The Fever: Part Two
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FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1963 BY SAM URE SMITH, Art & Australia is the successor to Sydney Ure Smith's Art in Australia (1916-42). Over the past six decades, Art & Australia has passed through different hands and inhabited various Sydney and Melbourne locations; it has witnessed landmark Australian and international events, represented the historic and contemporary, and experimented with latest artistic discourse.
This timeline includes key moments in the publications history with links to these moments in the Art and Australia archive.
This magazine is an answer to a need ... Art openings here are crowded, more and more prizes are being given ... The time has come when Australians should know why they go to exhibitions, give prizes and buy paintings. EDITORIAL, 1963
→ Vol. 1/1 was launched with Mervyn Horton as editor
→ James Gleeson and Lenton Parr surveyed postwar Australian painting and sculpture respectively, and Russell Drysdale wrote on Aboriginal rock art
→ Vol. 1/3 included Robert Hughes's 'Irrational Imagery in Australian Painting'
→ Vol. 2/2 was dedicated to William Dobell, coinciding with his sixty-fifth birthday and Art Gallery of New South Wales retrospective. With contributions from Russell Drysdale, James Gleeson, Hal Missingham and Margaret Olley
→ Clement Meadmore reported on the New York art scene in vols 3/2 and 3/4 (1966), observing new attitudes in painting and sculpture
There is, to sum up, a new range of possibility in art that artists are exploring as spontaneously as any creature put into a wider cage. DONALD BROOK, 1967
→ Vol. 3/4 included a column by A.T. Bolton on the resignation of architect Joern Utzon from the Sydney Opera House project
→ Two years before the 1968 forming of the Australian Copyright Council, David Jones wrote 'Copyright in Australia" in vol. 4/1
→ In vol. 5/1, Donald Brook's essay 'Theory and Criticism' interpreted the changes in art criticism
→ Vol. 5/2 was dedicated to Sidney Nolan and featured essays by Geoffrey Dutton, Max Harris, John Reed, John Sinclair and R. W. Upton
→ Vol. 5/2 reviewed 'Two Decades of American Painting', with comments by young Australian painters in response to exhibited artworks
Greenberg came amongst us as the great healer rather than the iconoclast: he urged us to enjoy our diversity in art; he declared that to take sides in the Antipodean-abstract skirmish was to go counter to the point of art. ELWYN LYNN, 1968
→ The Power Institute was established, and in vol. 5/4 Bernard Smith reviewed the touring Power Bequest exhibition
→ Vol. 5/4 included 'The Antipodean
Manifesto' (1959), written by Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, John Brack, Robert Dickerson, John Perceval, Clifton
Pugh and Bernard Smith
→ In vol. 6/2 Elwyn Lynn discussed
Clement Greenberg's Australian lecture tour
→ Patrick McCaughey reviewed 'The Field' in vol. 6/3, when the National Gallery of Victoria moved to new St Kilda Road premises
→ The vol. 7/3 cover featured Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work, coinciding with their wrapping of the Little Bay coastline for the 1st Kaldor Public Art Project
→ Donald Brook's essay 'The Little Bay Affair' described the project as the most important art event in Australia for years
Once one understands that art is not in objects but in the completeness of the artist's concept of art, then the other functions can be eradicated and art can become more wholly art. IAN BURN, 1970
→ Vol. 8/2 featured Ian Burn's
'Conceptual Art as Art', with artwork by On Kawara and Joseph
Kosuth
→ Vol. 8/3 was an 'Asian Art' special, with texts on Japanese contemporary art, the Chinese National Palace Museum, and India's Ajanta Murals
→ Vol. 9/1 detailed 'Domestic Architecture', coinciding with 'The Consequences of Today', a major May 1971 convention that marked the centenary of Australian architectural institutes
→ When the rebuild of the gallery almost doubled its size, vol. 10/1 was an 'Art Gallery of New South Wales' special issue, with surveys of the collections
→ Noel Hutchison reviewed the 1973 Mildura Sculpture Triennial (1961-88) in vol. 11/1
→ Vol. 11/2 featured Daniel Thomas's essay on Gilbert & George's The Singing Sculpture, the 3rd Kaldor Public Art Project
Photography never has been merely representational, and certainly is not today... Even when the photographer simply sets out to record reality, he is doomed to failure. Whether he wants to or not, he has to act like an artist. CRAIG McGREGOR, 1974
→ Following its 1973 opening, vol.
