No time to read the weekend newspaper critics? The Art Life is proud to present a brand new semi-regular feature – Critics At A Glance. Instead of wading through thousands of words to get to the point, The Art Life will do all the hard work for you by distilling the wit, wisdom and insights of your favourite critics into handy, readable and time saving summaries. Please enjoy!
Title: Biennial or Bust
Author: Sebastian Smee, national art critic.
Newspaper/DOP: The Australian, Saturday February 4, 2006.
Subject: International Biennales
Bottom line: There are many Biennales around the world. Some are good, some are bad. “I am very optimistic about this year’s Biennale of Sydney.”
Art crit talk: “Art has come to resemble fashion more and more in its thirst for emphatic new positions – usually contradictory ones – every season, so that one year beauty is in and the next it’s art-as-agitprop; one year painting is triumphant, the next it’s the new video boom; conceptualism seems to be on the wane only for it to be ascendant at the next big biennale. And on it goes.”
Did you know? “Biennales have other things going for them. They are a good place to see art that is not tailor-made for the commercial gallery environment: installations, for instance, as well as videos and performance events. And they provide good conditions [financing, logistics, and political will] to execute pieces of temporary public art.”
Eco-Friendly Recycled Material: Reused a quote from a conversation with Robert Storr, previously used on January 6.
No. Australian artists mentioned: 0
No. of International artists mentioned: 4
Title: Dish it Up
Author: John McDonald, “controversial art critic”.
Newspaper/DOP: The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday February 4, 2006.
Subject: Chinese art.
Bottom line: There are many Chinese artists. Their work is varied and interesting. Some live in Australia. “Given his taste in advertisments , it is appropriate that [Ray] Hughes exhibition of Chinese art is called Yum Cha.”
Art crit talk: “Yang Jingsong chronicles everyday life in a poetic style that reminds me of the Scottish painter Jock McFadyen or perhaps early Hockney. Ren Xiaolin’s pictures of women in blurred landscapes have a strong basis in traditional painting. His earlier works had echoes of Bonnard and Balthus, but in these pictures his surfaces are becoming aqueous and abstract.”
Did you know? “Politics is an embarrassment in much contemporary art – an exercise in selling prepackaged opinions to the converted.”
No. Australian artists mentioned: 3
No. of International artists mentioned: 11
