Australian Art Into The World
The problem
It might be expected that with the expansion of the concept of International art and the post-modern relativising of centralist assumptions in the late 1980s Australia would no longer have to worry about its isolation and indeed that with the new technologies the isolation would no longer be real.
The Reality is a bit different. It is certainly true that in the 1980s an artist like Imants Tillers was able to capitalise on the notion of received second hand imagery through postcards and magazines as a starting point for post-modern appropriation making Australia the natural home for the Transavantgarde - but alas Italy was also experiencing the angst of marginalisation but from within the heart of Europe so that it was their version that became the key to the art historical record in what remains a market driven culture.
The centre of gravity is where the resources are and on the whole the resources thin out as you move away from the centre or centres. It is true that today there are itinerant curators who work on exhibitions in Europe and to a lesser extent America and are also invited to curate exhibitions in Asia but their base is in Europe and the projects they service are based on Japan or newly emerging economies with vast potential for mass market development eg Korea and China.
The thinner the resources the less critical attention is available and the less likely something is to be considered a crucial part of the history. There have been many theoretical shifts to try and change this including the death of history itself which would seem to reduce the impact of centrist histories but no one can change the basic reality. For example - when I took leave to curate the first Liverpool Biennale in the UK - even though it was a regional project the exhibition received two page spreads in all the main daily broadsheets in their weekend issues, Times, Guardian, Observer, Telegraph, Independent etc�The exhibition received rave reviews in Art Monthly UK, Art And America and serious coverage in several other International journals. By comparison the response we can expect here is local if any, very thin and more often than not destructive.
Worse still for Australia, with the advent of globalisation and the �discovery� of art from developing countries Curators and collectors from the centres started flying straight past Australia for more exotic venues in Asia and the Pacific. If they came it was for a day in Sydney on the way to Arnhemland or Papunya.
In spite of all this most of us see our culture as very much part of the world and feel the need for feedback from others - to be included in a conversation not merely listening and mimicking those on stage. Distance is always a problem not just because of the freight � there have been some very creative solutions found for international exhibitions using site specific works, fabricating in situ, projection and photo works etc�It is also the importance of face to face contact and the presence an artist has around town. Dealers in NY or Europe tell Australian artists �Sorry if you are not going to spend a considerable time here where the gallery is I cannot market you successfully�. There are striking exceptions notably Tracy Moffatt � portable, cheap by international standards and just a bit exotic! Tracey is a very good artist but she is not exceptional to the degree that she has been picked up.
More recently some galleries run by Australians have opened overseas, Karen Lovegrove in LA and Martin Browne in NY for example and some of our more adventurous galleries attend international art fairs with some success Sarah Cottier, Roslyn Oxley, Sherman, Anna Schwartz for example but this is a slow business and needs constant follow up to keep collectors involved between their annual visit to Basle, Madrid or Chicago.
Curators who come here usually by invitation from OZCO �do�� Australia in four days with little or no advance preparation and nearly always express surprise (irritation) that there is too much to see in the time and promise to return then forget - with the notable exception of Renee Block, who is one of a handful of international curators to have a sustained commitment to Australian art.
Australia tragically has no museum of contemporary art as yet where such a visitor could quickly get a sense of the best Australian art of our time alongside the best of International art. Terry Smith noted recently that Australian audiences would never take contemporary art seriously till there is a museum dedicated to permanent displays of the history of contemporary art. This means collections that place Australian art since 1960 into its international context.
For the majority of Australian artists it is still leave home or be content with a local practice. Has anything changed?
The history of internationalism in Australian art
Tension between home grown and international art has loomed large for Australian artists and critics. The most infamous case being the cut and thrust between Bernard Smith and Donald Brook contesting the importance of Melbourne antipodeans versus Sydney modernists but even then Smith advocated exporting the Antipodeans to the world or at least �back home� to the UK. I have always found it a little inconsistent to turn your back on the world outside while yearning for its recognition. However Smith had a point. The influence of International modernism was overwhelming and slavish mimicry of its styles would never become the basis for a healthy local practice. It has been argued that the two world wars so disrupted the Australian experience of International art that it was saved from absorption by creative misreading. Nolan is a spectacular case in point taking the appearance of one thing and adding it to some quite alien tendency but getting away with it through his Australian luck as a bricoleur.
