OPEN SESSION
2 December 2022 at 2:30:00 am
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Session Convenors
Dr Suzie Fraser, University of Melbourne
Session Speakers
Dr Suzie Fraser, University of Melbourne
Eric Riddler, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Angela Goddard, Griffith University
Victoria Adams, University of Auckland
The following open session includes papers about twentieth-century art in Australia and New Zealand.
“A splendid demonstration. Just one thing: were they for or against it?”: Art and protest in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand 1960-1980
Eric Riddler, Art Gallery of New South Wales
As the ideological battles of the Cold War-era engaged people of all generations and political backgrounds, artists faced a dilemma. By addressing these issues directly they risked venturing too far into propaganda or satire. Taking a neutral stance might be read as aloofness, especially at a time when contemporary art was increasingly perceived as something remote from everyday existence. On the other hand, could the methods of protest being used in the streets and underground media be effectively redeployed to bring contemporary art practice into the public mind? Using the visual resources of the Art Gallery of New South Wales National Art Archive, this presentation will explore how this region’s artists reacted to the social turbulence and emerging social and environmental concerns of half a century ago.
University Art Museums As Vehicles Of Production And Intervention In Australian Art History
Angela Goddard, Griffith University Art Museum
Comprising 26 per cent of the art museum sector in Australia, university art museums house collections, provide teaching and learning resources, community facilities, and exhibition venues, as well as showcase their universities. Historically, most were established to manage existing university art collections, and in Australia this model of ‘teaching museum’ was borrowed from the United States and the UK. In recent decades, as universities have pursued community engagement agendas, university art museums have become more prominent.
In this paper, I argue that Australian university art museums can be characterised by a capacity for experimentation and innovation through structural freedoms of expression and academic autonomy.
However, within the neoliberal university, art museums are at risk, where administrative decision making is informed by transitory bureaucrats, and contributions to scholarship, pedagogical outcomes for students and public outreach are mapped against costs of caring for collections and expensive-to-maintain physical spaces. These risks have amplified since the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper will explore university art museums as vehicles of production and intervention in Australian art history, and identify their strengths and risks in a post-covid, neoliberal context.
Building A “Britain Of The South”: Australian Galleries’ Acquisition Of British Art From The 1906-7 New Zealand International Exhibition In Christchurch
Victoria Adams, University of Auckland
Organised by the British Government, the British Art Section of the 1906-7 New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch was the largest display of British art ever seen in the country. A principal motivation of the exhibit was to educate the colonial audience on what “good” art was within the Empire, and to cater to the market nostalgic for “home”.
Australian public galleries, having made purchases of art for their collection from recent intercolonial exhibitions of British art in Australia, did not acquire as many works from Christchurch as New Zealand art galleries and art societies did. The National Gallery of Victoria did not even send a representative to Christchurch, while those sent by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, despite purchasing several oils and watercolours, were recorded as being underwhelmed with the exhibit, deeming their collection already superior when compared with the artworks on offer. The Art Gallery of South Australia, on the other hand, was on par with New Zealand art societies in terms of taking advantage of the British Art Section, purchasing some of the finest Arts and Crafts exhibits available.
This paper will compare and contrast differing contemporary reactions to the Australian purchases in order to examine the impact of the selections on the development of public art collections of the period. This will allow for a greater understanding of the art historical significance of the British Art Exhibit at the 1906-7 Exhibition within the history of Australasian collections.
Biographies
Dr Suzie Fraser, University of Melbourne
Dr Suzanne Fraser is Centre Coordinator at the Centre of Visual Art and has previously been a lecturer in Art History at the University of Melbourne. As well as lecturing, she is an arts writer and researcher. Her PhD investigated the role of colonial art collections in shaping Australian cultural identity and her current research uses postcolonial theory to analyse digital imperialism in contemporary art practice. She co-authored the report Refuge 2017 Evaluation: Heatwave (2018) on behalf of the Research Unit in Public Cultures and the City of Melbourne.
Eric Riddler, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Eric Riddler is an art historian and researcher who is currently the Visual Resources Librarian at the Art Gallery of New South Wales National Art Archive. He has worked on a number of exhibitions, publications and research projects about Australian and New Zealand artists, especially those working in the mid twentieth century.
Angela Goddard, Griffith University
Angela Goddard is a curator, writer and Director of the Griffith University Art Museum (GUAM), chair of University Art Museums Australia and a board member of the Sheila Foundation. Recent publications include Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings (co-edited with Tim Riley Walsh) (GUAM and Power, 2020), and recent exhibitions include Round About or Inside co-curated with Wouter Davidts at GUAM in 2021 and forthcoming at Vandenhove (Centre for Art and Architecture), Ghent University in 2022, and Rebecca Belmore: Turbulent Water co-curated with Wanda Nanibush at GUAM 2021 and Buxton Contemporary, University of Melbourne 2021-22.
Victoria Adams, University of Auckland
Victoria Adams is a doctoral candidate in Art History at the University of Auckland. She is researching the British Art Section of the New Zealand International Exhibition held in Christchurch in 1906-7 and its scope and impact on local taste. Victoria has worked in art galleries and is interested in understanding how Victorian art is collected and exhibited. Passionate about Aestheticism and Classicism, Victoria completed her MA in Art History at the University of Auckland in 2013, with her thesis examining the homes and art of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. She has also worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant while completing her postgraduate studies.