{"id":5873,"date":"2023-11-16T16:52:27","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T06:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=5873"},"modified":"2023-11-17T11:11:53","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T00:41:53","slug":"new-release-adelaide-art-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2023\/11\/new-release-adelaide-art-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW RELEASE: The Adelaide Art Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Adelaide Art Scene: Becoming contemporary 1939\u20132000<\/a><\/em> is a landmark anthology of new and archival writing on the Adelaide art scene across six decades. Margot Osborne, primary author, commissioning editor and fearless project leader speaks with Wakefield Press’s fearless leader Michael Bollen about Adelaide’s art scene \u2013 its past, present, and future.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Weighing in at 740 pages, and 2.88 kg, this landmark tome ‘could be considered Adelaide contemporary art\u2019s Rosetta Stone’, says John Neylon of InReview<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Michael and Margot’s discussion below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Adelaide is well-known for vacillating between the \u2018cultural cringe\u2019 and the \u2018cultural strut\u2019. Did this influence your decision to embark on the book?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the book I set out to uncover the previously untold narrative of the art, the artists and the arts institutions in Adelaide across six decades. To some extent both the \u2018cringe\u2019 and the \u2018strut\u2019 are stances that arise from ignorance, due to the near invisibility of the Adelaide art scene\u2019s actual history. The condescension so frequently voiced by interstate commentators, and the corresponding sense of inferiority or in turn compensatory over-promising in Adelaide can be sourced to the lack of informed perspective of what actually happened in this city. Don Dunstan, that master of cultural strut, famously christened Adelaide as The Athens of the South. He was reframing with a positive spin the frequent ironic but affectionate put-downs of Adelaide as \u2018our little Athens\u2019 found in the early 1950s in the writing of Max Harris and art critic Ivor Francis. There\u2019s a bit of both in The Adelaide Art Scene<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adelaide<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Above: Max Dupain, b. Sydney 1911; d. Sydney 1992. Frank Bauer with the silver, gold and rhodium plated trophy he designed for David Jones Fashion Award 1974 (awarded to Mike Treloar), 1974, David Jones Fine Art Gallery, Sydney, gelatin-silver photograph. Max Dupain collection, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. Photo courtesy David Jones Ltd<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Bearing in mind the book\u2019s focus on \u2018becoming contemporary\u2019, one of the recurring themes is the challenge for progressive artists in finding support for their art, making a living and establishing a national reputation in a small, geographically isolated city. Throughout most of the 20th century, and into the present, Adelaide lacked a sufficient cultural infrastructure, including an economically viable art market and employment options to supplement inadequate income from art sales. The resulting continual churn of artists and art workers arriving and departing across the decades contributed to a lack of continuity in building on past achievements and failures, reinforcing a cumulative amnesia about any history beyond the recent past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Below: Fiona Hall, b. Sydney 1953. Paradisus Terrestris series. Prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica), 1989\u201390, Adelaide, aluminium and tin, 24.5 x 11 x 1.5 cm each. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1994. (C) courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Photo courtesy National Gallery of Australia, Canberra<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\"Adelaide<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Above all I have set out to investigate and make apparent the cultural context in which art was made, reviewed, exhibited and purchased across those six decades. Eschewing the strut and the cringe, my aim has been to provide multiple perspectives, backed up by a wealth of documentation, so that the reader can reach their own conclusions. This said, I am confident that across its chapters of new and archival writing the book is a convincing testament to the inherent importance to Australian art history of the vibrant and multi-faceted art scene in Adelaide across the late 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this present century Adelaide and South Australia have become ever thinner in population compared with \u2018the eastern states\u2019. Many boosters trumpet nevertheless that \u2018we are punching above our weight\u2019 etc. True? False? In between?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Adelaide<\/figure>
