Art Through The Darkness - Bronwyn Oliver

I am making my way through Hannah Fink’s 2017 book titled “Bronwyn Oliver; Strange Things”, an expose on the life and work of the Australian sculptor Bronwyn Oliver (1959-2006).  This book brought back fond memories of a major exhibition of her work held at the Tarrawarra Museum of Art in 2016.  It was thought to be shameful that a decade after her suicide, her home state of New South Wales had not held a major retrospective of her work, and thus it was left to Tarrawarra – full credit to them.

Oliver's first exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney 1986

Oliver’s one time partner, the wine writer and critic Huon Hooke, wrote an effecting preface to Fink’s book.  “My enduring image of Bronwyn at work is like this.  She is sitting cross-legged on the floor, on a piece of foam rubber.  Her work in on a low bench constructed of timber covered with fireproof bricks…..what happened in that studio I regard as some kind of fabulous, mysterious process in which bits of dull lifeless metal were transformed into beautiful objects full of wonderment, and the agent of that process was fire, delivered by a magic wand ” 

She seemed to be happy only when working in her studio, and therein lies the problem.  Only one day into her honeymoon with fellow artist Leslie Oliver at Narooma on the New South Wales south coast, Bronwyn got bored and suggested they “get back to work.”

Her sculptures have been described as hauntingly beautiful and are admired by major collectors and critics alike.  She was a fiercely driven artist who disliked small talk and found social engagements difficult.

Curl/Schiaparelli, 1988,  80x80x25 cm copper

Oliver was always a high achiever.  She was Dux of her high school and later was determined to continue her art studies overseas.  She successfully applied for a scholarship for her master’s degree at the Chelsea Art School in London in 1982.  Whilst there, she met Mike Parr and the two of them found they had a lot in common.  Both believed that if they didn’t have their art, they would be “in deep trouble.”  At one stage, she was sharing lodgings with the now renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor.  They had long conversations together and she felt she needed to “get to know him better to understand myself as an artist”.

She also underwent counselling in London “it was mainly about Mum and me and my place in the family…and not worry about being defensive, threatened or over-sensitive” in social situations.  She was rarely the easiest to get along with.  When her husband Leslie spent 5 weeks in London with her, she expressed surprise at the strength of her dependence on him to confirm her feelings about the world, and the intense isolation she felt after he left.  But it was also whilst she was in England that her 2 year marriage ended.

Unity, 2001, 100x100x15 cm  copper

Never-the-less it was a highly successful 12 months in England for Oliver and, despite several job offers, she returned home where “I could make my own path, wherever I wanted to go.”  Much of her early work featured fibreglass, cane and paper.  Later she switched to copper and other metals.

During an interview with writer Maggie Gilchrist, Oliver was asked what her purpose was in making art.  Her response was very revealing; “I am a loner.  I’m not very sociable.  It’s really the only way I have of communicating with people.  I’m a social disaster when it comes chit chat or going to parties….This is the best way I know how to communicate my feelings about life.  I am exploring the world when I make these.  I’m putting my delight in how things are constructed, not just physically but all the unspoken structures….It’s my way of making sense of the world.”

Tarrawarra exhibition 2016

Oliver believed in the concept of space flowing through an object.  “I was intrigued by the idea of enclosing space.  If it can be enclosed and held, why not let it flow out and get away at the same time?  Having both the inside and outside simultaneously visible in a way denies the physicality of an object.  The openness is a kind of humble truth – nothing is hidden.”

Oliver strongly objected to any reference to handiwork in her art.  She thought that referring to the craft aspect trivialized her intentions.  The idea behind the work was paramount in the process of making her art.  Fink believes some people underestimated the depth of her ambition, not for fame or accolades but for art of the highest order – for transcendence.  She wanted her work to take on a life, a presence which was removed from this world. 

Ammonite, 2005, 95x90x9 cm  copper

“I am trying to create life.  Not in the sense of beings, or animals, or plants, or machines, but ‘life’ in the sense of a kind of force, a presence, an energy to my objects that a human can respond to on the level of soul or spirit.”