11/3 was a 'Sydney Opera House' special issue profiling the space, its works of art, and its hosting of the Ist Biennale of Sydney (1973)
→ Graeme Sturgeon reviewed 'Some
Recent American Art' in vol. 11/4
→ Vol. 11/4 featured Craig
McGregor's 'Photography as Art', with work by Grahame McCarter and Roger Scott
→ Mervyn Horton's editorial in vol. 11/4 supported the (then)
Australian National Gallery's purchase of Jackson Pollock's Blue poles, 1952
→ Vol. 12/2 included an essay by
Nicholas Draffin on two Weimar
Bauhaus masters
→ To coincide with the first of a series of triennial festivals of art in Victoria vol. 12/3 was a 'Regional Galleries' special issue, focusing on the state's seventeen regional galleries
Moorman and cello, nude but chocolate-coated, sit ...until the chocolate melts from her body. The art students from Alexander Mackie College who were documenting the visit as part of their video course followed her to the shower. DANIEL THOMAS, 1976
→ Vol. 13/3 was the first issue to be printed under the imprint Fine Arts Press Pty Led, a publishing company established by Sam Ure Smith concentrating on Australian
fine arts
Vol. 13/3 was an 'Aboriginal Art' special, with essays by Indigenous artists Wandjuk Marika, Dick Roughsey and Billy Stockman. It also featured a review by Alison Fraser of the exhibition Australian Women Artists One Hundred Years: 1840-1940'.
Vol. 13/4 marked Art & Australia's first artist project with Mike Parr's text-based artwork ABASEX to ZYMASEX (homage to Sigmund Freud)
→ Vol. 14/1 featured Arthur
Mcintyre's 'L'Are Corporel {Body Art}'
→ Coinciding with the Australian
National Collection touring exhibition, 'Genesis of a Gallery' (1976-77), vols 14/3 was an
'Australian National Gallery' special issue, with texts by James Gleeson, Robert Hughes, Lucy
Lippard and Patrick McCaughey
→ Vol. 15/2 included a book review supplement
This experimental foundation (Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane) ... has enlivened the scene in Brisbane and brought the attention of a wide public to avant-garde art originating not only in Australia but also abroad. EDITORIAL, 1979
→ Vol. 15/3 was a 'Newcastle' special, with essays discussing the Newcastle Art Gallery and its collection, and artist Guy Warren, written by Nick Waterlow
→ Vol. 15/4 was a 'Brisbane' special, with commentary on the scene and Queensland Cultural Centre, and an essay on the Institute of Modern Art, then in its third year of operation
Much attention has been given in recent months to the comparative isolation of Western Australia... people in the east seem uninformed about ... the art scene in Perth; a handful only of Western Australian artists and their works are known to them. EDITORIAL, 1979
→ Marking the state's sesquicentenary, vol. 16/4 was a
'Western Australia' special issue, with commentary on the Perth scene, and essays on the state collection and region's artists
→ Following the 1978 inclusion of Australian artists John Davis, Robert Owen and Ken Unsworth in the Venice Biennale, Ronald Millen's 'The Venice Biennale:
Nature Morte with a Brace of Australians' featured in vol. 17/1
→ A 'Biennale of Sydney' special issue, vol. 17/2 focused on the exhibition, 'European Dialogue', curated by Nick Waterlow and including, among others, Gerhard Richter, Rosalie Gascoigne, Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Mike Parr, Gary Catalano, David Malangi, George Milpurrurru and Johnny Bonguwuy
It's community art, embodying a feminist, multicultural class perspective, which I think will expand the potential for artistic expression in the 1980s. GARY CATALANO, 1980
→ Vol. 18/2 featured a roundtable discussion on 1970s art with Janine Burke, Gary Catalano, Peter Kennedy, Ross Lansell, Alun Leach-Jones, Paul Partos and Bruce Pollard
→ In vol. 18/2 Paul Taylor interviewed
Clement Greenberg on his 1979 return to Australia
The whole body, mind and soul, immerses itself in architecture. One is not entertained as a consumer, one participates. D. L. JOHNSON, 1981
