You may not have noticed, but new media art is now collectible. That’s the word from Australian Art Collector magazine who devoted a recent article to the phenomenon and interviewed collectors who are willing to plonk down anywhere from $300 to $10,000 for a DVD of an artist’s work.
Melbourne artist David Rosetzky, for example, is riding the crest of this wave and at 34 years of age, is one of the leading artist of the medium. Works by him in editions of six go for three grand each. Compared to a painting these are low, low prices – but about $2995.00 more than you’d expect to pay in overnight rentals.
Realising that a huge body of work is emerging from artist’s studios and they’ve doing sod all about it, the Art Gallery of NSW have announced the Anne Landa Award. Created by Edmund Capon and the late-Landa’s daughter Sophie, the award
“will be part of a biennial curated exhibition of innovative film, video, and photomedia. It will also be the first acquisitive award in Australia to focus on this area of practice. One work will then be selected to enter the permanent collection of the AGNSW. The inaugural exhibition is to be curated by Wayne Tunnicliffe,Curator of Contemporary Australian Art.”
Yay Wayne! Never has anyone done so much in recent years to up the quality of contemporary art at the AGNSW. (Well ok, yes, Victoria Lynn).
Anne Landa, a former AGNSW trustee who died in 2002, was co-ordinator of the Landa scholarship for young pianists, a member of the committee of the Sydney piano competition, an advisory council member for the College of Fine Arts and a director of Greater Union.
The AGNSW pulled a pretty decent coup by getting Academy Award winner and nominee Peter Weir to front the prize to the media. It was a pity that the Sydney Morning Herald writer covering the press launch was more interested in asking Weir what he thought of Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King‘s chances up against his own Master and Commander: The Far Side of The World than the to-doings of young new media artists. Still, the announcement of the prize made page 3.
