Months of important work vindicated by further investigation of APYACC
It is also an implicit rebuff to Nick Mitzevich, head of the National Gallery of Australia, and the “review” he set up to deal with the scandal – or rather to make it go away. This inquiry was always toothless: it was premised on the naive belief that people would tell you the truth when you asked them a question about possible malpractice. Predictably, it ended up an effective whitewash.
The more rigorous inquiry set up by the South Australian state government has evidently adopted a tougher approach, and has also taken seriously allegations of the bribery, pressuring and intimidation of witnesses. It seems inevitable, in the face of this new stage of the investigation, that Skye O’Meara will have to step down as director of the APY centre; that she has held out for so long against many demands for her resignation is testimony to the weak and ineffectual governance of the organisation, and of her influence over the board.
There have been many attempts to minimise this scandal. The NGA inquiry was ultimately able only to avoid a conclusion of malpractice by making an enormous concession and implicitly admitting that large parts of paintings sold as the work of well-known Aboriginal painters may in reality have been executed by white assistants “under their direction”.
This practice was defended by citing the use of assistants by European artists over the centuries. Such a defence is fallacious for three reasons: first, that the Western assistants belonged to the same culture as the masters and were their pupils; second, that everyone understood the structure and functioning of an artist’s workshop; and third, that autograph and assistant works were always valued differently.
In effect, because the whole mystique of Aboriginal art lies in the claim to irreproachable authenticity and a direct connection with ancient stone-age spirituality that cannot be passed on to an outsider – and of course because these “collaborations” have been kept secret and denied – the alleged practices amount to a serious deception.
But the whole story more broadly reflects the way that the Aboriginal art industry has grown, over the past half-century, into an enormously profitable trade in cultural commodities with little relation to aesthetic value or real social function; indeed, the works produced by this industry are made for sale to an audience outside their culture of origin, where they are either treated as investments, enjoyed as abstract decorations or fetishised as representing an alien and unintelligible spirituality.
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‘She’d pick up a brush … she knows how white fellas view art’
In the frame: APY art centre to face probe
White hands, cash and ‘coercive control’
APY art chief must step aside: integrity tsar
Claims of white hands on black art: ‘Can I juice this one up a little bit?’
Aboriginal art collectors should know exactly what they are getting
‘We won’t brush scandal under carpet’
Stretch to believe report has drawn a line under it
‘White hands’ centre given exhibition ban by Top End gallery
APY group expelled from Indigenous Art Code
‘White hands concerns are valid’
This industry has grown without any serious critical oversight, breathlessly promoted but hardly ever properly assessed. Even before these revelations, it should have been clear how bad much of the APY work was – the enormous, hyperactive, spineless doodles that have consumed exhibitions like the Wynne Prize for landscape in recent years, and which in many cases look uncomfortably like pastiches of John Olsen’s abstraction.
A great many of these repetitive confections have been purchased both by our big galleries and by collectors, speculators and investors in self-managed super funds. It’s not often that you can parade your commitment to progressive politics, display your social status and make money all at the same time, so it’s perhaps little wonder that critical considerations, or even concern for spiritual and cultural authenticity, have been ignored.
And that is why this case is so important; it’s not just about one or two bad eggs, but a whole dodgy chookyard.
The workplace AI battle hasn’t even started yet
News that the APY art centre has been referred for further investigation is a vindication of the important work done over many months, and in the face of enormous resistance and obstruction from the art establishment, by this paper’s writer Greg Bearup.