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Forget the cities: The best art can be found in regional Australia

Australian galleries in 2022 provided mixed experiences, with some of the best art to be found in the regions.

David Noonan, Mnemosyne 2021 installation view, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2022 Photo: Christian Capurro Courtesy of the artist and Modern Art, London
David Noonan, Mnemosyne 2021 installation view, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2022 Photo: Christian Capurro Courtesy of the artist and Modern Art, London

It’s hard to believe that one year ago we were just out of a long period of lockdown and interstate travel restrictions: back at the end of June 2021, I got to Brisbane for the Metropolitan Museum loan exhibition a day or two before travel was cancelled again, and a few weeks later began the series on Eros in Art which ran for 18 weeks until the beginning of December. And the first exhibition to be reviewed again after this long interruption was Matisse at the Art Gallery of NSW on Christmas Day 2021.

The new year began with Maps of the Pacific at the State Library of NSW and George French Angas at the National Library of Australia, although it is significant in hindsight that these first two exhibitions were in libraries, for 2022 turned out to be a weak year for the state art galleries and the National Gallery of Australia, although – to give them the benefit of the doubt – they, too, were feeling the effects of prolonged lockdowns and the cancellation of some of their more ambitious exhibitions.

Jeffrey Smart, Waiting for the train, 1969-70, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1969, gift of Alcoa World Alumina Australia 2005, © The Estate of Jeffrey Smart, courtesy of Philip Bacon Galleries. 
Jeffrey Smart, Waiting for the train, 1969-70, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1969, gift of Alcoa World Alumina Australia 2005, © The Estate of Jeffrey Smart, courtesy of Philip Bacon Galleries. 

The first substantial art exhibition at one of these galleries was Jeffrey Smart at the NGA; it was good to see the work of an important painter, especially after the weak, ill-conceived and ideologically-driven Know My Name exhibitions that were meant to rediscover neglected women artists but mainly promoted old institutional favourites. The Smart show was, however, intellectually unambitious and a missed opportunity to do better.

The NGA did manage to do better with the excellent Cressida Campbell exhibition at the end of the year, while the mid-year National Indigenous Art Triennial was well-conceived and beautifully presented, and an opportunity to consider the rapidly evolving reality of indigenous culture, with its increasingly mixed origins and heritage.

At the end of the year, however, it was reported (December 12) that the Gallery’s finances were in such bad shape that it may have to lay off staff, reintroduce entry fees or close a couple of days a week. The deeper reasons for this crisis deserve more extended discussion, but it is certainly a shocking revelation when the Gallery has simultaneously committed the extraordinary sum of at least $14 million dollars to a single questionable commission – money which could, moreover, have been much better spent building core areas of the collection.

Although programming at the NGV has also been lacklustre, the Picasso blockbuster in winter offered a lot to see and discuss, and a couple of smaller shows, such as one on tradition and innovation in India, were of interest. On the other hand the NGV also presented one of the worst exhibitions of the year, Who Are You?, which purported to be a survey of the history of portraiture in Australia. This is unfortunately now the main attraction at the NPG, which was jointly responsible for it, over the summer.

Chiharu Shiota Japan b.1972 In Silence 2002/2022 Burnt piano, burnt chairs, Alcantara black thread Dimensions variable Production support: Alcantara S.p.A.Installation view: ‘Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles’, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2022© Chiharu Shiota Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA
Chiharu Shiota Japan b.1972 In Silence 2002/2022 Burnt piano, burnt chairs, Alcantara black thread Dimensions variable Production support: Alcantara S.p.A.Installation view: ‘Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles’, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2022© Chiharu Shiota Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA

The Art Gallery of NSW easily wins the prize for most dismal programming in a major art museum in this country. After Matisse at the end of the previous year, I devoted two columns to the gallery, but one was for a small collection of historical prints and the other was on the theme of beggar-philosophers, putting one of their few good recent acquisitions, Ribera’s Aesop, into context. Apart from that there was the usual farce of the Archibald, and the gallery had some of the least inspired work in the Biennale of Sydney, the best of which was shown at the Cutaway. For years the Gallery has lived on the “jam tomorrow” promise of Sydney Modern, which was discussed here last week.

But if there was so little worth seeing at our biggest galleries, there were fortunately better things at other institutions: I devoted two columns to the Queensland Art Gallery/GoMA in Brisbane – one to the outstanding survey of Chiharu Shiota – two to MONA and one to TMAG in Hobart, two to the National Museum of Australia and one to the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.

Victoria was once again the leader in presenting quality exhibitions. The NGV, for all the reservations one may have about some of its priorities, is still better managed than either the NGA or the AGNSW and, as already mentioned, has a more substantial program. But it is accompanied by other museums both in and around Melbourne itself, and in a network of regional cities. Thus in the city of Melbourne, ACMI had an interesting loan exhibition from the Tate in London, devoted to the theme of light, Melbourne Museum had a loan exhibition of Greek antiquities and the Hellenic Museum had two new commissions by Bill Henson and Sam Jinks. The Shrine of Remembrance also produced a thoughtful exhibition about love and sexuality in times of war.

Five Hundred Arhats of Changnyeongsa Temple
Five Hundred Arhats of Changnyeongsa Temple

In the suburbs of Melbourne, Heide Museum of Modern Art was the subject of two reviews (and currently has an excellent exhibition on Barbara Hepworth); further afield TarraWarra Museum of Art was also reviewed twice, once for a Sidney Nolan exhibition and once for a survey of the work of David Noonan. Among the regional centres, there were interesting exhibitions at Castlemaine Art Museum (A Certain Slant of Light), Geelong Gallery (a survey of the prints of Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme), Art Gallery of Ballarat (a survey of Max Meldrum and his pupils) and Benalla Art Gallery (Peter Wegner’s The Centenarians).

NSW does not have a regional gallery network of comparable quality (if the AGNSW were doing its job it would be working harder to foster the development of regional galleries), but once again smaller institutions in the city have presented more substantial exhibitions than the AGNSW itself. Thus the National Art School presented a survey of the work of Colin Lanceley, something one might have expected to occur at the Art Gallery. The Museum of Sydney, while it still is the Museum of Sydney, had a fascinating exhibition of unrealised plans for the renewal of the city, and the Sydney Jewish Museum presented work that we had never seen before, the images that Sidney Nolan made as he prepared for a visit to Auschwitz after the War.

Finally, it was the Powerhouse that ended up having one of the most beautiful and quietly moving exhibitions of the year: Five Hundred Arhats of Changnyeongsa Temple, South Korea. These were Zen Buddhist carvings of beings who have achieved enlightenment, but have chosen, like Bodhisattvas, to remain in the world and help others find the way; the rows of rudely-carved but deeply expressive stone figures, individually picked out by light in a darkened room, was perhaps this year’s most memorable aesthetic experience.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/forget-the-cities-the-best-art-can-be-found-in-regional-australia/news-story/5632d62dc08eb8df3c82b39ef4346b36