→ Vol. 18/4 included a conversation between Geoffrey De Groen and
Clement Meadmore
→ Vol. 19/1 was an 'Art Gallery of South Australia' special issue, marking the gallery's centenary with essays profiling the collections Vol. 19/2 featured 'Architecture Today: Two Views', with an introduction by Donald Leslie Johnson and comments by Michael Viney and
Peter Jansen
→ Art and Australia had previously received government funding (1970-81), but the vol. 19/3
editorial declared 'we have no grant, but shall continue to publish'
→ Vol. 19/3 included Graeme
Sturgeon's review of the inaugural Perspecta (1981); he described the show as the first inclusion of Aboriginal artists' work in a general Australian survey In vol. 19/3 Bernice Murphy discussed Marina Abramovic and Ulay's Gold found by the artists, which had been performed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1981
→ To mark the gallery's opening, vol.
20/1 was a 'Australian National
Gallery' special issue.
An 'Archibald Prize' special, vol.
20/2 charted its sixty-year history and included Graeme Sturgeon's commentary on the 4th Biennale of Sydney, which included Juan Davila's controversial artwork,
Stupid as a painter
→ Vol. 20/4 was a 'Queensland Art
Gallery' special issue
→ Art & Australia's founding editor Mervyn Horton, passed away in 1983 and tributes by Sam Ure Smith, Marjorie Bell and Charles Lloyd Jones, among others, appeared in vols. 20/4 and 21/1. Vol. 21/1, marking the magazines twenty-first birthday, saw Elwyn Lynn appointed as editor
→ Vol. 23/4 included Theodora
Green's essay, 'Abstract Expressionism in Australia:
American Parallels and Influences', and a discussion of German and Italian neo-expressionist prints by Stephen Coppel
Insisting that art and life are one and that every individual's life is a work of art, he (Beuys) is attempting to restore the lost unity between reason and intuition, which, in his view, is necessary for a healthy society. MILDRED KIRK, 1985
→ Vol, 22/1 was an 'Art Gallery of New South Wales' special, with a conversation between Elwyn Lynn and Lloyd Rees on the Victorian favourites in the collection, and an essay by Graeme Sturgeon considering a decade of sculpture
→ When a Picasso exhibition came to Australia in 1984, Elwyn Lynn wrote on the Spanish artist in vol. 22/3
→ Vol. 22/3 featured Mildred Kirk's report on Joseph Beuys's Stripes from the house of the Shaman:
1964-1972, 1980, at the (then), Australian National Gallery
→ Vol. 22/4 was a 'Tasmania' special, with texts on the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, and Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston
→ In vol. 23/3 Timothy Morrell examined the role of large-scale drawing in performance and installation art
→ With vol. 24/2 Elwyn Lynn completed three years as editor
→ Vol. 24/3 announced Leon Paroissien and Jennifer Phipps as the editors
→ In vol. 24/4 Barry Pearce examined the role of the exhibition 'Direction 1' (1956) in the beginning of abstraction in Australia, with comments by John Olsen, John Passmore, Eric Smith, William Rose and Robert Klippel
→ In vol. 25/2 Ted Gott wrote on 1980s appropriation
→ Vol. 25/4 marked Art & Australia's one-hundredth issue, with texts on Sam Ure Smith and his father, Sydney Ure Smith
→ Vol. 26/1 was a 'Bicentenary' special issue, with an artist project by Imants Tillers—Words of wisdom, 1988—and an essay by Djon Mundine discussing the Aboriginal art collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
McCahon's art registers the deep psychic rifts and fissures in cultural practice that are involved in the double declensions of a postcolonial society. BERNICE MURPHY, 1989
→ Vol. 27/1 featured a review of Colin McCahon's Auckland Art Gallery retrospective, 'Gates and Journeys' (1989), by Bernice Murphy, with comments from Imants Tillers and
Brent Harris
→ Leon Paroissien became sole editor of vol. 27/1
→ Vol. 27/2 included a section,
'Revisions', where works by Julie Rrap and Peter Tyndall, specially commissioned for Art & Australia, were reproduced and discussed
