The ABC has a confusing story on the decision by the National Gallery of Australia to kill off the Naitonal Sculpture prize, because it was unfair to other media and it had “achieved it’s purpose”.
There I was thinking the purpose was to have an annual prize, pretty hard to stamp “mission accomplished” on that.
The way I’m seeing it the Director Ron Radford is hell bent on taking a gallery that was interesting to the general public of Australia, and make it into one that is interesting to the global artistic elite.
As a member of the general public I think he has to be stopped.
Most of us would only see a Cezanne as part of the National Collection, Ron’s done away with that because that part of the collection was only quite good and he wants to concentrate on the excellent.
Many of us would go to the sculpture prize for a once a year gawk at modern sculpture, but we’re not Ron’s target audience of international art aficionados.
I’m not saying we need Pro Hart hanging from every wall, but the Gallery used to be about exposing the interested public to a taste of the world’s best art. The new management seems to be catering only to people who’ve already been to the Tate, Guttenberg Guggenheim and Louvre, and been there this year at that.