Geoff Harrison 4/24/25 Geoff Harrison 4/24/25

Where Are The Arts?

Some time back I posted a blog that was highly critical of the then Morrison Government’s decision to roll the Department of Communications and the Arts into a new super Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. It was a move that drew widespread condemnation from the arts community at the time. There was no reference to the new department’s arts responsibilities at all.

Fast forward to the recent federal budget and it appears little has changed. With the current cost of living crisis, it’s little wonder that no new support was announced for the visual arts sector, which is facing challenges of its own. That’s according to a recent newsletter from the National Association of the Visual Arts (NAVA). The only new arts funding announcement made was a $8.6 million extension of the Revive Live program, aimed at supporting Australia’s live music venues and festivals. NAVA argues that artists remain among the most precariously employed workers in the country.

As I mentioned in the earlier blog, there was a time when the arts weren’t treated with such callous disregard during tough economic times. We only have to look back to what was happening during the great depression in the United States to find a more enlightened attitude. The Works Progress Administration was established by Franklin D Roosevelt shortly after he was elected US President in 1932. It was part of his New Deal which involved massive programs to provide employment for the millions who were out of work. The WPA provided programs to struggling writers and artists.

“The Corn Parade” by Orr C Fisher (livingnewdeal)

Artists were commissioned to paint murals in post offices, town halls and railroad stations across the country. And whilst this may have produced a lot of idealized kitsch, it did keep a lot of artists alive. Around 1400 murals were painted in post offices alone and artists such as Jack Levine believe that the New Deal threw them a life line. “I didn’t have a dime”, he once said. Another WPA artist was Vincent Campanella “artists were able to see themselves as part of the working class and they saw themselves as free to be what they wanted to be under the WPA, painters who were free to paint the common life.”

When governments disregard the arts, they don’t just make life difficult for artists and writers, there are also galleries, publishers, theatres, manufacturers of artists materials and their retailers. It’s the future of an entire arts industry that gets called into question.

Geoff Harrison 2/23/25 Geoff Harrison 2/23/25

The Murky World Of The Freeport

It’s all very well for me to be railing against some of the more uninspiring “Winter Blockbuster” exhibitions we’ve seen lately at the NGV, but when you consider the extravagant prices being fetched for art these days it begs a simple question. How can publicly funded galleries compete?

And then there is another issue to deal with - freeports. These are fortified warehouses which are usually located in tax-friendly zones around the world, such as within the boundary of an airport, where the rich and famous can store expensive works of art tax and duty free. This is because these artworks are considered to be “in transit” as they haven’t entered a specific country’s market, and thus are not subject to the taxes that would apply if they were installed, say, on the collector’s wall at home.

It would not be stretching credibility to describe a freeport as the Cayman Islands in steel and glass. These artworks are used as collateral for loans or as investments but either way, they are hidden from public view which is the tragedy in this story. A collector can purchase an artwork at an auction and have it shipped directly to a freeport where it can be stored untaxed for decades, even as the artwork appreciates in value. The collector can then sell the artwork without incurring any taxes associated with luxury goods or capital gains.

Freeports have their critics of course. Tax avoidance is one concern, money laundering is another. The opaque nature of them makes it difficult to track ownership and financial dealings. The European Parliament has concerns about assets stored in freeports possibly being used to fund terrorism, and there are calls for greater transparency and oversight.

According to a report in The Guardian, “The freeports are used to allow counterfeiters to land consignments, tamper with loads or associated paperwork and re-export the products without customs intervention, disguising the true origin and nature of the goods, and the identity of the original supplier. The commission said they were also used for narcotics trafficking, the illegal ivory trade, people smuggling, VAT fraud, corruption and money laundering.”

Some governments are considering stricter regulations to monitor these facilities. Thus the future of freeports is uncertain, given what appears to be a worldwide crackdown on tax avoidance strategies. The world’s billionaires may have to find other ways to hide their treasures from the tax authorities. And, of course, they will.

