‘Extraordinary history of … art critics getting it wrong’: National Gallery director Nick Mitzevich’s sharp rebuke of ‘sub-intellectual class’ critique

National Gallery of Australia ­director Nick Mitzevich has shot back at The Weekend Australian’s art critic, Christopher Allen, who has called out the leadership of major cultural institutions.

National Gallery of Australia ­director Nick Mitzevich, above, says his institution ‘has scholarship at its heart, and it works ethically in the presentation of the collection’, Picture: Rohan Thomson

National Gallery of Australia ­director Nick Mitzevich has shot back at an article by The Weekend Australian’s art critic, Christopher Allen, who has called out the “sub-intellectual class” in charge of the nation’s major cultural institutions.

In a piece published in ­Review today, and online on Friday, Allen argues that while cultural bodies may have funding woes, they are run by misguided managers and subject to ill-conceived government priorities.

Mitzevich hit back at the ­assessment on Friday, saying critics have got it wrong.

“There is an extraordinary history both in Australia and overseas of … art critics getting it wrong about museums and galleries,” he told a Senate committee.

“We have history on our sides. The National Gallery has scholarship at its heart, and it works ethically in the presentation of the collection.”

Without naming Allen or other art critics, Mitzevich defended the gallery’s management.

“I contend that running and having the custodianship of the national collection is a science, it’s a serious endeavour,” he said.

“Lots of people can have opinions about that, but they are only opinions.”

Mitzevich and the NGA have been under pressure due to ­urgent remediation works needed at its Canberra building, for which Mitzevich said $265m was needed across the next decade.

The Albanese government has boosted funding to the NGA by $119m across four years, including $42m for repairs, as part of a $535m package for the cultural institutions.

The gallery is also dealing with the fallout from this newspaper’s reporting of white interference in Aboriginal art in the APY Lands of South Australia.

The NGA is organising a major show of works from the APY Arts Centre Collective, and has announced an investigation into their authorship.

In his article, Allen said the major galleries were generally run by “career administrators”, who were less committed to scholarship than to populism and “social ideology”.

“Public galleries and similar organisations are … with a few honourable exceptions, neither managed nor staffed by scholars or intellectuals,” he said.

“They are largely populated by a sub-intellectual class, which is to say people who are neither intelligent and bold enough to reason for themselves nor willing to take the risk of asking dangerous questions.”

Mitzevich was invited by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young to respond to the “blatant attack” on the NGA and other institutions.

He said the gallery’s work was based on scholarship, and made it collection relevant in a way that didn’t “pander to popular taste”.

“Our job is to open the doors to art and connect people with it,” he said. “Journalists and art critics can have opinions … but generally art critics have got it wrong, and institutions have got it right, because they continue to flourish.”