Published: Sydney Morning Herald March 24, 2011
I recently advertised on an arts industry website for a part-time assistant for a commercial gallery in Sydney. There were more than 80 applicants, and all were either graduates of, or students attending, tertiary art schools. At interviews, there were works on the gallery walls by significant Australian artists including John Coburn, Gary Shead, Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley and Grace Cossington Smith. Only a handful of interviewees could identify any of the artists or works. Interviewees showed little knowledge of or interest in Australian art and art history; most said their courses offered Australian art only as an adjunct or secondary field of knowledge.
I discussed my concerns with an art history student, Vi Girgis, and we began to investigate: is there a new generation of graduates in the arts who have little understanding of and appreciation for Australian cultural and artistic heritage? If so, why?
An online survey of the graduate and postgraduate art history and theory courses at Australian universities revealed that not one of them had a mandatory undergraduate course in Australian art history. Only the University of Adelaide offers a one-year postgraduate course: studies in Australian art. There are elective options at Melbourne University, the University of South Australia and the Australian National University.
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It is possible to complete a graduate and even postgraduate degree in fine art, visual art, arts administration or art theory at an Australian university without acquiring even the most basic knowledge about Australian art or art history. This dishonours the profound wealth of Australian art and the indigenous history and social comment that inspired it.
It falls to art institutions and galleries to spend time and resources training and refocusing graduates, who may well be ill-equipped to represent the Australian art world in the international market.
Christie's in London recently held a sale of modern and contemporary Australian art. The 40 lots realised £541,737 ($877,540). Last August Georgina Pemberton, formerly head of Australian paintings at Sotheby's in Australia, was appointed a director of Agnew's, one of London's leading international art dealerships. Her first exhibition was devoted to paintings by Sidney Nolan, of which nearly all sold.
Why, then, is the international interest in Australian art not mirrored here? Academics at various universities referred me to a 2006 issue of Artlink, which was devoted to the dwindling academic interest in the study of Australian art. In it, Professor Ian McLean, of the University of Western Australia, explained: ''Most Australian art historians teach and research European and US art … in the 1970s … Australian art was the last thing we students were interested in.''
Daniel Thomas, emeritus director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, recalls that ''art teachers 40 or 50 years ago in Sydney seemed to know or care little about Australian art of the past when they conducted students around their local art museum''.
Professor Sasha Grishin, from the ANU, laments that ''courses devoted to Australian art sometimes fail to attract large numbers of undergraduate students''.
This lack of interest is not a new phenomenon, but a dysfunctional cultural cringe trumpeting the superiority of European-American art over Australian. The variety, depth and high standards of art practices are a strong foundation for not only the successful practice of art making and theorising, but also a deep appreciation for the art, culture and heritage of this country. It is incomprehensible that this is not a fundamental focus of universities teaching art history.
Elizabeth Grierson, head of the school of art at RMIT University, has suggested a new way of looking at art institutions that would turn the focus away from the northern hemisphere. An art school, she says, should operate ''as a knowledge-generating site with a role and responsibility to the community of which it is a part. As such it contributes to, shapes and reflects the cultural and historical values of a given community.''
Australian culture deeply appreciates the history and participants of sport, entertainment, fashion and gastronomy. It is time for tertiary institutions to promote critical appraisal of Australian art and its participants by making Australian art mandatory knowledge for students of art theory.
Nicky McWilliam is a lawyer and fine arts graduate who is a director of her late mother's gallery, Eva Breuer Art Dealer.
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