After the Second World War American art came to dominate International modernism at least as far as publicity was concerned. It was not really till the late 1970s that we began to re-discover European Art and the continuity of ideas that had noted - but not been swamped by- the US propaganda machine. In fact it began to become apparent just how much European traditions had been appropriated by the US. In this context what hope of notice was there for the aspiring Australian avant-gardist?
Brett Whiteley spent some time in London in the 1960s and made a bit of a name for himself and was able to continue showing there subsequently. Boyd and Nolan spent half their lives there and managed modest careers mainly supported by Australian collectors, Lanceley was moderately successful while he was working in London but this was not fully International. It is my feeling that they were all accepted as honorary British artists while they were there but had little impact in the States or Europe.
Australian Artists and institutional strategies
In the past 40 years artists have adopted different strategies depending on the prevailing winds - Australia makes a fascinating case study of changing models for cultural issues around centre and periphery since the 1960s. The different strategies that have been adopted by Australian artists mirror this changing International environment.
I detect three main stages in this process of change:
1. The Internationalism of Avant-garde artists in the 1960s and 1970s,
2. Post-Modern criticism of authorship (which also weakened cultural hegemonies) in the 1980s,
3. Expanded definitions of Internationalism in the 1990s.
In the 1960s and 1970s Australian Avant-garde artists travelled widely, often to slightly eccentric destinations such as Lausanne, �odz, or Reykjavik where conceptual art and performance thrived away from the imperatives of the market. There were International networks of artists such as Fluxus and International Artists Co-operation that initially evolved free from institutional influence.
The pre-eminence of information over material presence in this work meant that it could take the form of instructions that could be communicated as mail art. Actions that had a subsequent life as video were also very portable and were particularly important for artists such as Mike Parr, Peter Kennedy and Tim Johnson from the conceptual group at Inhibodress in Sydney.
Through such documentation, performances enacted in front of small audiences often in private spaces left surprisingly persistent images in the collective memory of Australia.
Mike Parr Cathartic action/Social gestures 1977
Ken Unsworth Five secular settings for sculpture as ritual 1975.]
Some Australian artists chose to work in Japan rather than Europe or America because of their advanced attitude to new technology and culture. Take for example Stelarc's experiences in Japan dating from the 1970s.
Stelarc Performance in Japan 1978
Stelarc Performance The Third hand 1985]
Peter Callas also made ambitious works in Japan that would have been impossible at the time in Australia. Not just because of the available technology but because of the openness of the corporate sector to innovation and the support of new art.
Peter Callas Video Festival 1986
Peter Callas The Fujiama Pyramid 1990
The continuing lure of NY in the late 1960s
At the same time there were naturally many Australian artists particularly more conventional painters and sculptors who continued to flock to New York some of them never to return.
There was a rush of artists in the mid to late 1960s that passed through New York interestingly at that time Minimalism had become the most important avant-garde movement. It was arguably the first fully American movement but most of the Australian visitors did not absorb this influence at the time, with the possible exception of Robert Jacks.
Robert Jacks Knave paltry and poghuing picked green 1972
Robert Jacks Red painting 1967
John Davis was there a bit later and his work was radically influenced by being in NY but not by art movements but by the harsh conditions lack of materials trying to support his family on nothing but making his art on the street with materials that always have abounded on the sidewalk in the lower east side. Cardboard tubes from the rag trade, rope, paper, fabric, rubber whatever is piled on the street corner. On his return he picked up twigs and litter from the Malee near his home then in Swan Hill.
John Davis Mildura 1973
John Davis Shrine 1983 from Presence and absence AGWA
The majority of artists visiting NY responded to the earlier Colourfield painting supported by Clem Greenberg and later with Lyrical abstraction that can be seen as a strategy associated with Colourfield in decline.
Sydney Ball Canto No21 late 1960s
Sydney Ball Tashama farm 1973
Tony McGillick Spray gun Virus 1969
Tony McGillick Imogen�s Ensign 1973
John Peart actually painted his most radical abstractions before going to NY on his return he was working towards lyrical abstraction with just a touch of Larry Poons
John Peart Cool Corner II 1968
John Peart Golden 1974
On the other hand Robert Hunter working in London exhibited with Nicholas Logsdail along side Robert Law, Peter Joseph and Alan Charlton. This was a more phenomenological investigation into painting with metaphysical implications that are missing from Minimalism but continue to interest European artists throughout the 60s & 70s.