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There was a key moment when Adelaide \u2018punched above its weight\u2019 culturally and had national penetration. This was during the 1970s, widely known as the Dunstan Decade, when the combination of funding from the newly formed Australia Council and from the South Australian government gave a sudden massive injection to the previously self-sufficient and struggling art scene. Dunstan greatly increased funding to the Art Gallery of South Australia to enable appointment of curatorial and education staff and the growth of its temporary exhibition programs. Under curator of paintings Ian North and curator of applied and decorative arts Dick Richards the Gallery mounted an ambitious and nationally acclaimed program of contemporary exhibitions and projects.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Above: Mark Thompson, born Darwin 1949. b. Ma*don*na, 1979, Adelaide, synthetic polymer paint, decals on earthenware, porcelain, 102 x 31 x 26 cm. South Australian Government Grant 1980, Art Gallery of South Australia. (C) Courtesy Mark Thompson. Photo Saul Steed, AGSA<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The enduring cultural legacy of the Dunstan years was his establishment of a cluster of cultural statutory authorities as the foundational infrastructure across the performing arts, regional theatre, film, youth arts and crafts. This last was the South Australian Craft Authority, which became today\u2019s JamFactory. What Dunstan did not establish was a corresponding institutional infrastructure for fostering the practice of the state\u2019s living artists, with instead the Art Gallery being allocated the dual role as the flagship for collecting and exhibiting both heritage and contemporary art. At various times, one or the other has flourished but the Gallery has always been stretched to fulfil such a wide brief, especially within the small footprint of its building.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Adelaide<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Above: Jam Factory Craft Centre, South Australian Craft Authority, St Peters, Adelaide, 1976. Photo courtesy JamFactory, Adelaide<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While the crafts were funded through the Jam Factory to the tune initially of around $600,000, the small organisations who supported contemporary art, namely the Contemporary Art Society (1942\u201386; Contemporary Art Centre from 1986) and the Experimental Art Foundation (established 1974), subsisted on handouts of around $5,000 to $10,000. The outcome of this investment in crafts has been truly exceptional, with Adelaide indeed \u2018punching above its weight\u2019 as a centre for craft excellence, winning national and international acclaim. For the visual arts it has been a very different story. There have been bright moments of \u2018punch through\u2019, most notably in the 1990s through the establishment by Daniel Thomas of the Adelaide Biennial<\/em>. But some well-informed proponents, including this author, have argued across the years that development in the sector has been impeded by the lack of a substantial and well-funded bricks and mortar centre for contemporary art as a focus for practice in the city and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Adelaide Art Scene<\/em> extends only to 2000 but the last two decades have seen this situation exacerbated with the de-funding of both CACSA and the EAF and the reversal of approval for AGSA\u2019s Adelaide Contemporary through the change of government in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will always be occasional outstanding individual artist who achieves national \u2018cut through\u2019 while living here. Unfortunately, the city often loses these artists due to the lack of critical, institutional and public support. Statistics drawn from data for art and craft practitioners who received funding in the 1990s from both the Australia Council and Arts SA (then the Department for the Arts and Cultural Development) and drawn also from artists who exhibited in AGSA\u2019s major survey, Chemistry: Art in South Australia 1990\u20132000<\/em>, support the view that while many of these outstanding visual artists had since moved elsewhere (and others have passed away), the vast majority of craft practitioners in this group remained in the state and were continuing active professional careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adelaide will continue to struggle to persuade outstanding artists to live here and stay here, until there is more public and private investment in growing the sector, and in a multi-faceted stimulus of the visual arts ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Adelaide<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Above: Aldo Iacobelli, b. Italy 1950, Paintings in oil, 1992\u201393, Adelaide, oil on canvas, glass preserving jars, rubber, metal, vegetable oil, fibretipped pen on adhesive labels, dimensions variable. Courtesy Aldo Iacobelli<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Adelaide Art Scene: Becoming contemporary 1939\u20132000 is a landmark anthology of new and archival writing on the Adelaide art scene across six decades. Margot Osborne, primary author, commissioning editor and fearless project leader speaks with Wakefield Press’s fearless leader … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-fun"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-1wJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5873"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5889,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873\/revisions\/5889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}