References;

JS Morlu

Wikipedia

“The Lost Leonado”, Directed by Andreas Koefoed

The Guardian

Geoff Harrison 1/22/25 Geoff Harrison 1/22/25

Kusama and the crowds

I’ve just received an email from the National Gallery of Victoria proudly boasting that 120,000 people have visited the Yayoi Kusama exhibition in its first month. Great news for the gallery I guess, but not so for the viewer.

Thinking that things may be quieter between Christmas and New Year (and the fact that my NGV Member’s free ticket was about to expire), I decided to pay the exhibition a visit. Big mistake - I could hardly move in the place. We were hurried through the installations in 20 seconds flat which was a raw deal for those non members who had to pay $38 for the privilege.

There was an almost circus atmosphere in the gallery which I’m not sure is consistent with the overall theme of the exhibition. Kusama’s work seems to derive from disturbing hallucinations she experienced during childhood, including seeing the space around her covered in polka dots and nets. As no one else around her sensed these things, this had an alienating impact on her.

Given that she had the ability to draw well from a young age, it was inevitable the she would dedicate her life to art in order to explore these visions and coexist with them. And given the vastness of her output, it’s inevitable that there is some unevenness in her work, but so crowded was the gallery that I found it impossible to fully appreciate Kusama’s vision and motivations. It simply became a “happening.” Wait a few weeks, I reckon. It finishes on 21st April.

Geoff Harrison 12/14/24 Geoff Harrison 12/14/24

John Mather - Heidelberg Artist From Scotland

One of the lesser known, but equally talented of the famed Heidelberg School artists was Scottish born John Mather. He studied art at the Edinburgh National Gallery School before deciding to emigrate to Melbourne around 1877/78 for health reasons, apparently. It was thought that the move would be beneficial for his asthma.

There was once a social magazine titled ‘Table Talk’ which was published in Melbourne from 1885 until 1939. This magazine provided commentary on politics, literature, finance, arts, and social issues. It had a particularly clear and unpretentious approach to arts commentary as evidenced by its appraisal of Mather’s work. “Mather looks nature straight in the face, so to speak, and presents her in the bright apparel she loves to wear, especially in the lucid atmosphere of Australia”. 27 April, 1888.

*Picnic Point, near Brighton*, oil on canvas, 1886 (Ballarat Fine Art Gallery)

It’s Mather’s technical skill that I admire the most, and his understanding of light, although it’s claimed that he never attained the freshness and sense of delight which pervaded the work of the Heidelberg artists. I’m not so sure about that.

His treatment of the foreground in “Morning Walk By The Yarra” with those soft, feathery brushstrokes and subtle gradations of colour is superb. This is not easy to reproduce in a photograph.

*Morning Walk By The Yarra*, oil on canvas (Ballarat Fine Art Gallery)

Whilst Mather’s paintings may have lacked the free-flowing spontaneity of the Heidelberg artists, that doesn’t make him a lesser artist in my view. He was a wonderful painter of moods and atmospheres as evidenced by his painting of Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens. There is almost an other worldliness to this work.

*Autumn In The Fitzroy Gardens*, oil on canvas, 1894, (National Gallery of Victoria)

Mather had an interesting and varied career in Melbourne, including decorating the interior of the dome of the Exhibition Building in 1880. He enrolled at the Gallery School under George Folingsby in 1882, became a founder member of the Australian Artists Association in Melbourne in 1886 and painted at various locations around Australia and New Zealand. He was also a prolific etcher.

He became a popular teacher and was the first artist trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria, a position he held until his death in 1916. According to Wikipedia, his grave at the Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery was completely unmarked until July 2023 when a small plaque was placed on the grave stating “Mr John Mather 1848 – 1916 The beauty of his Art endures.”

References;

‘Golden Summers - Heidelberg and Beyond’, National Gallery of Victoria, 1985

‘The Heidelberg School - The Golden Summer of Australian Painting’, William Splatt & Dugald McLennan, 1986

Wikipedia