This keynote is supported by The Australian Institute of Art History (AIAH) and hosted by the National Gallery of Victoria. 

​

​

Richard Bell’s exhibition “RELINKING” (June 25–December 4, 2022), at Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, features statement paintings accompanied by two essays by Bell on the position of Aboriginal art and artists in the art world. The first essay is ‘Bell’s Theorem: Aboriginal Art—It’s a White Thing!’, a landmark text originally published in 2002. The second essay is ‘Bell’s Theorem (Reductio ad Infinitum): Contemporary Art - It’s a White Thing’, written in April 2022, shortly before the opening of documenta fifteen (in which Bell was a participating artist). For this event, Andrew McNamara joins Richard Bell for a conversation about the latter essay, which was recently published in e-flux.

​

​

5pm: Welcome to NGV and Acknowledgement of Country by Myles-Russell Cook, Curator of Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Victoria.

5.03pm: Thank you to NGV and Acknowledgement of Country by Associate Professor Anthony White, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. Introduction of AAANZ, the conference and the current Keynote. 

5.10pm: Richard and Andrew in Conversation

 

​

About Speakers

Richard Bell, a member of the Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Goreng Goreng communities, is one of Australia’s most significant artists and activists who explores the complex artistic and political problems of Western, colonial and Indigenous art production.

Andrew McNamara is an art historian and writer, whose work largely focuses on the modernist legacy for contemporary art and culture. Another enduring topic of research interest is the question of how the arts and humanities are evaluated in modern and contemporary societies. Recent works include Undesign (2018); Surpassing Modernity (2018/19); Bauhaus Diaspora and Beyond (2019), and the exhibition Bauhaus Now (2020-2021). He curated Bauhaus Now at the Museum of Brisbane, September 2020-April 2021 and is Emeritus Professor at QUT.

 

​

Image: Richard Bell, 2022. Image by Nils Klinger, documenta15. Image courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Meanjin / Brisbane