Judging from what I saw at Tarrawarra, Oliver succeeded.  There is an organic quality to her work, and yet an otherworldliness at the same time.  I was drawn into her work, wanting to wrap my arms around some of them.  The tactile nature of her work seemed in defiance of the materials used.

Between 1986 and her death in 2006, Oliver presented 18 solo exhibitions and from 1983 participated in numerous group exhibitions in Australia and overseas.  She also undertook many commissions where she worked closely with clients and stakeholders, and for 19 years taught art to primary school students.  In 1984 she won the Moet & Chandon Australian Art Fellowship.  Her work can be found in public and private collections both in Australia and overseas.

Two Rings, 2006,  copper

There are conflicting accounts of Oliver’s final years, but she was dogged by depression for most of her life. She once announced to a startled friend that she had divorced her family. Analysis of her hair following her suicide found extremely high concentrations of copper which may have exacerbated her mental condition. It’s thought that the breakup of her relationship with Huon Hooke (for which she blames herself) may have been the last straw. She hung herself in her studio amid newly completed works for an exhibition. She left no personal letters, only a note in a neighbour's letterbox for her former partner: "Please ask Huon to feed the cats."

Vine, 2006, copper. Hilton Hotel, Sydney

I am indebted to fellow Gippsland artist Jo Caminiti for talking me into visiting the Bronwyn Oliver exhibition at Tarrawarra.   A memorable experience.

References;

Australian Financial Review  

‘Bronwyn Oliver, Strange Things’,  Hannah Fink, Piper Press, 2017

Tarrawarra Museum Of Art

The World of Imogen Cunningham

A recent online article posted by the National Gallery of Victoria included a black and white photograph by American photographer Imogen Cunningham (1883 - 1976) which drew my attention for its sharpness of observation and clean abstract qualities.  The challenge here is to condense a long career into a few paragraphs, but here goes.

Agave Design 1 1920's (NGV)

In 1901 she managed to save $15 and sent it off to a correspondence school in Pennsylvania.  They sent her a camera and some glass plates and she started out on her own, and what followed was the longest photographic career in the history of the medium – 75 years.  After graduating from the University of Washington with a major in chemistry, she was awarded a grant to study photographic chemistry in Dresden in 1909.

Magnolia Blossom 1925 (Artsy)

Raising three young children in the early 20th century meant that Cunningham was limited in her choice of subject matter.  Whilst they slept during the afternoons, she would photograph plants in her garden.  With regard to Agave Design 1 the NGV article discusses Cunningham arranging the leaves in a way that allowed her to create bold contrasts between light and dark.  She seems to have created another reality by focussing on form, pattern and light.

On Oregon Beach 1967 (Artnet)

Cunningham was one of the first women to photograph the male nude and received much criticism for doing so.  “I was described as an immoral woman.”  She said she wanted everything in her photographs to be smoothly in focus, or if it’s out of focus it has to be for a reason.  Also the quality of gradations and value is important.  “In order to make a good photograph you have to be enthusiastic about it and think about it like a poet.”

Part of the reason for the longevity of her career is that in later years she began to print images that she had previously neglected because “your point of view changes.”After photographing the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham she was asked to go to Hollywood and when asked for her preferences, she said ugly men because “they don’t complain.”

Triangles Plus One 1928 (Artnet)

Her relationship with her theosophical leaning father was unusual, he once said to her “why do you go to school for so long just to be a dirty photographer?”  Yet at the same time he made a very good darkroom for her in the woodshed.

“I don’t hunt for things (subject matter – I assume), I just wait until something strikes me.  Of course I hunt for an impression when I photograph people……I do portraits because people pay me for them and I still have to live…… I’ve always been glad for a certain amount of poverty – all I want to do is live.”

Frida Kahlo 1931 (Artsy)

When photographing anyone who does something with their hands, she always wanted to include the hands. 

