ARCHIBALD PRIZE for Portrait painting. 2014

Each year the annual Archibald Portrait Prize seems to take another step backwards and this years is simply more of the same. Each year technology takes another step to the determent artistic skill. Far to many works seem to be based on photographs producing a display of lifeless portraits. The tell tale signs of photography copies are there, the use of casual attitudes, turned heads and lighting effects produce flat lifeless results. There is no substitute for drawing, whether academic or expressionistic. A portrait should tell us something about a living person, if possible their attitude to life. Kate Blanchett's portrait above illustrates the trend in this approach.

There are however a few bright spots, that in my opinion demonstrate a more creative method of painting. 'Here' by Quiang Zhang and 'Rox' by Paul Ryan are two paintings were the artist has attempted to present a living person. At least here we know the works are by living people, not a photo, not that I have anything against photography, it is simply not in the true spirit of portrait painting. Zhang's is a very strong work, while Ryan's expressionist work has a lively feel.

'Rox' by Paul Ryan.

Torah Bright by Zoe Young

'Not a sexpat cowboy painting by David Grigg.

'Here' by Quiang Zhang.


Two other paintings also caught my eye, David Griggs' 'Not a sexpat idiot cowboy painting' and Zoe Young's portrait of Torah Bright offered a little light relief from the photo brigand. I like Grigg's inclusion of supporting material offering a view into another world. Zoe Young is more straight forward with her exploration of what is possible with colour.







 

 

Demise of Aesthetics in 20th cent. Australian Art.

 

The Demise of Aesthetics in 20^th cent. Australian Art.

The extent to which meaning has transcended aesthetics in the fine art of painting, may be traced to some extent to the incorporation of Art Schools into the University system. Universities by their very nature are not concerned with the teaching of technical skill, such activities  historically have been the task of Technical Colleges. Universities by their nature, place primary importance on theoretical and hidden meaning. Fine art over the centuries has attempted to amalgamate the two, originally through a master’s workshop, and later through the technical school.

Over the last few decades the emphasis has been on theoretical meaning of a piece of art work, regardless of any aesthetic content. Walk through any contemporary exhibition, and you are confronted with an array mechanical, brutal, and/or computerized imagery with little or no aesthetic appeal. It is little wonder that the general public has turned its back on contemporary work. I am not suggesting that fine art must be solely decorative, but art works should be meaningful in their own right, have appeal and not necessarily require written explanations for a viewer to have any understanding of the message. It seems to me, that western art schools have swamped the world with theorists, who more often than not, have little aesthetic talent, but somehow have taken control world art. Much of this discourse amount to little more than a constant stream of meaningless drivel, leaving the listener or reader, wondering what on earth the author was trying to say.

Questions needs to be asked , how can  individuals express themselves without mastery of the language required to do so. Art schools today place too much emphases on doing your own thing, and little on technic and aesthetic appeal. Many writers have suggested that this decline into the meaningless began with the advent of Pop Art of Andy Warhol, and the gaudy commercial imagery of western materialism, that this unleashed. Unfortunately many of these artists have moved through the system, and now find themselves teaching the next generation of artists. Although they themselves may possess the technical skills and aesthetic discipline required, many have failed to pass on these skills, instead giving their students  a free hand to do what they will, resulting in the current crop of either meaningless work, or images seemingly untouched by human hands. In fact, they have turned the fine art of painting into an industrial production line .Commercial technology has replaced human skill, resulting in very slick images of an impersonal nature.

Walk through any grants, or competition exhibition  and most work on display has little personal idiosyncrasy,  no defiant brush strokes, no sense of struggle, just  impersonal art work , often of an industrial nature with its obligatory statement about meaning. Where the visual art of painting goes from here is anyones  guess, but the current direction does not offer much hope.

Robert Hughes, art critic extraordinary.