→ Coinciding with the 4th Australian Sculpture Triennial in Melbourne, vol. 28/1 was a special on
'Sculpture', addressing its changes since the 1960s and 1970s; Graeme Sturgeon discussed the new mood in sculpture
→ Joanna Mendelssohn wrote on| the first Adelaide Biennial at the Art Gallery of South Australia in vol. 28/2
→ Vol. 28/2 saw Dinah Dysart join
Leon Paroissien as co-editor
→ Vol. 28/4 was a special 'Art & War' issue, with an essay by Anne Gray on the theme and texts discussing artists' responses to war
→ In vol. 29/2, a 'Museum of Contemporary Art' special, Leon Paroissien discussed Sydney's new space, the artist and benefactor John Power was profiled, Joanna Mendelssohn detailed Elwyn Lynn's acquisitions for the Power collection, and Bernice Murphy wrote on the collection's development during the 1980s
Paradoxically, the destructiveness of war generates creativity in individuals and leads to changes in society's concerns. The urgency of the situation gives an added intensity to life. This has an impact on artists, and new artforms develop. ANNE GRAY, 1991
→ Vol. 30/1 marked the 1991 incorporation of Fine Arts Press, publisher of Art & Australia, and art-book publisher Craftsman House, into international publishing group Gordon + Breach Sam Ure Smith remained as publishing consultant, with Janet Gough as publisher, for all issues of vol. 30
→ In vol. 30/1 co-editor Dinah Dysart wrote on the theme 'Erotica'
→ Vol. 30/2 was a special 'New Zealand' issue, with essays by Daniel Thomas and Hamish Keith, coinciding with the Museum of Contemporary Art's first survey of another country's contemporary art. This issue saw Dinah Dysart as the magazine's sole editor
→ ART and AsiaPacific, a new publication dedicated to the region, accompanied Art & Australia for vols 30/3 and 30/4 as a supplement. These were guest edited by Alison Carroll and John Clark respectively
→ Vol. 30/4 marked Art & Australia's thirtieth birthday, and was based on the theme 'Emigré', with essays by Dinah Dysart, Anne Loxley and
Daniel Thomas
→ 'Contemporary Aboriginal Art' was the focus of vol. 31/1, where Vivien Johnson discussed urban Aboriginal artists and Brenda L.
Croft wrote on contemporary Aboriginal photography
→ For vols. 31/1-34/1 Art & Australia was published by Art Fine Arts Press, under Gordon + Breach, with Dinah Dysart as publisher
→ In vol. 31/4 Colin Lanceley and Sue-Anne Wallace discussed the Annandale Imitation Realists, and Mary Eagle outlined the prospects of virtual reality in society and art
→ Essays in vol. 32/1 were based on 'Flowers and Gardens' in Australian art, with essays by Joanna Capon, Craig Judd and
Edward Colless
→ In vol. 32/2, lan Burn wrote on
1990s minimalism
Sound sculpture embodies design which renders sound through the acoustic space of the public listening domain. It confronts the audible factor of art, and presents space as acoustic space from the outset, whether indoor or outdoor, public or private. ROS BANDT, 1995
→ Commemorating the twentieth anniversary of International Women's Year, vol. 32/3 was themed 'Women', with essays by Janine Burke, Rex Butler and Felicity Fenner
→ Ros Bandt wrote on the history of sound sculpture in Australia in vol. 32/4
→ Vol. 33/2 was inspired by interior design of the 1920s and 1930s and the history of magazines, the Home and Art in Australia
Most works of art will return you more if you treat them as maps to be learnt by heart; unless you are very experienced, works of art don't return much when you just glance at them. JAMES MOLLISON, 1996
→ Vol. 33/3 covered Christo and
Jeanne-Claude's 1995 wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin
→ Vol. 34/1 focused on 'Collecting' and examined the patron Ann Lewis, and the Laverty, Kerry Stokes and Carrick Hill collections, and included an interview with James Mollison by Steven Heath on collecting
→ In vol. 34/2 Daniel Thomas wrote on Andrew Andersons's designs for Australian museums, and landscape painting in Tasmania and Western Australia featured.
