Art & innovation leadership - where’s your ship? Notes from South Australia
ANALYSIS — Visited the Art Gallery of South Australia on Saturday. Here’s the ideas and innovation from there.
A very nice venue, with a decidedly Australian colonial focus.
Innovation is like being the sole artist in a colony.
Take yourself back to the 1800s. You’re an English artist of limited fame. You board that long voyage of months to Australia, without more than another artists picture of the place, and a verbal history. Maybe some thin written reports.
It’s an act of faith, stepping on that ship to another distant and strange land. When the ship lands, and you are the only artist in that colony who paints, sculpts or print-makes; then you have an immediate value in the days before cameras. Over time your services and your paintings become valuable. You may not be wealthy in your time, but you will be comfortable.
The point: as an Innovator you need to find your ship… and have the leadership to take your journey…
That’s the truth. The place where you are valuable. Sometimes the voyage will be long & tiring, but at then end, your sight will be valuable. As the old Bible saying goes, in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king.
But also, let us say, that in that place the one eyed man is free to be king. In a highly controlled art world like Paris he may not be. Impressionism was well-received in Australia, before in many ways Paris accepted it’s value retrospectively.
What did SA have?
Australian impressionists (except at current many works on loan to NGV in Melbourne). For my money Hans Heysen, Arthur Streeton, Frederic McCubbin and Tom Roberts are all world class modern painters of the Australian impressionist based schools, along with John Singer-Sargent in the USA.
Australian and American Impressionists are not as recognised as Monet or Renoir, but they are also world-class.
They were innovators, in the innovation zeitgeist, often living on the other side of the world, disconnected from the trend they were a part of.
For this reason, I like their fresh viewpoint, beyond Monet’s body of work.
Australian and US impressionists deserve to be recognized as Innovators as well. These artists are good enough to be in major collections.
Some of the other artists are not, including especially some of the peculiar colonial art of the time (looking a little out-dated and short-sighted now, but historically valuable nevertheless for Australian history).
How does Australia compare in Art innovation?
I have visited many galleries, including most major art galleries in Europe. The European collections in Australia are smaller, the best is the NGV in Melbourne, and the supreme work there is Tiepolo’s ‘Banquet of Cleopatra’.
There are some excellent Leighton 19th century works at Art Gallery of NSW, a much undervalued painter.
But really in visiting Australia from USA of Europe, for innovation, see all of NGV and the Art Gallery NSW. But then, visit some of the localized Australian collections for true innovation like the collections in various States.
If you like indigenous art, that is a big feature especially in NSW, as well as some good Asian art examples. I take every opportunity to explore art galleries, and the public programs of many are very good, and they have reciprocal arrangmenets for members of other galleries.
And who knows you might find your ship that can take you to a distant land where you can be free to innovate?
Or perhaps the web is your distant (and virtual) land.
There’s food for thought.
Take care folks,
Christopher
PS. I have had bad internet last few days last week in South Australia, so I will be posting time-by-time. Tomorrow I am in Sydney again, then a country town in NSW, called Leeton. Should be fun.
Speaker. Author. Editor-In-Chief. Executive Director of Innovation, 2thinknow.
What's your View?
Or Follow us on Twitter or StumbleUpon