Gabriella Cigana

Dropped in to the Raglan Gallery in Cooma on the way westward recently to see the 'Monaro Art Express' show by senior secondary school students from the region. There is always an element of freshness and originality in these shows where creative freedom is given reign without the fetters of too much knowledge or the corruption of a tertiary art school influence. Many budding young artists bode well for the future of the arts despite the best efforts of the present government to destroy them. Standout was the photography of Gabriella Cigana whose four works encompassed so much of the pain of growing into adulthood. Inspiring stuff...

What Patrick Hutchings taught me about art...

Many years ago I started studying for a long distance degree in visual arts through Deakin University. I started off with a bang, getting a higher distinction for my first assignment on the emergence of realism in Renaissance art, then stumbled while trying to find a symbolism that wasn't there in 17C Dutch still life, and finally crashed into boredom with British landscape painting before deciding that the academic path was not for me.

Part of the deal was to attend a study tour at the National Gallery of Victoria where we got to meet our tutor, whose name I am embarrassed to say I have forgotten. I do remember that she had shapely legs, wore seamed stockings and high heels, and to follow her around the hallowed halls of this great gallery discussing the collection was indeed a pleasure.

Patrick Hutchings, teacher, author, critic, and one of the grand old men of Australian art, had recently retired from Deakin, but he did condescend to grace us with his presence on one of these tours. His knowledge of, and insight into art was profoundly illuminating. He was also a very entertaining lecturer whose passion for his subject often increased as the audience grew. On one occasion he began a dialogue in front of Picasso's Weeping Woman. Our group of six rapidly grew to about thirty members of the public as he shared his knowledge, finishing with spontaneous applause from an enlightened crowd.

We were wandering through the modern European collection when we passed the only Cezanne. He said, "Of course, this is not a very good Cezanne". Now I have never been a big fan of Cezanne, so I somewhat cynically asked, "How do you tell a good Cezanne from a bad Cezanne?". He turned to me smiling, and said, "Bob, by looking at lots of Cezannes".

Creativity in education

In my last post I mentioned a past life as an art teacher, and how valuing and encouraging creativity in the case of Danius Kesminas had led to greater things...at the time at Xavier College they were going through a period of reassessment of their role in society (i.e. Is it in the Christian spirit to be an elitist educational establishment?). I was asked by the Headmaster: 'Why are we teaching art?' Answer: Through art we teach visual perception, the ability to see objectively...nice to see all these years later that Xavier still values this aim, even if it can't shake its elitist reputation.

If you are interested in this subject one of the key global evangelists (not religious here, but who seriously believes in the need to nurture creativity in order to save the world) is Sir Ken Robinson. His talk on the subject at a TED conference in 2006 is not only very profound, but very funny...nearly 9,000,000 people have seen this...you can too by clicking here...

Danius Kesminas

Slave Pianos, The Execution Protocol 111: Mutually Assured Production (The MAP room), 2007-11

I first met Danius Kesminas in 1978 when he was around 12 years old. I was an art teacher at Burke Hall, the preparatory school for Xavier College in Melbourne. One of the greatest rewards a teacher can ever have is when one of your pupils becomes famous! What part did I have to play in this? Well, absolutely none, because by the time I met Danius he was a more than competent draftsman, an accomplished musician, and brought that Lithuanian heritage to the finish of a crafted object. All I could say is develop your own projects and go for it!

He has since gone on to do just that, not only in his own artwork, but a series of collaborative projects that span categories, countries and trends. Whether it's blasting out the 'drip and splatter' with his band The Histrionics, forming collectives like Punkasila with young Indonesian punk artists and musicians, or the above work with group Slave Pianos (where the audience can 'execute' an avant-garde artist from the list on a console, track their movements on the world map and listen as a giant electric chair activates an antique piano in a farewell ode) Danius challenges the contemporary art world without ever losing his sense of humour.

He is represented by Darren Knight Gallery (for more info click here), and was recently featured in eyeline - contemporary visual arts, which is in my opinion the only art publication in Australia worth reading. Hang on! Did I say read? Silly me...of course you can't READ it, its full of wanky art speak, but the pictures are nice...

...and back to The MAP room...no prizes for guessing I would choose Joseph Beuys first.