Arts & Saleroom
Sages wins Archibald’s People Choice
Artist Jenny Sages has taken out the Archibald’s People Choice award for a self-portrait that captures her grief following the death of her husband.
Suncorp gift gives back
The 2006 takeover of AAMI looks set to give Suncorp Insurance a useful tax deduction six years on.
Odd lots
Less than two months after telling The Australian Financial Review that he was happy with only one Australian dealer, that dealer being the Brisbane based Jan Murphy, artist Ben Quilty has joined Jan Minchin’s blue chip Melbourne stable, Tolarno Galleries.
About town
Rosella Namok, Samantha Hobson and Fiona Omeenyo were the first stars of far north Queensland’s Lockhart River Art Gang in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Car parking, rental income keep Ballet on its toes
The Australian Ballet returned to its historical business model in 2011, using income from its Melbourne headquarters to offset a loss from core operations.
Too black and white for some
A Paris exhibition on the phenomenon of “human zoos” is under fire for simplifying the link between colonial-era exotica and racism.
Aussies hammer out great deals
Australia remains very much in the loop of the international art and antiques trade, thanks in part to influential expatriates.
It’s weird – and it’s in demand
A number of current shows provide testimony for what many private collectors already know – sculpture is hot. It is also, inarguably, weird.
Arts council faces major overhaul
The art form boards that have guided federal arts funding for more than 35 years will be abolished if the Commonwealth accepts a new blueprint for its main cultural bureaucracy.
Film | Tess in India still ends badly
Director Michael Winterbottom has set Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles in contemporary India.
Film | Slick production fails to pass trash test
Why is it that filmmakers think the Nazis are funny? There may have been something inherently absurd about the Third Reich, with its fetish for uniforms, racial purity and Wagner, but it was no laughing matter for those obliged to share the planet with Hitler’s minions.
A tale of disaster, forgiveness and redemption
The sister of a British woman who was kidnapped and murdered has grasped the wisdom of the Chinese saying that says “he who does not forgive digs two graves”.
For Hilary Linstead, a starring role at last
Hilary Linstead spent decades promoting actors, designers and directors. Now the artist’s agent has turned her creative juices inwards.
The stark beauty of suburbia
Shaun Tan is best known for his children’s book illustrations ... oh, and for winning an Oscar. But his first love, the thing that underpins all his work, is painting – and his muse is suburbia.
Hobart wins with Tillers homage
As it farewells John Glover’s Moulting Lagoon and Great Oyster Bay from Pine Hill painting, the Tasmanian Museum welcomes the next best thing, an Imants Tillers painting that references the Glover.
Speculation rife at Sotheby’s
Speculation was rife yesterday that a public institution bought both the Alexander Schramm and the Frederick McCubbin at Sotheby’s.
About town
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery: Ingeborg Tyssen might not be as well known as Max Dupain or David Moore, but her photographs are arguably just as compelling. This gallery, about a 40 minute drive from Sydney’s CBD, is celebrating Tyssen’s career with a survey that is running in tandem with one on Sue Ford, another female photographer born in the 1940s who helped pave the way for more women to enter the field. Both shows are part of the HeadOn Photo Festival, which involves more than 200 events and shows at 100-plus venues around town. Festival ends June 2; Tyssen and Ford shows end June 24.
Marketplaces for the modern collector
Sydney is to finally get its own high-end art fair, with the man who launched ArtHK and most recently Art13 London, Tim Etchells, launching Sydney Contemporary next April.
Arts companies’ solid performances
Sydney’s Belvoir theatre is the latest in a string of subsidised arts companies reporting solid results for 2011 despite the tricky economic climate.
Islamic museum gets $1.5m in budget
A museum devoted to Islamic culture, to be built in Melbourne over the next two years, was one of the cultural winners in the federal budget.
Film | Boys of the bleak stuff
The King of Devil’s Island, by Norwegian director Marius Holst, is an outstanding addition to the ranks of prison films.
Film | A subtle touch proves rather delicious
Audrey Tatou and Francois Damiens play an unlikely duo in a comedy demonstrating that indefinable cinematic subtlety known as “the Lubitsch touch”.
Books | British farce trips up
Michael Frayn has somehow found the time and the talent to be a very fine comic novelist.
Exhibitions | Engaging with home
An exhibition in south-western Sydney will showcase Australian Muslim women artists and their cultural traditions as well as their relationship with their adopted land.
Great Wall of Canada
Vancouver’s Jeff Wall is a hugely influential photographer, yet little known in Australia. A touring exhibition is set to change that.
Scream of joy as art sets records
Despite record prices for paintings sold at two auctions in under 24 hours, experts do not see this as a precursor to a new art boom.
Miles Franklin modernises ‘Australianness’
The five novels in contention for Australia’s oldest and most prestigious literary prize have been announced.
The Scream sells for record $119m
The only version of Edvard Munch’s The Scream left in private hands has sold at the highest ever price for an artwork at auction.
Mystery hits Old Master’s price
An Old Master portrait of a mystery sitter sold for only $27,560 including buyers commission at an auction held by John Williams in Sydney.
Artists donate for animal rights
The credentials of Sydney’s Sherman family have helped ensure donations from top artists for a fundraiser for the animal rights organisation, Voiceless.
