Australian artist Jenny Watson believes that painting should be as natural as breathing. Without doubt her paintings convey an honesty and directness that can only be achieved if the subject is personal. For four decades Watson has painted images of herself in various places at home and overseas: an isolated female with penetrating eyes and long, flowing hair that ranges […]
Cavernous interiors with staircases spiralling through claustrophobic space, and derelict buildings, are often described as communicating a Piranesian mood. You can be forgiven for not having heard of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778). He was an Italian etcher, architect and printmaker, who achieved fame for his revolutionary etchings of real and imaginary buildings that featured ancient Roman ruins and fantastical underground […]
At its core, Melbourne is a labyrinth: a network of streets and back alleys connecting spaces and places that give this city an intimate personality, an undeniable energy, an edgy culture, and a strong sense of community. How can this be denied when ‘Melbourne Now’, the biggest exhibition of local contemporary art ever staged at the National Gallery of Victoria […]
A warm glow permeates through the latest two-part TarraWarra Museum of Art (TWMA) exhibition, ‘Russell Drysdale: Defining the Modern Australian Landscape’ and ‘Future Memorials’. Many of the museum walls that display Drysdale’s richly coloured paintings and photographs of the Australian outback are a vibrant, yet subdued, gold colour. Sunlight filters through the full-length window at the northern end of the […]
This ingenious exhibition, ‘Edward Steichen & Art Deco Fashion’, combining the innovative photography of Edward Steichen (1879-1973) and a stunning selection of 1920s and 1930s garments and accessories from the National Gallery of Victoria’s collection, is sure to impress. Behind the camera, Steichen captured the personalities of Hollywood and the elegance of the modern woman dressed to reflect post-war exuberance. […]
Claude Monet (1846-1926) painted water in its many forms and moods—a rough and animated sea, a misty and mysterious river, a still and reflective pond, and crisp, white snow. Monet began his water garden at his home in Giverny in 1893, and over time the plants in and around the pond grew and merged, softened and framed. In Monet’s painting, […]
Twelve skulls, wrapped with pink silken thread, are suspended from the ceiling in the first room of the contemporary art exhibition, ‘Animate/Inanimate’, currently on show at the TarraWarra Museum of Art (TWMA) near Healesville. One skull has a spade in its mouth, another has partly morphed into a trumpet, and an iron is slammed into the ‘face’ of another— these […]
Some people feel uncomfortable about abstract art; many would rather dive into a pool of mud than travel an hour by car to see an exhibition featuring art that has been reduced to abstraction with the purpose of conveying ideas and emotion. However, there is nothing muddy about the illuminating abstract art in the current exhibition, ‘Vibrant Matter’, at TarraWarra […]
The backdrop of rolling hills and vineyards around Healesville (about a one hour drive east of Melbourne) befits the exhibition, ‘Master of Stillness: Jeffrey Smart paintings 1940–2011’, which is currently showing at the TarraWarra Museum of Art (twma.com.au). The rural landscape not only resembles the Tuscan hills around Arezzo where Jeffrey Smart has lived in his 18th century house since […]
It all started when Japan opened its doors to the West in the 1850s and Japanese works of art infiltrated Europe, the centre of interest being in Paris. By 1867 French Impressionist artists such as Claude Monet turned their attention to the popular ukiyo-e (‘pictures of the floating world’) woodblock prints and illustrated books that depicted life in the urban […]
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Thupten Lekshe
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