Her work seems to be based on a certain formalism with a mixture of abstract and realist elements, but with an almost intuitive understanding of composition.  Over the decades she produced a staggering body of work comprising bold, contemporary forms.  There is a visual precision that is not scientific, but which presents the lines and textures of her subjects articulated by natural light and their own gestures. Her work has been described as refreshing, yet formal and sensitive.  Her floral arrangements of the 1920’s ultimately became her most acclaimed images. Cunningham’s real artistic legacy was secured through her inclusion in the "F64" show in San Francisco in 1932 which included notable photographers including Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.

Awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, Cunningham’s work continues to be exhibited and collected around the world.

Imogen & Twinka, Yosemite 1974, photographed by Judy Dater

References;

National Gallery of Victoria

Museum of North West Art

Portrait of Imogen (1988) - directed by Meg Partridge

The Forgotten Alexander Colquhoun

One Australian artist who appears to have slipped under the radar of many historians is Alexander Colquhoun (1862 – 1941), who was born in Glasgow and arrived with his family in Melbourne in 1876.  Some time back, I posted about the landmark exhibition “Golden Summers” held at the National Gallery of Victoria in the mid 80’s which featured the Heidelberg School artists.  Colquhoun wasn’t in it, even though he studied under Thomas Clark just like Fred McCubbin who was one of the ‘stars’ of the exhibition.  And again just like McCubbin, Colquhoun was a member of the Buonarotti Club which was an artistic-musical-literary society in the 1880’s.

Portrait of Colquhoun by John Longstaff

I wasn’t even aware of Colquhoun until I saw an exhibition of his work at the Castlemaine Art Gallery in 2004.  According to the gallery, this was the first significant exhibition of his work since his death. “As a writer and critic he did much to record the art history of his time and place. His writing, in books and in articles for periodicals and newspapers (including the Melbourne Herald and The Age), shows him to be a cultured man possessing a wide acquaintance with classical and general literature.”

Colquhoun - The Old St James Church 36 x 25 cm n.d.

Colquhoun took private students as well as teaching drawing at the Working Men’s College (later RMIT) from 1910.  Later he taught art at Toorak College until 1930, as well as exhibiting regularly at venues including the Victorian Artists Society.

Colquhoun - A Spring Morning, 71 x 96 cm n.d.

He is not an easy artist to track down and some of his works are undated. He usually painted from nature using a sombre palette with some impressionistic accents, and most of his works are in oils either on wood panels or on canvas.  Frederick Follingsby’s influence is apparent in Colquhoun’s early work.  In later years he became friends with, was influenced by, Max Meldrum.  His painting A Spring Morning has fetched the highest  price of any of his works - $10,862USD in 2015.

Colquhoun - Figure In Interior, c1920

So why is Colquhoun so obscure?  Possibly because he didn’t produce any blockbuster works such as Robert’s Shearing The Rams or McCubbin’s The Pioneers or Streeton’s Golden Summers.  I think we can associate his darker tonal works to a later period when he fell under the spell of Meldrum.  Some of his interior scenes remind me of nineteenth century social realist paintings by Jozef Israels and Honore Daumier but without the pathos.  There is a calm domesticity, even intimacy in Colquhoun’s interiors.

Colquhoun - title and date unknown

In 1936 Colquhoun was appointed a trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria. He died in East Malvern in 1941, survived by his wife and three of their four children.

Members of the Buonarotti Club in 1885. From left, back row; John Longstaff, Llewelyn Jones, Colquhoun, E. Phillips-Fox, Fred McCubbin. Middle row; Tudor St George Tucker, Julian Gibbs, David Davies, Fred Williams. Seated at the front is Aby Alston.

Jane Sutherland was one of the first women to be invited into the Buonarotti Club.

References;

The Australian Dictionary of Biography

Castlemaine Art Gallery

The Heidelberg School – William Splatt and Dugald McLennan

Russell Drysdale And The Blank Canvas

I have a once-upon-a-time story for you.

