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Christopher Allen has been The Australian’s national art critic since 2008. He is an art historian and educator, teaching classical Greek and Latin. He has written an edited several books including Art in Australia and believes that the history of art in this country is often underestimated.

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Review

Madeleine WINCH April (Child and lorikeets in a tree) 1992 illustration for The 1993 Little Ark Children’s Calendar compiled by Albert Ullin, published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1992 watercolour and coloured pencil 25.5 x 25.5 cm (image) 37.5 x 31.7 cm (sheet) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Gift of Albert Ullin OAM, 2014 2014.651 © Madeleine Winch From the exhibition: Bunyips and Dragons Australian Children's Book Illustrations NGV Australia 25 Jul 15 – 4 Oct 15 To be used in conjunction with exhibition only; no to be cropped, altered; must credit

Animal magnetism

Maybe there’s a good reason why we’ve long been fascinated by the idea some of us look more like one animal or another?

Christopher Allen

Review

Masterpieces from the Hermitage: The Legacy of Catherine the Great. Alexander ROSLIN Swedish 1718–93 Portrait of Catherine II 1776–77 oil on canvas 271.0 х 189.5 cm The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Inv. no. ГЭ-1316) Acquired from the artist, 1777 EXHI029593

Crown’s jewels

Catherine the Great faced many threats to her reign yet still found time to be a passionate collector.

Christopher Allen

Review

S T GILL Bad Results, circa 1852 watercolour and gum arabic on paper Art Gallery of Ballarat, Gift of Tony Hamilton and Miss. S.E. Hamilton, 1967 From the exhibition: Gill in the Goldfields Art Gallery of Ballarat July 18 - September 13, 2015 To be used in conjunction with exhibition only; must credit

Out of the picture

An artist described as Australia’s most significant of the mid-19th century is the subject of two fascinating exhibitions.

Christopher Allen

Review

Josh Muir, Buninyong, Digital print on aluminium, 2015 From the exhibition: The Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory 7 August - 1 November 2015 To be used in conjunction with exhibition only; not to be altered; must credit

Farewell to country

Truly fascinating works of indigenous art are fuelled by the artists’ deep connection to their land, not commercialism.

Christopher Allen

Review

Portrait of Hugo Weaving by artist Nicholas Harding, finalist in the 2011 Archibald Prize exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, The Domain, Sydney.

The ones that got away

Winners of the Archibald Prize are not always the most interesting portraits — in fact sometimes they are dreadful.

Christopher Allen

Review

Little larrikin

The Ginger Meggs comic strip is almost 100 years old. Why has the quirky red-head been such a success?

Christopher Allen

Review

Tales of the tube

Melbourne’s NGV takes a retrospective view of the powerful medium of television in its Transmission exhibition.

Christopher Allen

Arts

A princess and a shrink …

I visited Posticcia Nuova three times, twice when Jeffrey and Ermes were in residence and once while they were away in England.

Christopher Allen

Review

KASHMIRI Bhagavad Gita (mid 19th century) ink, opaque watercolour and gold paint on paper, cotton and cardboard cover, stitched binding 9.8 x 16.8 cm (page) 11.0 x 17.4 x 3.8 cm (closed) 11.0 x 35.0 x 1.9 cm (open) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased, 1965 1515-5 From the exhibition: Gods, Heroes and Clowns Performance and Narrative in South and Southeast Asian Art NGV International To be used in conjunction with exhibition only; must credit

Realm of the puppet masters

The puppet and mask theatre of Java and Bali are the focus of an exhibition at Melbourne’s NGV.

Christopher Allen

Review

Peppered with spices and riches

Treasure Ships: Art in the Age of Spices evokes the cultural world of its period.

Christopher Allen

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/christopher-allen/page/56