Extremely proud to have led the digitisation and the management of open-access for one of Australia’s heritage publications, Art and Australia. Access it here.
During the official launch by Victoria Lynn on 1 May 2025 at Buxton Contemporary, she recounted the her memories of the twists and turns in the magazine through the second half of the twentieth-century until its final donation to Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), The University of Melbourne. Victoria had been an important bridge that brought the magazine to VCA from Sydney, so having her launch the newly re-digitised and now open-access archive was apt.
With roots in Art in Australia (1916–1942), this magazine is one of the earliest art publications in Australia. A study of its corpus is effectively a study of one version of Australia’s art history over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. My highlights include:
- Extensive evaluations of the running and establishment of state art museums/galleries by the curators/architects, in a time that there were few places to publish such commentary.
- Records of institutional acquisitions and auction prices, especially from the pre-internet age.
- Evidence of early engagements with contemporary Indigenous art and artists (at least from the 1980s).
- Strong record of writers and critics who were not men right from the very beginning.
- Also from the very first issue, there were clear engagements not only with Europe and the US but also with Asia through inclusion of 3 people in Japan (Yuji Abe, K. Okamoto, Chisaburoh F. Yamada).
- On the topic of Asia, the shifts in/growing idea of “Asian” art, especially in the early 90s when Art and AsiaPacific was in its infancy.
- And on the topic of ‘art’ itself – the slow shifts in what was recognised as art (through what was included in the pages).
Doing this has been an education in Australian art that continues to inform and inspire my work. I am very proud to have been involved.
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