ROBERT HUGHES. 1938-2012

Robert Hughes death early this week, has robbed Australia and the World of one of its finest art commentators and critics. Hughes was nothing,” if not critical,” to borrow the title of his selected collection of essays on art. He had the ability to compress and reduce the most complex concepts to a powerful clutch of words, words that all could understand. His presence and writing will  surely be missed by all who take an interest in cultural matters.

I first became aware of Hughes, as a young artist during those heady days of The Sydney Push in the 1950s and 60s. A time of energetic thinking among Sydney’s post war creative circles.  The  Bohemian element of the city, often met in old fashion coffee shops in lower George Street, the ones with high backed wooden cubicles for private conservation. These coffee shops were the closest Sydney had to aspire to the café life of Paris. The city was only just emerging from what was called the Six O’clock Swill, when the male population would line up as many beers as possible on the bar, in order to beat the legal closing time for hotels 6pm. I believe these shortened trading hours were a legacy of war time blackout requirements.

Many European artists had fled to Australia during the 1930s and post war, brought with them new ideas about art. Several had opened their studios to students, or established schools such as Desiderius Orban at Circular Quay, much to the delight of young painters anxious to gain experience in this “new art” first hand. Germaine Greer often held court in these coffee establishments, all of which was the Sydney of Robert Hughes’ youth. Lively exploration of existentialism was fashionable, with the writing of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir laying the foundations of modern world thinking.

How much of this influenced Hughes future thinking I have no idea, but he was part of this world. He excelled in his ability to display in the most subtle way the depth of his knowledge about art, history, culture and the human condition. His analytical contribution to these subjects will be greatly missed. I must extend my sympathies to his family and friends

Blake Prize 2012 for Religious Art?

Luke Roberts "Three Figures at the base of the Crucifixions"

The 60th BLAKE PRIZE seems neither religious or spiritual, despite claims of exploring these matters on the front of the catalogue. If anything, the touring exhibition currently showing in Hobart is not only disappointing, buy does not seem to address any of the issues claimed. In fact, nearly the entire exhibition could have been shown in any mixed display of art works anywhere no matter what the subject, as there is little reference to the purpose for which the prize was created. When the Blake Prize was established in the 1950s, there was a desire to create a vehicle  to promote a modern, and dare I say genuine expression of religious truths. A landscape painting by Carla Hananiah "Refuge" won the John Coburn Award for Emerging Artist, deserves commendation, but little else. The winner of this year's $20000 prize money was rather questionable 90-minute video of what appears to be  a group of Muslims praying in a suburban house. How a video of a religious service of any sort, becomes a work of art is hard to say. One would think that any church, mosque or temple event would qualify. The recording of something does not turn it into an art work, let alone be considered the winning entry. Then there is the referral work to Breughel's masterpiece "The Blind Leading the Blind" in Naples. However, in Brueghel's painting each and every figure is packed with emotion and hidden meaning, while Lisa Lee "Safety Seekers" seems to lack any meaning what so ever, apart from the suggested haven for asylum for boat people. Even haloed orangutans receive a jersey in this show. All in al,l the exhibition leaves much to be desired, no matter what your viewpoint. Whether the use of the word spiritual has lead to this situation, I will leave the viewer to judge.

Luke Roberts' digital triptych, panel one  illustrated above pretty much sums it up. While attempting to make reference to Christ's Crucifixion, The use of strippers, female impersonators in scant clothing boarders on the insulting to any one with any Christian belief. One can imagine the out cry, if a scene from the Koran was treated in this way. It would seem in this multi cultural Australia no respect is shown towards majority views. Personally, I respect any artist right to express themselves as they see fit, but such a work as the above, has no place in an exhibition of religious art. Strangely, little objection seems to have been expressed,  when you consider outcry  over the photo of a pubescent girl by Henderson a few years ago.

What the founding fathers of the Blake think about this new direction, I leave to your imagination. Serious thought needs to be undertaken by the current co-coordinators, they need to come up with a new theme, and stop referring to religion, spiritual etc, for these themes this current show is not.