It is 400 years since Dirk Hartog, an employee of the Dutch East India Company, landed on the Western Australian coast in October 1616. Blown off course during a voyage from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), he landed in South Africa and then stumbled upon an island o what is now Shark Bay. He left an inscribed pewter plate as evidence, and set sail again more or less immediately. His brief presence, however, cast a long shadow.
Curator John Mateer traces the route of Hartog’s voyage, assembling contemporary artists from the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia and Indonesia. Works by William Kentridge are shown alongside painters Julie Dowling and Joanna Lamb, and sculptors ‘Big’ John Dodo and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, among others.
At the centre of the exhibition is renowned Dutch artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh’s video work No False Echoes, which deals directly with Dutch colonial history in Indonesia. In this context, the exhibition’s other works highlight the social and political connections between four diverse countries, over four centuries.
The ‘invisible genres’ of the exhibition title are those artistic frameworks that emerged during 17th-century Dutch painting: portrait, still-life, landscape/seascape and ‘genre’ (everyday life). Now so entrenched it seems incredible they were once new, these genres continue to influence the production and interpretation of contemporary art. By making them apparent, Mateer points to other lenses and frameworks we would do well to reassess.
This is an important conversation to have now, at a critical time in the post-colonial narrative. The ripples of history may be hidden or overlooked, but remain very much in motion.
Invisible Genres
John Curtin Gallery
19 September – 4 December
65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art is an extraordinary account of the unique art of this continent, published alongside a landmark exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art. Necessary and urgent, it tells the story of Indigenous Australian art; a new art history unlike anything we’ve seen. For Jane O’Sullivan, it’s a remarkable and must-read book.
In a new series of illustrated postcards available as a free gift with purchase only at the Art Guide Bookstore, Oslo Davis takes on classic and contemporary art terms and genres and reimagines what they could be referring to.
With so much to choose from, we’ve rounded up the major summer exhibitions in each capital city, open all summer long. Spanning Yayoi Kusama, Magritte, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and many more.
First Nations artist Reko Rennie possesses the gift of creating memorable images that are simultaneously puzzling, intriguing and entertaining.
For Lardil and Yangkaal writer and curator Maya Hodge, Archie Moore’s presentation at this year’s Venice Biennale is a powerful symbol of reckoning—one that asks the world to bear witness to the long shadows of colonial violence and clears space for possibilities ahead.
Ahead of the National Gallery of Victoria’s major retrospective on singular Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, we invited four artists to respond to the influence of Kusama on their own practice—and meditate on what her work means to them.
