‘The Moderns: Highlights from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’: Rockhampton Art Gallery

People often say they don’t like modern art.  More often than not, I’d say those people don’t particularly appreciate contemporary art, and would actually enjoy Modern art.  This theory is best tested with a visit to the Rockhampton Art Gallery to see the current touring exhibition titled ‘The Moderns: Highlights from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’

Modernism is a pretty big term, it refers to a Twentieth Century trend to ignore the strict art rules developed since Classical times, and to develop new approaches to art, in particular to painting.[1]  Artists started to use colours to express emotion and atmosphere instead of pure realism, it didn’t matter that brushstrokes were visible or that objects in the painting were reduced to block colours, and inspiration started coming from new places like technological advancement or even the subconscious mind.   It all sounds like very forward-thinking European-artsy kind of stuff, but here in Australia, artists were producing some of the finest examples of Modern art in the world.

As you enter ‘The Moderns’, it seems like a very traditional showing of paintings, but on closer inspection of each work, you see that they’re all excellent examples of how this radical thinking at the start of the last century was expressed in art.  The range of different styles in this show is quite impressive; from portraiture and landscapes to highly abstracted and composition-based paintings, and each one a home-grown piece that rivals the best hanging in the best galleries and museums around the world.  Some of the works are seldom seen outside the QAG, like William Dobell’s The Cypriot 1940, and also include some very well known names of Australian art, such as Peter Purves Smith, Margaret Preston, and Russell Drysdale.

A particular highlight, even from a show billed as a highlights collection, is William Dargie’s Portrait of Albert Namatjira 1956.  This Archibald Prize winner[2] is an astounding example of Modernist portraiture.  It shows Namatjira sitting before a fairly nondescript background, staring into middle distance.  He doesn’t look happy, or sad, or bored; he looks regal surveying all that it his (including us, the viewers), yet he’s in everyday clothes looking, presumably, like he did every day.  It shows a man who was a cultural leader, not only in the art world, but also for Indigenous society.  But this is where the ‘Modern’ part comes in.  It’s obviously a well composed and executed painting (a real credit to Dargie), but the fact that you can clearly see every brushstroke, and that it looks like it was painted quite quickly using modern materials gives us the impression that the spirit of Albert Namatjira could not have been captured in any other way, not matter how hard or quickly you tried.  This is a Modern masterpiece.

‘The Moderns: Highlights from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’ is an important exhibition.  It shows us the strength and might of Australian artists from a period generally dominated by the greats of Europe and America.  It is a real treat for both the art enthusiast and the uninitiated alike, and opportunity not to be missed.

 

‘The Moderns: Highlights from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’ is on exhibition at the Rockhampton Art Gallery from 5 October to 18 November 2012.  It is a touring exhibition from The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.

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[1] Newall, D. (2008) Appreciating Art: An expert companion. Camberwell: Viking, p.155 - 157.

[2] Artgallery.nsw.gov.au (1956) Archibald Prize finalists 1956 :: Art Gallery NSW. [online] Available at: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1956/ [Accessed: 20 Oct 2012].

... in living colour!

This is the recording of my presentation at the September Walter's Lounge event in Rockhampton. The Keppel Coast Arts Council host a monthly event at the Walter Reid Cultural Centre featuring local musicians and artists. I delivered this presentation as a kind of introductory session on viewing contemporary art. It covers and combines some of the things I've already mentioned here on WAILAT?, but also adds some handy guidelines into the mix, with the added bonus of actually hearing and seeing me say it all! If you don't really want to listen to me speak, or you can read faster than I can speak, I've also added roughly what I said (minus the examples of artworks) as text below.

This was filmed and edited by a pal of mine, Terry Wreghitt. He's a short film maker. You should check him out. But be warned, the two films hosted here do feature me. http://vimeo.com/user1765006

Enjoy!

 

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I have a big question for you...

Who is the audience for contemporary art? The answer: Everyone. My evidence for this is that galleries are generally free to visit and you don’t need a secret password or a key to get in, it’s not a secret society. If you’re one of the people out there who might like to visit an art gallery, you should feel like you belong there, that your opinions on what you’re looking at are valid and worthwhile. The big problem is that many people don’t feel like they have the right to comment on art, especially if it’s only an occasional visit, or if they’ve been dragged there by some well-meaning relative.

I believe that there are many hidden barriers stopping people enjoying art and what art can do for them. I think the biggest of these barriers is that art is confusing. Heaps of art throughout history has been pretty difficult to get a handle on, for a wide variety of reasons, some of it’s full of symbols and hidden meanings, some of it’s confronting, some of it seems empty, and some of it’s just plain old weird. And without a decent education in art, this can leave you feeling like you’re the only person in the room who doesn’t get the joke, or make you feel like an ‘uncultured swine’. We have professional critics, curators, directors, (the list goes on) who are all very adept at being astute commentators on art, and a lot of people think that if you’re not one of them then they shouldn’t be commenting on art at all.