→ Vol. 34/2 saw the appointment of Hannah Fink as executive editor, a role she continued until 1997
→ A special 'Melbourne' issue, vol. 34/4, included Charles Green on the experimental gallery Pinacotheca, and Chris McAuliffe on art and punk
→ Vol. 35/1 was a special Olympic Arts Festival issue and featured guest editor Hetti Perkins, with essays by Louis Nowra, Marcia Langton, Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Joan Kerr, who wrote on the Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition 'Spirit + Place: Art in Australia 1861-1996' (1996-97), curated by Nick Waterlow and Ross Mellick
→ In vol. 35/2. Laura Murray Cree was appointed as editor
→ Vol. 35/3 featured Christopher
Chapman on simulated reality in
Australian art
→ Vol. 35/4 focused on 'Gardens' and artists' responses to them, with articles discussing the Canberra as a Garden City project
→ Based on the theme 'Journeys', vol. 36/1 referenced the European
'grand tour' and the lure of 'the Orient'. This issue introduced a new design for Art & Australia
The significance of Asian-Australian artists lies in their knowledge and understanding of an Asian culture, while their location within an Australian context provides a unique denial of fixed notions of Australia and Asia. MELISSA CHIU, 1999
→ Vol. 36/3 featured different approaches to the theme 'Interiors'
→ 'Design, Taste, Perception' was the theme of vol. 37/1, with articles on interior designer Marion Best, Indigenous designs and contemporary Australian poster art
Considering 'Icons and Identities', vol. 37/2 included discussion of The Aboriginal Memorial, 1987-88, by Joan Kerr, and Asian-Australian artists by Melissa Chiu
→ Vol. 37/3 was a 'Scandals" special, charting some of Australian art history's memorable moments
→ On the occasion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibition
'Papunya Tula: Genesis and
Genius' (2000), the bumper 'Sydney Olympics issue, vol. 38/1, included an essay by Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink on art from Papunya Vols 37/3-38/2 were published by Australian Humanities Research Foundation, through Fine Arts Press under Gordon + Breach
→ Celebrating the 'Centenary of Federation', vol. 38/3 featured Andrew Sayers in conversation, and Howard Morphy on Yolngu bark painting
→ In vol. 39/1 Ted Snell detailed the Sir James and Lady Sheila Cruthers collection
→ Fine Arts Press and Craftsman
House were purchased from Gordon + Breach by managing director Rhonda Fitzsimmons with vol. 39/1. Art & Australia continued under Fine Arts Press
→ In vol. 39/3 Pamela Bell surveyed regional galleries in Australia
→ Vol. 39/4 included an article by Tedd Gott and Lisa Sullivan on Keith Haring's 1984 visit to Australia and an essay on international Aboriginal art exhibitions over 1970-2002 by
Jennifer Isaacs
→ In vol. 40/2 Peter Pinson wrote on the Wedderburn painters (John Peart, Elisabeth Cummings,
Suzanne Archer and David Fairbairnk)
→ The fortieth anniversary vol. 40/4
included Laura Murray Cree's reflections and Victoria Lynn's
'The Art of the Screen in Australia'
→ Vol. 41/1 marked the last with Murray Cree as editor, and included Leon Paroissien on three decades of the Biennale of Sydney
→ Art & Australia was purchased by Eleonora Triguboff, now Publisher / Editor working with Claire Armstrong (2003-06), Katrina Schwarz (2006-08) and Michael Fitzgerald (2007-12) among others
→ Vol. 41/4 marked the first cover commission, with Susan Norrie's ENOLA, 2004
