Review
Line, space, repeat: The divine madness in this artist’s abstract patterns
At 82, Australian abstract artist Lesley Dumbrell’s retrospective, Thrum, is long overdue.
- by John McDonald
Latest
Take a trip through time in this stunning photo exhibition
There’s deep complexity to the deceptively simple photos of Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto at the MCA.
- by John McDonald
At Australia’s richest landscape prize, art conquered politics
This year’s $100,000 Hadley’s Art Prize offered a range of ways of seeing our wildest terrain.
- by John McDonald
Fish, family and friends: Young Archie winners on show
This year’s winners, including Anh Do’s 14-year-old son Leon, painted siblings, parents and best friends.
Arthur Boyd’s renowned landscape paintings shown together for the first time
The artist’s suite of large-scale landscape paintings will be shown in the place they were made.
- by John McDonald
Opinion
Spectrum
A critic’s pick of the best and worst of the Archibald Prize portraits
A handful of works stand out from a selection that seems to have been made for variety rather than quality.
- by John McDonald
Opinion
Visual art
When was the last time a soap ad gave you spiritual pleasure?
Alphonse Mucha made the bold claim that his posters turned the street in “open-air art exhibitions”.
- by John McDonald
Opinion
Spectrum
Master or monster: The artist equally loathed and revered
Call it charisma, presence or personal magnetism. Paul Gauguin had it in abundance.
- by John McDonald
Opinion
Opinion
Do we care about the Archibald Prize too much?
The best interpretation one may put upon this phenomenon is that it’s a bit of fun, but it is a worrisome trend because the prize becomes the public standard by which art is judged.
- by John McDonald
This is a monumental exhibition worthy of its monumental subject
Pharaoh – the British Museum’s largest-ever loan exhibition – is quite exceptional. A monumental subject has brought forth a monumental feat of exhibition design.
- by John McDonald
Opinion
Archibald Prize
Archibald winner’s style perfectly matched to subject Tim Winton
The win signifies a return to the quaint, old-fashioned notion that a portrait should be a good likeness.
- by John McDonald