We ship our food and our resources off all around the world, but when it comes to art are we an imports only country?
Gallery goers have probably noticed that Australian cultural institutions are big on importing successful exhibitions from overseas, with capital cities making sure to snare a stop on the touring schedule of ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions such as the currently showing Hollywood Costumes exhibition at ACMI.
Some Australian galleries, such as the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) have forged special relationships with international galleries, scoring exclusive rights to present their collections in Australia.
In AGWA’s case, their relationship with New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has meant they will be the only gallery to host such exhibitions as Picturing New York: Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art and the upcoming Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond: The World Imagined. These exhibitions are beneficial to the gallery because their risk factor is low. They have already been tested and prove successful.
Like a gigantic art sponge we are soaking up the classics from across the world, with the high dollar not seeming to sway the ambitious touring plans of many. But when it comes to going the other way, what Australian art is seen internationally?
At the Melbourne Writers’ Festival last year a keen audience member asked a similar question of the New Yorker’s art critic Peter Schjeldahl. She wanted to know if Indigenous Australian art was as prolific as we thought it was here in Australia. Schjeldahl seemed to know little of Indigenous art, and despite the passionate Tony Ellwood setting him straight, Schjeldahl – arguably the most recognised art critic in the world – had little knowledge of one of our most prominent art categories.
One exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London aims to combat the lack of international awareness of Australian art. The aptly titled Australia will open in September and present the most significant collection of Australian art ever seen in the United Kingdom.
At the press launch Royal Academy of Arts chief executive Charles Saumarez Smith said, ‘People in this country have been, historically, shamefully ignorant of Australian art.’
‘The exhibition will be, for everyone in this country, a great revelation.’
It is hoped that this exhibition, which spans more than 200 years and features over 200 works, will help to change the lack of knowledge surrounding Australian art. It features artists from Nolan to Henson, McCubbin to Gladwell and Namatjira to the artists of the Western Desert.
Yet one problem that Australian art has always faced, regardless of whether it is film or visual art, is that aspects of colonialism and landscape dominate international perceptions, and issues affecting contemporary, urban-dwelling Australians are nowhere to be seen. While the Royal Academy’s Australia does represent an impressive collection of artists, and yes a good deal of them are contemporary and urban, it has been themed around landscape and therefore that is the theme likely to sit at the forefront of the mind of attendees.
New York gallery Garis & Hahn has recently opened an exhibition featuring Australian artists. Peripheral Visions: Contemporary Art from Australia, which features Vernon Ah Kee, Liam Benson and Amanda Marburg among others and is curated by Marissa Bateman, who was the assistant curator at the Australian Pavilion in 2009.
The curators say that it offers an alternative to the ‘routine association of Australian art with landscape.’
Yet, Australian art is still a drop in the ocean when compared with the exhibitions that the United States and Europe export and we still have a long way to go to shatter the perception that Australia is all about beaches and bushes. Time to stage some more blockbuster exhibitions of our own.