Robert Hunter Wall installation AGNSW 1973
Robert Law, Blue Black indigo Black 1975
Robert Owen was also in London at this time his connection was more to English constructivism that had its origin in St Ives and Nuam Gabo and which by the mid sixties had major exponents like Ken Martin who was then head of St Martins art school. 1968 was also the heyday of Kinetic art and Own became very interested in the way constructivism and kinetics connected science nature and radical visual imagery. Owen participated in the Artists placement group with Leonard Hessing also living in London at the time. This group placed artists in industry to take advantage of new technologies. He was also included in the exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity at ICA 1968
Robert Owen Chinese Whispers 1977
Robert Owen Appositions 1983
British Abstraction was very lively in the late 1960s even if it has been buried by history some Archaeologist will come along and unearth it. For Australians it is particularly interesting because of the direct influence on artists like Johnson, Dunn, Burn,
Turnbull Painting 17 1965
Anthony Caro Prarie 1967
Michael Johnson was also in London 1960 �67 before heading off to NY for 5 years. During that time he worked with a number of artists including Michael Kidner constructing 3D paintings (he began making his own shaped canvasses at about this time). He was also involved with Ron Robertson-Swann in the re-painting of all Caro�s sculptures as his studio assistant 1960-65
Michael Johnson Night 1968
Michael Johnson Frontal Red 1969
London was very vibrant at the time with philosophical and particularly phenomenological debates raging in the art workers union and at the ICA. Kinetic art and its interactive aspect Cybernetic art argued an engagement of the viewer and this spilled over into happenings and participatory installations. The ICA showed When attitude becomes form at this time and Richard Gregory curated an exhibition based on his book The Intelligent Eye.
Ian Burn and Mel Ramsden came to London at this time and initially connected with highly reductive abstraction which quickly evolved into a phenomenological approach to Conceptual art there. Ian Burn was influential in a small circle of artists but remained an unpublicized young abstract artist in 1965-67 too short a time for a reputation as a painter but incredibly incisive and groundbreaking in his phenomenological investigations.
Ian Burn Blue variable No 2 1966
Ian Burn Reflex Blue 1965
Ian Burn No object implies the existence of any other 1967
Ian Burn Abstracts of perception No.8 1968-69
By the time they arrived in NY where Art and Language became a critical part of the American model of Conceptualism as defined by Sol Lewitt.
Conceptual Art back in Australia was probably little influenced by Art and Language at the time however there were allied second-generation conceptualists including Performance, Land art, mail art, Fluxus and Vienna Aktionismus. These movements were introduced by a number of individuals some of whom traveled including Mike Parr, Peter Kennedy, Tim Johnson from Inhibodress and Albie Thoms and Martin Sharp from Yellow House and through the projects of John Kaldor; Christo Little Bay Gilbert and George Living Sculptures and Richard Long.
The 1980s and the supremacy of the Market
There was no escaping the impact of the market in this sorry decade. Its voraciousness sought out and even manufactured the appearance of new energy. First there was the attempt to create new expressionism through Zeitgeist, Berlin and New Spirit in painting, London, the influence of this marketing by Curators and Galleries maintained a foothold for about five years before dissipating leaving a few old timers well entrenched but the mass of the troops in oblivion. In Melbourne traces of this still linger on.
New York�s East Village took back the initiative as the latest thing in the mid 80s. The new galleries emerged as experimental outstations for uptown dealers wanting a part of the action. They were ideologically opposed to the expressionism from Europe but keen to get in on the possibility of new figuration in some way. The resulting Neo Avant-garde and its post-modern rhetoric about appropriation and commodification was thus ensured global prominence. This fictional movement fitted well with the Frankfurt inspired Marxist art theory that dominated the NY art establishment at the time and ensured it received substantial publicity internationally.
It was not the critical practice it purported to be however the rhetoric was hungrily absorbed back in Australian art schools. Good artists whose work could be swept up in the vacuum of this market were appropriated sometimes to their temporary advantage but usually with some damage to their authenticity. At the time authenticity was a bad word anyway being associated with the legacy of Bourgeois individualism.