Many years ago during an Australia Day long weekend, the ABC screened a series of excellent Aussie art shows.  Hard to believe these days given the tripe that passes for art programs, but it did happen.  It’s a sad story in some respects as this happened just before I got a VCR – I was still finding my feet after a divorce.

One of those programs featured the formidable Russell Drysdale and dated from the mid 1960’s.  An old pal of his, the journalist George Johnston, came up from Sydney to have his portrait painted.  Drysdale was living at Hardy’s Bay near the entrance to the Hawksbury at the time.

Drysdale has being described as the artist who ran away from the canvas, and this program made it abundantly clear that he had a hell of a job getting started.  Having the same problem myself at the time, this caught my attention.  Drysdale would get Johnston into position, then faff about in front of the canvas for a while before suggesting they both visit an old friend at a nearby pub.  So off they went and the camera would focus on the canvas – blank.

The next day the same routine would be repeated only this time Drysdale suggested they go fishing (I think – I’m digging up nearly 30 years of memory here).  But I remember the camera focusing on the canvas again – blank again.

He eventually made some progress and I distinctly remember Johnston saying that it seemed as if Drysdale was going into a trance in front of the canvas.  But after 2 weeks Johnston had to return to Sydney, resigning himself to the idea that the painting will never happen.  A few weeks later he gets the call, “I’ve finished”. 

Drysdale's portrait of George Johnston 1966

Drysdale’s gift as a portrait painter was that he could capture the character of the person.  Both he and Johnston were in fairly poor health by that time.  Drysdale was also an incredible portrayer of loneliness and my two favourite paintings of his are…

'Soldier' (1942) oil on composition board, 59.5 x 40 cm

And…

'War Memorial' (1950) oil on composition board, 66 x101.6 cm

“The subject is of no particular township but rather is representative of a small bush community with its cheap, cast figure (there must be hundreds of them) looking completely unreal and out of key.”  Letter from Drysdale to the Tate Gallery in 1956.

This painting became the first acquisition of an Australian painting by London’s Tate Gallery.

As for the availability of the program, simply titled “Russell Drysdale”, I suggest you contact ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

These days a blank canvas presents no issues for me, it’s just a matter of getting something happening ASAP.  The problems usually start later on. 

Tragedy Of 50 Years Of Failure

The current Covid 19 pandemic is likely to exacerbate the disturbing increase in rates of depression and anxiety in the community.  The not-for-profit charity Mind Medicine Australia, which is seeking to establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments for mental illness in Australia, has produced some alarming statistics on mental illness in this country.  The thrust of MMA’s argument is that 50 years of mainstream medication since the banning of psychedelics has completely failed the vast majority of sufferers of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addictions.

As a result of lobbying by MMA, the Therapeutic Goods Administration is seeking submissions from the public on a proposal to amend the scheduling of substances including psychedelics so they can be made available for therapeutic treatment. (The closing date for submissions was 28th September 2020).

What needs to be understood here is that psychedelics were banned in the US in 1970 by the Nixon Administration for political reasons.  It was part of Nixon’s strategy to kill off the anti-Vietnam war movement, thus years of research into the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics, such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and MDMA was flushed down the toilet.  Most other countries followed suit.

I would argue that the failure of the mental health system in general and mainstream medication in particular has manifested itself in the increased suicide rate and the emergence of, among other things, the media psychiatrist.  This brings me to the 1991 series “Madness” presented by the remarkable Jonathan Miller who died last November, which explores the history and treatment of mental illness. 

In one episode, titled “The Talking Cure”, Miller looks at the history of psychoanalysis.  It begins with Miller driving along a huge freeway in the US whilst listening on his car radio to the ‘psychiatrist turned agony uncle’ David Viscott taking calls from the distressed, the lonely, the depressed and anxious.  Miller tells us that Viscott was one of the brightest young psychiatrists of his generation, but he decided to reach a much wider audience.

David Viscott

There is something perverse about listening to a distressed pot smoking young mother of 3 who also takes 2 quaaludes a day (a barbiturate) giving an account of her life, with these accounts interspersed with joyful advertising. Miller believes that Sigmund Freud’s patients would have been horrified at the thought of broadcasting their private agonies to a huge anonymous audience. 

