him back into the abyss of ‘what if’. It’s this challenge that makes his work exciting and current.

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Hockney was an early explorer of new technology when others were still reckoning with it. The perplex of the eye informing Art or the camera has etched itself into his work. The inner debate of Hockney is explored in his art and educates the viewer. He is an intellectual and art is his vehicle

“The camera can’t get the beauty of this ……it can’t compete with painting” Hockney

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Hockney challenges the limitations of the camera but continues to return to it. He has a union to technology that he cannot divorce himself from and that’s fine. As Hockney searches for the truth and is willing to film it; we benefit.

Hockney knew that 14th Century artists were using the ancient Camera Obscure,  a technique that reproduced a slide show via light and darkness onto a canvas. He devoted a few years documenting it and producing evidence.

Maybe in the early years, Hockney was criticised for letting the camera inform him and he aimed to provide its legitimate history within the Renaissance . He ended up proving and providing something more important, it works either way.

The pool and boys journey in LA begins as an eye and brush experience.

‘Though there was no photography used in the swimming pool paintings, because the camera “freezes” the water, which was not the effect he was after, he did continue to use it as n aide-memoire’ Christopher Simon Skykes

Hockney could capture the movement and effect of pool water with his eye but needed the camera for the Splash!

When Hockney returns to the English countryside to capture the seasons, he faces extreme weather and does not photograph the landscape. He forsakes a cosy studio for art of plein-air. Back indoors however he views the photographs of his work and aims to create a cinematic version within a jigsaw. The camera is back. The final twist is that the weather weathered work informs the photograph.

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Take the journey and roll out the green carpet for David Hockney at NGV International.

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NGV International  welcomed the Artist on a green carpet.

 

Australian Art, Australian Culture

Sunday Reeds contribution to Melbourne Art

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When Sunday Baillieu walked out of  Toorak and into the arms of emerging Australian Artists, she forsook society to dwell with bohemia. It’s not easy, to move from one class to another within a single generation. The artists may have regarded her as bourgeois but her old neighbours had labeled her a communist. She was an idealist, a task master, a romantic and art critic. Heide was her home and she welcomed artists to reside there. IMG_3335

Sunday and John Reed championed major artists such as Sidney Nolan, Charles Blackman, Mirka Mora, Joy Hester, John Perceval, Albert Tucker, Moya Dyring, Sam Atyeo and Mike Brown. They founded the Angry Penguins Literary magazine in an effort to evoke a response from the disinterested city.

The Reeds supported and bought emerging Melbourne and Australian art. They were overly possessive of the artists they supported but they took their task seriously. They flew the flag for Australian Art and they paid for it with Baillieu cash.

Today the twisted path Melbourne artists walk is barbed with opportunists and a sleepy audience.

Melbourne’s current Art culture is in crisis. Galleries charge artists to exhibit and the costs are high, few artists can afford to pay the weekly $1000 costs and then the 20-40% commission. For those that can afford to pay ,there is no guarantee of an effective marketing strategy. Most exhibitions draw other artists and few attract genuine patrons. At the end of a two-week exhibition the gallery stands to make profits  even if no purchases were made. The artist is broke.

Australian artists rely on the generous support of  philanthropist, collectors and galleys that do not charge their talent to exhibit.

Albert Tucker talks about his time with Sunday Reed at Hiede.