the art life

The Art Gallery of NSW opens a major new show this Thursday [June 4] called Intensely Dutch. The gallery's publicity calls the show "uncompromising, confronting, optimistic" as it looks at 15 of the most important Dutch artists of the post WW2 period. As the blurb says:

"A new young generation of Dutch artists took to modernity as never before. For them it was a time of renewal. Bright colour, impasto and vigorous handling were particular features of the work of many post-war Dutch artists. This exhibition presents the art of fifteen of the most important Dutch artists of the post-war period, including those associated with the CoBrA movement (Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille and Lucebert) and art informel (Jaap Wagemaker, Jan J Schoonhoven and Bram Bogart) and those who preceded them, like Bram van Velde and Willem de Kooning, who rose to prominence internationally post-war..."

In addition to the show the AGNSW are also hosting a forum and a lecture:

Labels: forums, press releases, public lectures

An evening screening of key Australian video works followed by a full day of talks and personal accounts exploring what might be learnt from video art practices, and approaches to collecting and archiving the medium for the future.

Accompanying the exhibition Video Logic, this program includes speakers Stephen Jones, Danni Zuvela, John Conomos, Louise Curham, Lyndal Jones and Andrew Frost with facilitators John Gillies and Ross Harley.

Labels: conferences, public galleries, public lectures, video art

Only now do we have the opportunity to hear the full story behind the Bill Henson photographs, which grabbed national attention in May 2008 when 20 images were removed from an exhibition and the photographer was investigated for child pornography. David Marr, author of Dark Victory and the award-winning biography Patrick White: A Life, has written The Henson Case, an unflinching examination of the censorship debate, with exclusive interviews with Bill Henson, members of the NSW police force, child abuse campaigners and important figures in the Australian arts scene. It was an unholy mix of politics, the media, the police, the law, arguments about art and porn, about the nature of photography and more. In his lecture for Sydney Ideas David Marr reveals the full story behind the removal of the photos and the people involved.

David Marr is a journalist and author of Dark Victory and the award-winning biography Patrick White: A Life. He was a reporter on the ABC TV program Four Corners, a role in which he won a Walkley Award, and the presenter of Radio National’s Arts Today program. From 2002 to 2004, he hosted the ABC TV program Media Watch and he currently writes for the Sydney Morning Herald.

For further information and booking online see the
Sydney Ideas web page

This lecture is part of the 2008 Sydney Ideas International Public Lecture series presented by the University of Sydney.

Labels: public lectures