We need to go back to the beginning.  Freud discovered that in order to effectively treat the disordered patients who presented themselves in his consulting rooms, they needed access their unconscious mind by going through a process of autobiographical reconstruction.  He recognised the way in which some patients would give a self-deceiving account of their past, which was largely due to a repressive process in the mind preventing access to its unconscious contents, which may contain pain or certain urges that are in conflict with the moral order of the social world.  Freud discovered that the repressive process didn’t annihilate those contents.  Instead, it was likely that those unconscious urges would surface in a disguised form such as slips of the tongue, or in dreams.

Freud believed that if in the course of a person’s development he/she fails to reconcile certain instinctive urges in the unconscious with the increasingly demanding social world, these unresolved conflicts can arrest a person’s development and manifest themselves as psychological illness.

Jonathan Miller

Only recently has there been a revival in interest in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore and the Imperial College in London leading the charge. Studies have shown how intensive treatments in psychedelics in a controlled environment can give patients access to their biographies and allow the processing of them once and for all.  Psychedelics can open up new opportunities to patients and give them an entirely new perspective on life.  Just 3 treatments over a 2 week period is usually all that is required.  Results are very encouraging.

But in the absence of psychedelic treatments and other alternatives, plus the high cost of mental health care (Viscott charged $1500 for a 2 hour private session) many sufferers may have felt they had no option but to avail themselves of Viscott’s on air ‘services’. 

I will certainly be making a submission to the TGA. I’ve suffered depression all my life, there is a history of suicide in my family and I’ve had enough.

Just as an aside. After reaching its peak in the early 1990’s, Viscott’s career and life quickly disintegrated.  His method was to gently probe intimate details out of his clients before hitting them with a sledge hammer.  It was undifferentiated, tough love shrink radio.  But then his ratings declined along with his health.  His marriage failed and new projects came to nothing.  He died alone in 1996, aged 58.

References;

Los Angeles Times

“Madness” - BBC TV

Suzanne Valadon - Feisty, Determined & Talented

“I had great masters.  I took the best of them, of their teachings, of their examples.  I found myself, I made myself and I said what I had to say.” Suzanne Valadon

The illegitimate daughter of a drunken laundress, artist Suzanne Valadon (1865 – 1938) overcame her poor background to forge a career in a man’s world.  Contrasts are drawn with Valadon’s contemporaries Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt who both came from wealthy families and were thus thought to be restricted in their subjects and outlook.  Raised on the streets, Valadon had seen it all and this gave her the confidence to be independent and paint challenging subjects.  It’s worth noting that both Morisot and Cassatt eventually bought paintings by Valadon.

When she was in her teens, Valadon worked as a bare-back rider in the circus.  But after injuring her back in a fall, she became a model for artists – supposedly one of the few professions available at the time to young, beautiful women from poor backgrounds.  During her modelling career, Valadon cleverly cultivated contacts, gleaning techniques and ideas.  She made up stories about her background – raising or lowering her age depending on the circumstances.  She became the lover of many notable artists such as Renoir who painted possibly the best known image of her.

Renoir Dance At Bougival 1883. The male figure is Renoir’s brother.

Henry Toulouse-Lautrec met Valadon when she lived just next door to him in Paris and she became his mistress and muse for about two years.  One of the most moving of all depictions of Valadon is “A Grenelle” painted by Toulouse-Lautrec and based on a song of the same title sung by the sad balladeer Aristide Bruant.

Toulouse-Lautrec ‘A Grenelle

Unlike most of Valadon’s artist contacts, Toulouse-Lautrec took her artistic ambitions seriously.  It was he who convinced Valadon to change her name from Marie-Clementine to Suzanne, claiming no one would take her seriously if she was named after a fruit.  