→ On the back cover of vol. 42/1
Art & Australia's emerging artist program initiative began, with Del Kathryn Barton as the first recipient
→ In vol. 42/2 Simon Pierse wrote on Australian artists in London, detailing the 1961 Whitechapel Art Gallery exhibition 'Recent Australian Painting'
→ In vol. 42/3 Terry Smith wrote on biennales
→ Vol. 42/4 featured John Kaldor, commissioner for that year's Venice Biennale, as guest editor
→ In vol. 43/1 James Mollison discussed the evolution of the Museum of Modern Art (with photographs by Harry Seidler), John Kaldor reviewed Christo and Jeanne-Claude's New York public work, The gates, 1979-2005, and Rhana Devenport wrote on Nam June Paik and
Charlotte Moorman
→ In vol. 43/3 Tony Bond wrote on clements of performance in sell-portraiture
→ Vol. 43/4 coincided with the 1sth Biennale of Sydney, 'Zones of Contact, with an essay by artistic director Charles Merewether
→ Vol. 44/2 included an essay by Donald Brook on 'Illusion and Allusion', a profile of the Jim Barr and Mary Barr collection, and Rhana Devenport on Asian contemporary art
→ Louise Weaver was commissioned to create a work for the vol. 44/3 cover. Max Delany and Justin Clemens wrote on politics and art, Tony Bond on his studio visit in France with Anselm Kiefer, and Leon van Shaik on museum architecture
→ Leon Paroissien reviewed the exhibition 'For Matthew & Others: Journeys with Schizophrenia' (2006-07), curated by Dinah and Michael Dysart, in vol. 45/1
→ Based on the theme 'Transformation', vol. 45/3 featured a cover commission by Del Kathryn Barton
→ Vol. 45/4 featured Biennale of Sydney artistic director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev as guest editor, and cover artist William Kentridge
→ Vol. 46/1 marked the Art and Australia collaboration with Australian singer Nick Cave
→ Vol. 46/2 was themed 'Consuming
Culture' and included an opinion piece by artist Richard Bell
→ Vol. 46/3 looked at 'Influence', with essays on Daniel Thomas's and Ann Lewis's work in art by Dinah Dysart and Nick Waterlow respectively, and on art from Vanuatu by Kirk Huffman
→ Themed 'Shifting Identities', vol. 46/4 featured Daniel Mudie Cunningham on queer art, and a text on Bernard Smith alongside therepublished 'Antipodean Manifesto'
→Vol. 47/1 considered 'Enduring Acts', with discussion of forty years of Kaldor Public Art Projects and an interview with Margaret Tuckson by Hetti Perkins retracing
Tony Tuckson's 1958 trip to Arnhem Land
→ Vol. 47/2 was a '6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' special issue, with an essay by Brian Castro considering the idea of Asia
→ Vol. 47/3 was guest edited by
Charlotte Day and Sarah Tutton, curators for the 2010 Adelaide
→ Biennial of Australian Art, 'Before & After Science'
Vol. 47/4 was dedicated to the late curator Nick Waterlow, with essays by Rex Butler and Laurence Simmons, Juliet Darling, David Elliot and Djon Mundine, and a cover commission by Brook Andrew
→ Considering the 'Environment', vol.
48/1 featured an essay by Richard Flanagan, and art pages by Noel McKenna
Vol. 48/2 was a special 'Sculpture' issue. John Baldessari was commissioned to create a cover in conjunction with his Kaldor Public Art Project, 'Your Name in Lights', and Daniel Thomas wrote on the opening of the Museum of Old and New Art
→ Vol. 48/3 focused on 'Portraiture', with texts by Andrew Maerkle, Daniel Palmer and Angus Trumble
→ Looking at 'Art Inside Out', vol.
