Charles Blackman forged an urbanised image of Australia that for most, was more familiar than the mythic landscapes of Sidney Nolan or Arthur Boyd. Yet though familiar, it remains uncomfortable.
Articles on Australian art
Displaying 81 - 100 of 118 articles
John Russell, who was destined to become an engineer, instead became an artist in fin de siècle France – and a friend of Van Gogh, Monet and Rodin.
As a young man, Wladyslaw Dutkiewicz joined the Resistance, helping Jews to escape Poland. After settling in Australia as a refugee, he became a pivotal artist, as a new show of his work attests.
A new exhibition features more than 50 works by Fred Williams, centred on the You Yangs peaks, west of Melbourne. They illuminate a breakthrough moment in Australian art.
Rhonda Senbergs photographed the Australian art world for over 25 years until her death in 1998. From Fred Williams to Bob Hawke to Margaret Olley, many were captured by her lens.
This year’s annual Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes both reaffirm traditions and confirm new directions in the arts establishment.
A major exhibition of Jenny Watson’s work at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art spans 40 years in the creative life of a rule-breaking Australian artist.
The packers’ favourite has gained prominence and there are few portraits of politicians in this year’s popular art prize. The stand out work is a deceptively innocent re-appropriation of Aboriginal kitsch.
The 1990s was once the forgotten decade of the 20th century but no longer.
Brett Whiteley’s output was uneven but at his best, his work was brilliant. A new film offers an unusual insight into the life and art of this creative and troubled maverick.
Charles Meere’s painting Australian Beach Pattern is commonly seen as an iconic celebration of our beach culture. But a new book suggests this celebrated work expresses far darker concerns.
A new website allows you to see what other people search for in the State Library of NSW’s vast collection of artefacts – and discover things you’d never think to look up in the first place.
Cate Blanchett howls and contorts in RED, del kathryn barton’s ferocious exploration of female power.
An Australian virtual reality work premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week takes the viewer on a wild ride through space.
The best Australian play ever written is revolutionary in its treatment of plot, character and language. It has a weary, sardonic perspective on war and an unheroic worldview.
Judith Wright was possibly our greatest poet and a passionate social activist. But a new biography suggests that in writing her family memoirs, Wright avoided evidence that her settler forebears likely participated in the murder of Aborigines.
A yellow line becomes a blistering ray of sunlight in Summer in the You Beaut Country. John Olsen’s paintings, often described as ‘quintessentially Australian’, teem with life.
A new study shows that looking at paintings can bring pleasure to people living with dementia, affecting their wellbeing even after the memory of the event has gone.
Seasons, stars, settler colonialism: the nations of the south – Australia, Argentina and South Africa – have much in common. And the 2003 Nobel laureate for literature, JM Coetzee, is helping reframe Australian writing within this southern context.
Can you repatriate a painting? Descendants of Aboriginal painter William Barak ran a crowdsourcing campaign to try to buy back the previously unknown artwork Ceremony.
Top contributors
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
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Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University
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Honorary Professor, Edith Cowan University
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Emerita Professor, Art History and Curatorship, Adelaide University
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Honorary Senior Lecturer, Australian National University
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Senior Industry Fellow, RMIT University
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Senior Lecturer of Art History, Griffith University
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Lecturer and Researcher in Plant Humanities, UNSW
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Professor in Art, Curtin University
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Professor, Faculty of Design and Society, University of Technology Sydney
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Researcher, Social History/Tutor in Medical Education, University of Dundee
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Lecturer - Visual Arts, University of Wollongong
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Research Professor in Social and Cultural Theory, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
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Associate Professor, School of Art, RMIT University
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Senior Lecturer in Illustration and Animation, Adelaide University ; University of Newcastle