Art beat
BIRTH OF FIRE! The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territoy’s new Australian Art curator, Dr Wendy Garden, is set to unleash some heat on the Darwin art scene
THE Northern Territory had one of the hottest and longest wet seasons on record this year. And for the newly-appointed Australian Art Curator at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territoy, Dr Wendy Garden, the never-ending wet season weather was an adjustment when she arrived from Melbourne in March.
“The first thing that struck me was how hot it was,” she said.
“When I arrived, all the locals were saying it was the hottest wet season they’d had in 30 years and, coming from Melbourne, it took some getting used to the heat and the humidity.”
After moving from the cold southern lands, Dr Garden’s first task in her new role was to curate a show to display the gallery’s collection.
Not only did the challenge involve familiarising herself with an extensive collection rarely seen in the Top End in recent years, she also needed to tie it all together.
“I just didn’t want to do (a) grab bag, ‘treasures of’ type show — I wanted to do something that was able to hang together thematically,” she said.
“I was trying to think what on earth could I do that would bring together such disparate works and make a really interesting show.”
As she sat at her desk listening to the air conditioning struggle to keep the temperature at a workable level and the idea hit her — “Hot”.
The exhibition, HOT! Highlights from the MAGNT art collection, features work from the stalwarts of Australian art in the MAGNT collection: John Brack, Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin; acclaimed indigenous artists, including Albert Namatjira, Kunmanara Palpatja and Mrs Snell; as well as contemporary Darwin Artists, including Chips Mackinolty, Therese Ritchie and Rob Brown.
Dr Garden stuck with the word ‘hot’ for the theme for its versatility and multiple interpretations.
“The thing I really liked about the word ‘hot’ is that it actually has a whole lot of other meanings; we talk about it colloquially in terms of who is hot, especially teen culture, and I really loved that undertone as well,” Dr Garden said.
“Then there’s hot emotions, passion and anger obviously, and then we talk about ‘hot button issues’ – things that create intense debate and raise people’s emotional level. Of course we’re seeing a lot of those issues happening at the moment.”
The works also explore the artists who were hot in their time by stirring up controversy and pushing the boundaries of their day.
“(William) Dobel is interesting because he of course was at the centre of a real heated debate over the Archibald, when it was claimed (his painting) was caricature not portrait,” Dr Garden said.
Dobel’s portrait of artist Joshua Smith in 1943 broke the established conventions of the Archibald at the time.
The painting sparked passionate debate among both those in the art community and those unfamiliar with art alike.
While the award-winning portrait is not held in the MAGNT collection and not on show in Hot!, his painting Meatworker is featured because it not only represented Dobel’s controversial work, but also his ability to capture warmth in a painting depicting difficult work in a traditionally cold city — London.
“What I was really interested about in this painting is the use of colour and it actually does really radiate a sense of heath and warmth,” Dr Garden said.
“London is quite a cold climate and he looks like he’s bare-chested but there’s still a sense of heat emanating from that.”
While Dr Garden explored the different interpretations of the word when she started selecting work for the show she discovered another important element coming through — water.
“One of the underlying themes is the importance of water in such a hot climate,” she said.
“Water is really important, even though Darwin has a tropical climate with the wet season, we’ve just had two really dry wet seasons, and that becomes an issue.
“It’s good for us to become more in tune and respectful of the balance, which is getting out of whack, which is really a concern.”
As the 2016/17 wet season is expected to bring downpours not seen in years, it’s appropriate that HOT! not only offers an escape from the wild weather conditions, but also shows work that hasn’t been exhibited for years. The show is only the second exhibit of the gallery’s collection in the last decade.
“It’s been four years since Off The Rack and even then we can only show a selection,” Dr Garden said.
“This will be an opportunity to see some old favourites and see some things that haven’t been exhibited that people probably don’t know about.”
Hot! Highlights from the MAGNT art collection at MAGNT until August 13, 2017.