Failing to recognise the centrality of the market, Australian institutions attempted to take advantage of this stylistic portability producing several export exhibitions of Australian art to Europe and the USA. It is unlikely that this made much of an impact on mainstream perceptions but it did launch modest international careers for a few of the artists.
In Australia legitimisation of the second hand in post modern art was enthusiastically embraced! Baudrillard visited Sydney in 1984 for the Future fall conference, an event that probably had a disproportionate influence. Many in the art world took Baudrillard's idea of free-floating signifiers quite literally thereby dispelling their concern that unfamiliarity with the original had been a disadvantage. Whereas Baudrillard himself was writing a kind of philosophical science fiction to test the limits of reality and representation the idea that the referent had become fatally obscured by the signifier was taken to be a kind of permission to behave as if there was no real and no tomorrow. Now we could cite all kinds of complicated reasons why originality and the function of the individual subject failed.
At the same time Derrida 'seemed' to be telling us that deconstruction was an end in itself. While this may be true of undergraduate exegesis it translates very badly into the practice of art making. All too often this sponsored the painting of bad copies of modern masters that were portentously described as deconstructions of the Modernist Cannon (whatever that might be). Such theories were sympathetic to ideological positions from some academics in the 1970s that sought to democratise art by denying the presence of the object as feeding into the production of the individual genius that was seen as the dog end of Bourgeois subjectivity. Intellectuals have long been at work trying to balance this slightly ridiculous figure of the genius but an individual who is able to make things with presence is not necessarily a class enemy.
At a more serious level, other artists saw that critical theories of the original provided a genuine opportunity for Australians to turn marginality into a viable and productive platform. Creative misreading of International movements had always been an interesting and productive phenomenon in Australian art but now it would be converted into a deliberate manipulation of theory and practice. Imants Tillers complex conceptual paintings in the 1980s investigated; exchange, appropriation, periphery and dissemination as the basis for new artistic strategies from the margins.
Imants Tillers Fire dreaming and spirit of place 1984
Imants Tillers Pataphysical man 1985
John Young Hermit painting # 1 1999
Lindy Lee The visitation 1985
In 1990 the US based organization Art International organised a conference at Venice on the topic of the new Internationalism. It was largely prompted by the exhibition, Magiciennes de la Terre, curated by Jean-Hubert Martin in 1989 for Centre Pompidou. It became clear that while the problems raised by Magiciennes and noted by Hal Foster were still disconcertingly real, it was no longer possible to avoid the consequences of these issues. We could not close the door on the tide of new art finding its way into International exhibitions from beyond the Pale.
As Foster later noted - new, often raw and initially cheap objects from the developing world stimulated a post-crash Avant-garde consumer environment. I recall Braco Dimitrijevic in Venice saying something like this;
"but of course we are tired of always trying to be new- let us now enjoy this vampirism and feast on fresh blood."
None the less the creative stimulus facilitated by this jaded appetite has introduced some extraordinary art from parts of the world that had previously been obscure to the market.
Patrick Vilaire, President's Chair 1986
Cyprien Tokoudagba Untitled 1991
Romero de Andrade Lima The closed garden 1991
Kane Kwei L'Oignon 1988
Ngnetchopa 10,000 yen 1990
There was also a response from artists working on the borders eg Guillermo Gomez Pena in Mexico and Tim Johnson in Australia.
Slides: Gomez Pena and Coco Fusco Two undiscovered American Indians visit Sydney 1992
Tim Johnson Visualisation 1992
Australian art has once again capitalised on a developing global situation. Taking advantage of devolution of traditional centres we turned to our geographical region. Our relations with Japan had been heavily overshadowed by their relationship with USA making Australia Japan cultural relations something of a one-way street with the Japanese having little to gain from the association, but the new economic areas of South East Asia provided a very interesting new arena for our artists and educators. There was inevitably some opportunism, for example propping up under funded University departments by taking fee paying Asian students. There have also been collaborations between Australian artists and their South East Asian peers where the equality of exchange was sometimes suspect, but on the whole there has been genuine enthusiasm for sharing experience that has had an irreversible effect on Australian theory and practice. Our institutions were fast to capitalise on the new climate by initiating exhibitions and exchanges with the region egged on by Government policy and Foreign Affairs funding.