In 1896, she got involved with well-to-do lawyer Paul Mousis and with financial security behind her, she was able to focus full time on her art.  Mousis purchased a house for her, her mother and son (thought to be Renoir’s, but he denied this).  The marriage didn’t last and her son, the artist Maurice Utrillo was having problems of his own.  Yet through all this and beyond, her career flourished.

Without any formal training Valadon developed a technique of her own with bold heavy strokes and a very direct style, laced with emotion.  Her nudes were considered very sincere and intense.

Valadon Reclining Nude 1928 Oil On Canvas

Valadon met the artist Andre Utter through Maurice and she became transfixed by him.  She was still living with Paul at the time.

Valadon Adam and Eve 1909 Oil on canvas

The figures (believed to be Valadon and Utter) are almost life size and this is the first painting by a woman depicting a nude male and female – so it created quite a stir.  The leaves covering Utter’s genitals were a later addition to enable the exhibition of this work at the 1920 salon.  The painting is audacious as there is no idealization here, instead there is a raw fleshiness in the presentation of the bodies already entwined as Eve (Valadon) picks the forbidden fruit.  It’s thought that Valadon was referencing her relationship with Utter – an older woman with a much younger man.

Valadon  The Joy of Life  1911 Oil on canvas

This is a familiar subject painted by Cezanne, Matisse and Gauguin among others but for one major feature – the presence of the male nude modelled by Utter again.  In previous paintings of this genre, the female figures are presented as languidly displaying themselves with no suggestion of where this might lead.  But with Valadon, there is again a demystifying of the scene and a clear pointer to desire and sexual gratification.

Art historian Gill Perry writes of the female figures being strangely separated from each other, from the male viewer and from nature that surrounds them….there is no evoking of the harmony between women and nature as suggested by Matisse or Gauguin.  She puts this down to Valadon’s “robust and sharply outlined” style.  Not surprisingly, Valadon’s “marriage” to Mousis ended. 

Such was the growth in her reputation that in 1923 the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery signed an unprecedented contract with Valadon worth 1m francs per year just to have her on a retainer.

References: 

Through The Eyes Of An Artist; Suzanne Valadon – Youtube

Toulouse-Lautrec, The Full Story – ZCZ Films 2006

Suzanne Valadon – The Art Story 2019

Maurizio Cattelan - Prankster Artist

It’s probably best if I commence this blog with a quote from gallerist Adam Lindemann, “I think he’s probably one of the greatest artists that we have today, but he could also be the worst. It’s going to be one or the other.  It’s not going to fall in the middle.”

With an artist like Maurizio Cattelan, I’ve wondered if it would be more appropriate to cram this blog with images of his work and write nothing – allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions.  Critic Ben Lewis has been a fan of Cattelan for years, even making a documentary film about him in 2003.  He considers Cattelan to have a unique, comical imagination who produces work that is politically and critically engaged – a cartoonist who works in 3D.

“Stephanie” (2003) This sculpture of Stephanie Seymour was commissioned by her magnate husband Peter Brant. A trophy wife? It was sold at auction in 2010 for over $2.4m.

Of course it would make life easier if Cattelan gave interviews, but until recently he didn’t.  Instead he engaged a “double” to act on his behalf who was under strict instructions not to answer questions.  But naturally, being a reclusive simply adds to the mystery of his work.

“Untitled” (2001) An elevator for mice?

He’s been described as an art world upstart who for years has produced playful, provocative and subversive work that sends up the artistic establishment.  A classic example is when he duct taped his dealer Massimo di Carlo to the wall of a gallery for a day.  Later di Carlo had to be rushed to hospital after he almost suffered a stroke.

“A Perfect Day” 1999

So there is a cruel twist to Cattelan’s humour which is reminiscent of medieval imagery.  And typical of many artists these days, he doesn’t make his own work.  He employs skilled craftsman, taxidermists etc to do it for him – sometimes remotely.  The craftsman who made the model for the Pope struck by a meteorite had no idea what Cattelan’s objectives were.  He thought Cattelan wanted a kneeling Pope.  Afterwards, Cattelan cut the legs off before plonking the rock over him.

