Culture
Art & design
Rampant ‘cultural theft’ of Indigenous art to be tackled with new laws
Two-in-three “Indigenous-style” souvenirs are “inauthentic, with no connection to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”, a report has found.
- by Meg Watson
Latest
Celebrities play their strangest roles yet in new portrait show
Robert Wilson’s video portraits are fitting for an era of globalised culture and digital media.
- by John McDonald
The chance encounter that helped send Indigenous art rippling through the US
Conceptual art icon Sol LeWitt was bowled over when he first saw the work of one of our Desert Art legends.
- by Nick Galvin
Exclusive
Arts
‘The only way forward’: the bullet-shaped canoes that tell the story of two wars
A memorial on the banks of Parramatta River will light up in memory of Indigenous soldiers in all wars.
- by Anthony Segaert
What happens when a ‘Chagall’ is sold, and it turns out to be fake
Stephanie Clegg had no idea the trouble she would get into when she paid $90,000 for a painting attributed to Marc Chagall at a Sotheby’s auction.
- by Colin Moynihan
Two women changed our art scene in the 1900s. Why did we forget them?
Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme came from rival publishing families and were determined to forge their own creative paths. Not everyone was happy.
- by Tiarney Miekus
The Australian who designs the palaces of kings, billionaires and... Clive Palmer
Rodney Surawski has travelled the world creating ornate, luxurious homes for the super rich. They’re the sort of people “you don’t say no to,” he says.
- by Nick Miller
Museums acquire viral Goose game so future generations can have a gander
Untitled Goose Game, the smash hit Australian video game about a rampaging goose, is to be preserved for posterity by three national institutions.
- by Nick Miller
Sex slaves, lynchings and opium: Art that tells a true history of Australia
Revealing the truth about this country – documented officially but not widely known – is artist Fiona Foley’s mission.
- by Kerrie O'Brien
This artist built his own mausoleum. And it snores
Jason Phu has created a kind of shrine to himself in the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. It’s also a comment on isolation and materialism.
- by Nick Miller
I was spellbound by the grindstones – then I found out what they meant
A new exhibition at the University of Melbourne challenges us to not compare Indigenous with Western technology, but to see the “Emu Sky” in its own light.
- by Robert Nelson