'Cascade of diarrhoea': UK critic savages Australian art exhibition

'Cascade of diarrhoea': UK critic savages Australian art exhibition

Nick Miller

Europe Correspondent

Much of the so-called cream of Australian art is lightweight, provincial and dull, and some of it is reminiscent of liquid crap, says one of Britain's leading critics.

In a searing review of the Royal Academy's new 'Australia' exhibition which opened this weekend in London, the Sunday Times' Waldemar Januszczak describes indigenous art as “tourist tat”, Frederick McCubbin's famous The Pioneer as “poverty porn”, and Fred Williams' desert landscape as “thick cowpats of minimalism”.

In his most vivid metaphor, Januszczak takes aim at John Olsen's 'Sydney Sun', which the National Gallery called a magnificent work by one of Australia's most distinguished artists when it was purchased for half a million dollars in 2000.

John Olsen's Sydney Sun: like "a cascade of diarrhoea". Photo: Graham Tidy

Not so, says Januszczak. It “successfully evokes the sensation of standing under a cascade of diarrhoea.”

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The RA show has raided the country's major galleries to present a survey of Australia's most-admired painters and paintings - a 'best of' Australian art, from before white settlement to the very latest contemporary works, around the theme of 'landscape'.

It has garnered mixed reviews, with some complaining such survey shows are old hat. However The Times gave it four stars, calling it long overdue and “powerfully atmospheric”.

But the Sunday Times disagreed with its sister paper. Of the show as a whole, Januszczak says “every now and then something interesting comes along, but as an overall national achievement, the contents of this display feel lightweight and provincial … I ended up musing (in Australia) the wrong people became artists.”

He complained that the indigenous element of the survey was tokenistic, preferring original ancient rock art to the “dull canvas approximations knocked out in reduced dimensions by a host of repetitive Aborigine artists making a buck.”

Recent indigenous art, he says, “amounts to a market in decorative rugs”.

Only Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Albert Namatjira impressed on the indigenous side.

And he seemed to like the power of Sidney Nolan (“strewth cobber, but he wasn't sensitive!”) and enjoyed some contemporary artists.

Januszczak is a former Guardian critic who has twice won the Critic of the Year award, and also makes television arts documentaries.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/cascade-of-diarrhoea-uk-critic-savages-australian-art-exhibition-20130923-2u8g4.html#ixzz2ff7u06nh