48/4 featured the Romance Was Born, Vanila Netto and Nell collaborative artist project
→ Vol. 49/1 was the 'Beauty' issue, with essays by Tessa Laird, Justin Paton and Barry Schwabsky
→ Themed 'Apocalyptic Visions', vol.
49/2 featured Eleanor Heartney's essay 'The Horsemen of Eco-Armageddon'
→ Coinciding with the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art 2012 exhibition 'Contemporary Australia: Women', vol. 49/3 was a special 'Women' issue
→ Vol. 50/1 was themed 'Sense or Place' and featured Aboriginal filmmaker and artist Warwick Thornton on his vision
→ To coincide with the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, vol. 50/2 looked at the 'Domestic' in contemporary art
→ Vol. 50/3 was the 'Performance' issue, with an updated 1989 Art & Australia text by Anne Marsh outlining a selected history of performance art in Australia
→ Vol 51/1 Design of Art and Australia changes and it is renamed as ARTAND. Edited by Eleanor Triguboff the issue includes contributions by Simryn Gill. The issue includes Rifky Effendy’s ‘IS INDONESIAN CONTEMPORARY ART IN DANGER OR MAKING A DIFFERENCE?’
The intense anxiety created by the War on Terror during the past decade has meant that for the small number of international artists directly concerned with images of war, the understanding of how art might critique politics and its extension into warfare resides not solely in what they depict but also in the nature of representation. JUAN DAVILA, 2014
→ Vol 51/3 looks at war and global conflict The issue includes contributions by Rachel Kent, Juan Davila and Bonita Ely.
Here is our challenge—and predicament. Art. Australia. Can either of these monumental words today be considered unproblematic or uncontested? Both words, as we have to use them now, are unfixed or besieged: their 20th-century cultural delineations detonated and diffused throughout the globalised circuitry of financial andcultural markets; their perimeters corroding or complicating into fractal dimensions; their core characteristics in dispute when not in disrepute. EDWARD COLLESS, 2016
→ Art and Australia relaunches as Art + Australia and is now published by the Victorian college of the Arts under the editorship of Edward Colless and Editor-in-Chief Su Baker. Tessa Laird is the Art + Australia online editor.
→ Art + Australia is now designed by John Warwicker
→ The first issue 'Recomposite' is published and includes contributions by Brook Andrew, Jarrod Rawlins, Julie Ewington and Rex Butler
→ The first book under the new editorship, 'Minefield' is published. 'Minefield' looks at Tim Burns controversial work included in the 1973 Mildura Sculpture Triennale
→ Art + Australia publishes the Macau Days a tri-lingual book (English, Portuguese, Chinese) that includes a series of poetic texts by Brian Castro and artworks by John Young, which both engage their shared histories of Macau.
→ Vol 53.2 'Extraterritoriality' includes ‘Metafisica Australe’ by Imants Tillers. It includes contributions by Mark Feary, Tessa Laird and Chantal Faust
→ Vol 54.1 'The Plague' is published and includes contributions by Ann Debono, Bernhard Sachs and Jake Chapman
→ 'Apostrophe Duchamp' is published a compilation of rare documents and essays about Marcel Duchamp’s exhibition that toured New Zealand and Australia from 1968 and the exhibition's impact on Australian conceptual art.
→ Vol 54.2 'Unnaturalism' includes a largescale artist project by Irene Hanenberg and contributions by Archie Barry and Helen Macdonald.
Exile. There is a huge difference between banishing innocent people to a forlorn island and exiling people who have been tried fairly and condemned by a court of law. In the context of Manus ‘exile’ means being made a pariah, ostracised and expelled to a place where the laws and rights created to ensure a dignified existence are suspended. BEHROUZ BOOCHANI, 2019
→ Art + Australia supports a year long research project 'The image is not nothing (Concrete Archives)' edited by Lisa Radford and Yhonnie Scarce an ‘an evolving and open archive project, which to date, has involved fieldwork to various sites of nuclear colonisation, genocide and memorialisation.’