The most effective product of this trend was The Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane. This meeting of artists from the many different countries in the region has been incredibly stimulating for all concerned. However it has also proved a striking example of an infrastructure generating that which it sets out to represent.
Inevitably interest in Indigenous art has led to greatly increased sales of Aboriginal art particularly in North America. In contemporary terms it also helped launch the International careers of non-traditional indigenous artists such as Tracy Moffatt and Gordon Bennett.
Tracy Moffatt Petthangs 1991
Gordon Bennett Requiem 1989
WHAT NEXT? What can we do? Do we want to?
1. Museum Collection on permanent display
I agree with Terry Smith that we need to have a serious museum of Contemporary Art - maybe Brisbane will be able to do some of this work but their intention is to look at the Asia Pacific context for Australian Art. This is very possibly the future and it has become a very interesting component of Australia�s Internationalism in recent years but does it give us enough of the complex international history I have been outlining above? Art Gallery of NSW has three rooms dedicated to the practice of exhibiting Australian contemporary art alongside major international figures but it is hopelessly inadequate space to represent even Australian art since 1960 let alone the world.
SOME �chance� Juxtapositions from the collection??
Unsworth - Kiefer
Burn - Kosuth
Robert Owen � Kounellis
Nixon � Richter
Janet Laurence - Rebecca Horn
Hilarie Mais � Richard Deacon
Juan Davila � Gilbert and George
Julie Rrap - Cindy Sherman
Imants Tillers � Francesco Clemente
Simryn Gill � Steven Willats
Robert Macpherson � Giulio Paolini
2. Include Australian artists wherever possible in International exhibitions.
This is one of the main commitments in my curatorial practice. Not just advocating people from outside come and look but being proactive about including Australians in important museum exhibitions with International and historical themes.
I would like to consider briefly the ways this has worked in a group of exhibitions I have curated over the years: The Bicentennial Australian Perspecta touring in Germany 1988, Boundary rider the 9th Biennale of Sydney 1992/3, Body at AGNSW 1997 and Trace The inaugural Liverpool Biennial in England 1999. Since 1999 I have also been working on ARCO 2002 and am in the process of curating an exhibition of 500 years of self-portraits, Raphael to Parr in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute London University.
The Bicentennial Australian Perspecta 1987/8
I chose only17 leading artists, this was a dramatic (frenzy inducing) cut from my first Perspecta that had included 150 artists. It was intended as a considered selection with the idea of an international tour and had to look authoritative in my view.
Talking with the press and even academics in Germany I first began to fully appreciate the problem we have in trying to be taken seriously as participating in the same discourse yet remaining ourselves. What was the trajectory of the Heidelberg exhibition and my selection for example? Or what distinguished these artists from their European Peers. It was quite medieval we were expected to be strangely exotic probably half naked or at best wacky, surf boards, corks on hats and kangaroos.
Show catalogue list the artists
The Boundary Rider 1992/3
Look at the juxtapositions of:
Gordon Bennett and Ashley Bickerton
Campfire and BAW
Coco Fusco/ Gomez Pena with Dolly Nampajimpa
Narelle Jubelin with Jochim Gerz
Janni Laurence and Doris Salcedo
Brenda Croft and Adrian Piper
Michiel Dolk with Rachel Whitread
Charles Anderson and Miroslaw Balka
Hany Armanious and Dan Wolgers
Jenny Watson and Miriam Cahn
Eugene Carchesio and Mladen Stilinovic
Joyce Hinterding and Melanie Counsell
Nigel Helyer and Hitoshi Nomura
Julie Rrap and Orlan
Body 1997
Bill Henson and Balthus
George Lambert and Lucien Freud
Arthur Boyd and Pollock
Unsworth and Yves Klein
Stelarc and Yves Klein
Mike Parr with Gina Pane
Julie Rrap with Duchamp
Del Favero with Moliniere
Trace 1999
Alex Rizkalla with Pascale Marthine Tayou
Roslyn Piggott with Nicola Costantino
Julie Gough with Doris Salcedo
Susan Norrie with Stan Douglas
DeClario with Dorothy Cross
Mike Parr and Erwin Wurm
ARCO 2002
Self Portraits Raphael to Parr 2004/5
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