I’m not going to lie to you, having a good grounding in art history helps a lot, but that really shouldn’t exclude you from experiencing art, and it certainly doesn’t mean that your opinion on it isn’t worthwhile. I liken the feeling of not understanding art to a feeling of illiteracy, because you can see that there’s something there, you just don’t understand it. My belief though, is that people actually do have the tools and knowledge to interact with art, but don’t know how to begin or approach it. Luckily, I’ve come up with some guidelines to help anybody make that first step into making expert comments on art.

I’ve boiled the process down to two broad concepts you need to keep in mind when looking at art:

1. Yes, it is art.
2. You need to ask questions to get answers.

I know, it sounds ridiculous. This can’t be everything I need to remember when I’m looking at art, surely! Well, it is. Both points carry some pretty hefty concepts, so I’ll unpack them both, and then we’ll put them into practice. Before we do though, I’d like to remind you that this is only one way of developing a response to an artwork, there are many, many different ways of doing it, but I think that my guidelines are easy to remember, and can teach you a lot about art, and even yourself when you follow them.

Yes, it is art.

It doesn’t really sound like much, but this is a huge realisation for many people. Saying to yourself, “Yeah, this is actually a piece of art” means that you have to drop any negative thoughts about what you perceive as what constitutes ‘good’ art. It’s all about not being side-tracked by thinking, “Bloody hell, I could do that in about 12 minutes” or “My kid could do that” or “This cost how much?!”. This acceptance of art being worth looking at is usually the first casualty of contemporary art in society. There’s three reasons for this, and we need to touch on each to really understand why we need to forget it.

1. History.

Art has a very long history, and the icons we hold up as being the ultimate masters of art, like the Ninja Turtles, Picasso, Van Gogh, are ones that have made works that are now generally accepted as great works. When we see something that is claiming to be art, but doesn’t fit the ideals of being in-line with the greats, many people dismiss it as junk. The thing we need to remember is that at some stage, even the greats were trailblazers and their work was the stuff that didn’t fit in to the accepted view of art.

2. Our homes.

We shouldn’t confuse art that belongs in a gallery with art that belongs in our homes. Just because we can’t picture a piece of art hanging in our lounge room (or even picture it in any residential space at all) doesn’t mean it’s not worth looking at. It has a place to hang, and that’s in the gallery you’re in. Art doesn’t need to be pretty.

3. The media.

I guess sometimes there are slow news days and the only thing to focus on is art. The media has a bit of a history of beating up contemporary art; usually it’s about the cost. Unfortunately, the only thing this does is reinforce the opinion that art is a waste of time and money. This should all be ignored, just like we ignore bad press on sport or anything Kyle Sandilands says.

So, yes it is art. When we forget all of the baggage that has been loaded onto contemporary art, we’re free to see that it’s not nothing or frivolous, and it’s been created for us to view.

The other thing I should mention here is the reason artists make their work, the artist’s intention. Knowing what an artist wanted to achieve with a piece can really alter the way you read an artwork, but most casual observers of art aren’t reading journals and monographs and books about an artist before seeing their work, so we won’t enter that into the equation.

What we’re talking about here is regular, untrained folk going into a gallery on a Saturday arvo, looking at some art and making some intelligent comments and learning a little. And the very first step is to all agree that what we’re looking at, love it or hate it, is in fact, art.

You need to ask questions to get answers.

This one sounds simplistic as well. As a viewer of an artwork, you’ll always have questions, because you’re not the one who made it. They’re the things you would ask the artist if they were standing next to you in the gallery. I guess there are two types of questions you could ask about an artwork, questions of logistics (like “how did they make that?” or “I wonder how they got that in here?), and critical questions (like“Why is it so big?”, “Why is it all black and white?”, or “Why does it make me feel so sad?”). More often than not, the questions of logistics don’t get us anywhere, it’s the critical questions we need to focus on.

Usually, these questions start as minor, obvious observations about an artwork, and are quickly dismissed as being silly or not important and jump to the grand question of“What does it all mean?”. But the truth is, we answer the question of what it couldmean by working though these little observations. I do find it funny that people get annoyed when they don’t totally understand the whole meaning and purpose of a painting in a single, casual viewing, without any research, work, or prior knowledge. “I don’t get it! It’s rubbish!” Artists are clever people, but we’re not miracle workers! Back to my point, it’s important to stick to the first question you stumble on. If it’s the first thing you notice, there’s a good chance it will be the most important thing to you, and it will enlighten you the most. If you notice that the artwork is massive, think about why it is. If you first notice that the sculpture is shiny, think about why the artist would want to reflect the viewer. If you noticed the boobs first… high five, dude!

But who answers the questions for you? You do. It sounds a bit strange, but when you answer the obvious questions with obvious answers, you’ll either work something out about the purpose of the artwork, or it will lead you to a new question to answer. And eventually, you’ll come to some sort of a conclusion or at least a statement about the work or even just a clearer picture of how the artwork makes you feel. In a moment, I’ll go through a few examples to hopefully make this clearer, but before I do, I need to say that not everyone will come to the same conclusion. We don’t need to agree on art, in fact, the best part of viewing art is the discussions it builds with the other people you’re visiting the gallery with. And like I mentioned before, your perception of the work may not match the artist’s intention either, but again, that’s okay too.

In closing, I’d like to leave you with the message that contemporary art is an important thing, and that everyone has the ability and the right to have something worthwhile to say about it. Especially you.