“The Ninth Hour” (2003) This work was once exhibited at the Royal Academy before being auctioned for almost $1m in New York.

Sometimes, Cattelan’s black humour is directed towards himself.  When a publisher wanted to make a book about his work, Cattelan insisted it be a quarter of the size of other books in the series.  Taking his cue from Duchamp and the conceptualists, Cattelan was exploiting the nonsense that art had become.  He once exhibited a crime report prepared by the police after he claimed a work of his called Invisible was stolen from his girlfriend’s car.

“Him”. (2001) Hitler in the body of a 12 yo. Is he praying for forgiveness?

Clearly, one of Cattelan’s objectives is to question the relevance of contemporary art to the rest of society by poking fun at it.  He achieves this brilliantly in the work “Strategies” in which the contemporary art scene is presented as a house of cards.  Flash Art was a leading arts publication at the time.

“Strategies” (1990)

Cattelan claimed he was retiring in 2011.  I doubt if anyone took him seriously.  Five years later he came up with “America”, a fully functioning toilet made out of 18 carat gold.  Then in December 2019 he created a storm at the Art Basel in Miami Beach when he exhibited “Comedian” – a real banana taped to a wall.  Produced in an edition of 3, it was priced at $120,000 and the edition was sold out.

“America” (2016) and “Comedian” (2019).

The Guardian draws a comparison between the 2 works.  In America he seems to be reducing a precious metal to the base for disposing the results of consuming bananas.  “Cattelan’s toilet mocked the money-obsessed art world by being potentially more valuable for its raw material than its concept – reflecting a market that can turn shit into gold. His banana makes the same joke the other way round by being glaringly not worth its asking price.”

Perhaps. And that’s the thing about Maurizio Cattelan.  Born in Italy in 1960, the son of a cleaning lady and a truck driver, he had no formal art training but has become the master of ambiguity.

A retrospective of Maurizio Cattelan held at the Guggenheim Museum in 2011.

References;  How To Get A Head in the Art World – Art Safari BBC 2003

                      Bananaman; Who Is Maurizio Cattelan? – The Art Newspaper podcast 2019

                     Don’t Make Fun At The $120,000 Banana - The Guardian

Land Art, Art Beyond The Gallery

Beginning in the 1960’s a group of artists based primarily in New York began to take up the land as the subject and the material for their art practice.  Drawing on minimalist and conceptual art they sought to transcend the limitations of classical painting and sculpture in a gallery setting.

They looked to the vast desolate desert spaces of America’s south-west to produce land art on a monumental scale.  The artists saw themselves as explorers, looking for a larger canvas to work on in order to produce an art form that would “end galleries”, or so they thought.  It seemed as if they wanted to subvert the art market.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, Great Salt Lake 1970

The unofficial leader of this movement was Robert Smithson who was an eloquent writer and speaker with a dark, even satanic nature.  Walter De Maria was said to have been rather quiet and he, like Michael Heizer and many others wanted the viewer to enter the work and experience it.  The impact of the Vietnam War must not be underestimated in the development of this art movement, as there seems to be a measure of violence in the production of much land art.  There is a belief that the aftermath of the war is an anxiety that hangs over society to this very day, which is also evident in this art form.

Critic Waldemar Januszczak claims land art could not have happened anywhere else.  You needed big spaces he tells us.  Obviously he’s never been to Australia.   Some of the landscapes that appealed to the land artists seem uncannily similar to the Flinders Ranges.

The Apollo moon missions presented us with a new vision of the world as a sphere and the land artists saw this as an opportunity to shape this sphere, to draw on it at a massive scale.  The importance of flight can’t be underestimated too.  James Turrell often spent days flying at low levels looking for subject matter for his art.

James Turrell, Roden Crater, Arizona commenced 1978

The architecture of the great pyramids is also thought to have been an influence, so we are looking at a confluence of history, architecture and science which inspired land art.