→ Vol 55.2 'Brutalism'. The issue includes an article by Behrouz Boochani
→ Vol 56.1 'Outside' is published and includes ‘Outsider Art in Australia: Artists’ Voices Versus Art-world Mythologies’ an essay on Australian outsider art by Anthony White, Anna Parlane, Grace McQuilten and Charles Green
This issue is born out of forest fires and deforestation. It is born out of extraction and despoliation, which ravage landscapes and people, including unique and irreplaceable lifeways, languages and cultures. This issue is born out of anger and despair for irretrievable losses, including plant and animal relations we will never see again. This issue is dedicated to the three billion animals that lost their lives on this continent in the summer of 2019–20, losses subsequently eclipsed by a virus spiralling out of control in the anthroposphere. TESSA LAIRD, 2020
→ Art + Australia published Vol 56.2 'Event Horizon' and Vol 57.1 'Multinaturalism'. Art + Australia also publishes ‘The Art Of Laziness: Contemporary Art And Post-Work Politics’ edited by Francis Russell and David Attwood
→ 'Multinaturalism' was edited by Tessa Laird and includes contributions by Peter Waples Crowe, Alexis Wright and Michael Taussig
Over twelve months ago, from the depths of a Melbourne lockdown Art + Australia called out to friends, colleagues and our extended artistic community to see how everyone was coping. This inherently local approach was, at the time, a particular characteristic of lockdowns. Our usual points of connection and exchange had been severed, which meant casual conversations taken for granted needed to be supplemented in other ways. EDITORIAL, 2022
→ Due to the COVID19 pandemic and its impacts on distribution, freighting and printing Art + Australia ‘pivots’ to a new digital platform designed by Karen ann Donachie and Andy Simionato
→ Issue 57.2 'The Pivot' edited by Su Baker checks in with artists and galleries currently experiencing the impacts of the pandemic on their work and exhibitions. It includes contributions by Sean Gladwell, Marco Fusinato
→ Rebecca Coates writes on the newly built Shepparton Art Museum (SAM)
→ Jeremy Eaton begins as editor of Art + Australia.
→ The Art + Australia Study Centre is launched with new long form research projects
→ Art + Australia publishes Vol 58.1 ‘The View’ which looks at key global art events and includes an interview with Venice Biennale curator Cecilia Alemani, a discussion between Yuki Kihara and Natalie King. To mark the twenty year anniversary or Jo Darbyshire’s influential curatorial project ‘The Gay Museum’ Art + Australia published an extended discussion
→ Vol 58.2 ‘The Mirror’ call for responses to the arising impacts of Artificial Intellegence on Art. It includes a new commissioned film by Stanton Cornish-Ward and a conversation with Joel Sherwood Spring and Sebastian Henry Jones
As we see across ‘The Fever (Part One)’ the archive as a structure and its ephemera are in a constant state of accrual, decomposition and reimagining. It is the work of artists and communities who work on and through the archive to tangibly outline the archive’s limits and capacity to connect people, culture and places. But as the ever-evolving technical apparatus of the archive charges forward we see that archives can also fail us. EDITORIAL, 2024
→ Art + Australia publishes Vol 59.1 The Sun and 59.2 The Fever. Art + Australia also launches it new digital archive, which includes high resolution scans dating back to 1963
→ Vol 59.1 'The Sun' includes reviews and overviews of key events happening globally. Judy Annear reviews the Yokohoma Triennale, Christopher Parkinson writes on the work of Maria Madeira Timor Leste's inaugural representative at the Venice Biennale, and Reuben Keehan writes on the first Austronesian Triennale hosted in Taiwan and Victoria Perin writes on the forthcoming Bea Maddock catalogue raisonné.
→ Vol 59.2 'The Fever' looks at the concept of the archive and includes contributions by artists and writers. Peta Clancy, Kirsten Garner Lyttle and Jahkarli Romanis looks at First Nations approaches to photography and archival photographs
Art + Australia Art + Australia ISSN 1837-2422 All content published after October 2023 by Art + Australia is available under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) except where otherwise stated. For more information about use and distribution you can view our Editorial Guidelines.
Publisher: Victorian College of the Arts
University of Melbourne
