Category Archive: ART
TVC Caption Contest!
Here we have a section from “The Love Letter” by Johannes Vermeer. The Dutch master of light and domestic scenes painted it about 1666. You can see the original in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Please send us your suggested caption. The best three selections will receive prominent publication (with attribution, or anonymously if you prefer) and a copy of the seminal experimental novel Tranquility, signed by the author (we will consider personalized dedications if requested). You will need to send us your email address and postal address (no, we will not publish those, and yes, we do not spam)… T’s and C’s:…
Continue Reading →French Connection
Pope Innocent X (who held the Keys to the Kingdom from 15 September 1644 to 1 January 1655) and whose name, in the world, was Giambattista Pamfili, died today (7 January) in 1655. A wily operator in the Age of Absolutism, Innocent flailed vainly against the rise of nations and decline of Catholic hegemony – his papal bull directing ripping-up of the Treaties of Westphalia was simply ignored. P is not so keen on Innocent as he was rather anti-Bernini (L would be favourably disposed to His Holiness for the same reason). On the other hand, the Holy See had…
Continue Reading →Contemporary Art in Crisis
The Varnished Culture has spoken before on this matter: see, for example, our ruminations concerning the Narrow Mind of Genius, Modern Culture, This Whiteley Business, and particularly, Onward! and Modern Art Theory. O, intriguing monochrome! O, quality of stillness! Deciphered stories! There’s something depressing in the relentlessness of the trend towards tossed-off, doctrinaire trash, and we regret to report that fair Melbourne has its fair share of it: see for example, the ‘installation’ (main image) that appeared, complete with safety-tape, adjacent Hamer Hall and the Arts Theatre this month. One would have imagined that modern art was overstocked with irony, the…
Continue Reading →The Only Italian She Knew Was ‘Bvlgari’
Pain in the asp?
(Bvlgari exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, November 2016) Bvlgari was on show in a retrospective of necklaces, rings, tiaras, bracelets, watches etc., primarily from the 1940s to the 1970s. Actually, The Varnished Culture believes the statement headlining this post* to be apocryphal. No one could spend as long in the Eternal City as Elizabeth Taylor did, making the film (Cleopatra) that almost bankrupted Twentieth Century Fox, without picking up at least a smattering of Italian. At least the phrase, “Attenzione, Richard, ecco che arriva Eddie!“ (What’s that rule against coveting, again?) Sotirios…
Continue Reading →John Olsen
(National Gallery of Victoria @ Federation Square, December 2016) Ah, yes, abstract expressionism…when it comes to Australia, one thinks of John Olsen (born 21 January 1928). His retrospective (“The You Beaut Country”) at the NGV (Federation Square locus) drew derision, at first, then vague resentment, then grudging concession at the lovely use of colour, then a kind of appreciation (TVC might be doctrinaire but we are not obdurate). Olsen has duly passed through his Picasso, Kandinsky and Pollock phases… … coming out to forge a truly Australian mix of light and colour, with a cartographer’s skill thrown in. He has an otherworldly,…
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