Henry Moore once said that when he made his sculptures he was doing the things he did as a child, and children do have a special relationship with the physical nature of the land.  De Maria once said his favourite paint brush was the Caterpillar tractor.

It was the isolation and ruggedness of America’s south-west that appealed most these New York artists.  “It is interesting to build a sculpture that attempts to create an atmosphere of awe, awe as a state of mind equivalent to religious experience”, Michael Heizer.

Michael Heizer, Double Negative, appox. 460 m wide Nevada 1969-70

Some may regard Double Negative as an ugly gash on the landscape. Waldemar Januszczak argues land art was about adapting the art to the landscape.  Anyway, I would contend that Double Negative isn’t anywhere near as offensive as Mount Rushmore.  Of course, nature will eventually fill in these gashes, but both Smithson and Heizer were fascinated by the concept of entropy, that is; of systems breaking down.

A popular hangout for many (but not all) land artists was a bar called Max’s Kansas City in New York City where the owner loved artists to the extent that they were still welcome, even if they didn’t have any money and they could build up a tab or even swap art in exchange.  Max’s was extremely inclusive, welcoming people from Europe into constant conversations about art.  Carl Andre believes that such openness doesn’t exist today, perhaps because of TV (or the Internet).  He even speculates that drugs may have killed it.

Charles Ross, Star Axis, New Mexico commenced 1976

Of course, all major art movements benefit from a patron and in the case of the land artists it was Virginia Dwan.  She was a gallery owner with an interest in art as installation which had a relationship to the land and architecture, she was also an heir to the 3M dynasty so money was no object.  She was interested in ideas of discovery and would stump up large sums of money for land art projects.

Artist/curator Willoughby Sharp was another supporter of the land artists as they extended their practice outside the gallery environment and he set about promoting their projects by any means possible. He was very media savvy, as evident in his magazine Avalanche which had a European and American art focus.

Nancy Holt and her husband Robert Smithson both grew up in New Jersey and she explained that going back to that state to explore possibilities for future projects gave them a chance to re-experience places they had experienced when children.  “It also gave us a chance to unlearn sophisticated things we had learned in early adulthood and getting rid of a lot of useless concepts and getting back in touch with the land, the physical surrounds of our existence and perceiving it in a new way.”  But New Jersey had little to offer them, so they headed further west – a lot further west.

A breakthrough for these artists was the Earth Works 1969 show staged by Virginia Dwan at her gallery in New York which introduced the public and media to the whole concept of land art.  What followed were major projects funded by Dwan including Michael Heizer’s Double Negative and Smithson’s Spiral Jetty.

Walter De Maria, Lightning Field, New Mexico 1977

In 1977 Walter De Maria produced Lightning Field in New Mexico, 400 steel poles equidistant covering an area 1 km x 1 mile.  In this work the viewer is invited to enter and be part of it, the same applies to Double Negative.  Dwan explained that when you enter the giant cuts, you can see aeons of existence exposed in the rock layers.  She described the experience as lonely, yet feeling at one with nature.  There was an element of danger as well, the same applies to Lightning Field if there were any clouds about.

Artists who felt they had burned their bridges with the gallery system found there was another world to explore in land art.  Dwan admitted that what she admired most in these artists was their obsession.

In her piece Sun Tunnels, Nancy Holt said that when she explored the south-west deserts for the first time, she found it hard to sleep as it changed her life radically.  It gave her a different sense of space, time and light and the power of the sun. 

Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels, Utah 1976

The holes drilled through the concrete pipes are in the configuration of the stars and constellations so that when the sun shines through it creates star light in the tunnels.  The tunnels are oriented towards the summer and winter solstice.

It is sad how the changing climate has impacted on Spiral Jetty, now that the Great Salt Lake in the vicinity of Smithson’s work has turned into a desert.

Dwan speculates that it may take another 50, maybe 100 years before the significance of the work of the land artists is fully appreciated. Smithson died in a plane crash in 1973 whilst surveying an area for a future project.

References;

Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art, Summitridge Pictures 2015

Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art, Made in the USA, BBC 2018