Public Lecture, all welcome
6.00pm Monday 23 November 2009
New Law Lecture Theatre 101, Lower Ground Floor, New Law Bldg
Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney (Next to Fisher Library) map

Is “contemporary” the name of an art historical period that has succeeded modernism (and postmodernism), or does “contemporaneity” mean that periodization is past (an anachronism from modernity) both in the general culture and in art? Does it follow that contemporary art can only be a kind of modernism that has outlived its time?

Terry Smith is Andrew W Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History & Theory, University of Pittsburg. He is a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Architecture, University of Sydney, and is a former Director of the Power Institute. Flyer

PARTNER EVENT: 6pm Tues 24 November, ARTSPACE will host Terry Smith in conversation with Rex Butler, followed by the launch of Terry's new book, "What is Contemporary Art", launched by Nicholas Tsoutas. Details: artspace@artspace.org.au, t:9356 0500.

Posted: Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Public Lecture, 6.00pm Thursday 10 September 2009 Edgeworth David Old Geology Theatre, Science Rd, University of Sydney (Near Footbridge Theatre, Parramatta Rd) On 2nd October 2009 the Art Gallery of NSW will open an exhibition celebrating 40 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects. 
At Sydney University John Kaldor and Anthony Bond will present a history of Kaldor Public Art Projects since 1969 starting with the global first of Christo and Jean-Claude wrapping Little Bay and announcing the next project that will form part of the anniversary exhibition.

Anthony will present the art historical narrative while John will recall some of his fascinating experiences of working with these artists: 1969 Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 1971 Harald Szeemann, 1973 Gilbert & George, 
Antoni Miralda, 1976 Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik, 1977 Sol LeWitt, 1977–78 Richard Long, 1984–85 An Australian Accent: Mike Parr, Imants Tillers & Ken Unsworth, 1990–91 Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 1995 Jeff Koons, 1998 Sol LeWitt, 1999 Vanessa Beecroft, 2003–04 Ugo Rondinone, 2004 Barry McGee, 2007 Urs Fischer, Gregor Schneider, 2008 Bill Viola, Martin Boyce, 2009 Tatzu Nishi. Anthony Bond is currently Assistant Director Curatorial at the Art Gallery of NSW where he has been responsible for collecting international contemporary art since 1984. Major exhibitions include: The British Show at AGNSW and touring 1984-85, Australian Perspecta 1985, 87 and 89. The 9th Sydney Biennale Boundary Rider 1992-93, Tony Cragg 1997, TRACE the inaugural Liverpool Biennale of Contemporary International Art 1999. He has also curated historical exhibitions such as Body 1997 and Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary for the National Portrait Gallery London and AGNSW Sydney 2005-6. Anselm Kiefer Aperiatur terra with accompanying book was launched in London in January at White Cube and in AGNSW May 2007. He is currently working on a survey of forty years of John Kaldor projects at AGNSW and preparing for a major series of exhibitions with the Kaldor collection and Contemporary AGNSW collections starting 2011. John Kaldor is a committed supporter and patron of international contemporary art in Australia. In 1969 he commissioned Christo and Jean-Claude to wrap Little Bay. Since that time Kaldor has continued to instigate ground-breaking projects with some of the most iconic artists of his time. John Kaldor served as the Commissioner for the Australian Pavilion in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005 and the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. In 2008 John Kaldor and his family donated an art collection built over 50 years to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It is the largest gift for the visual arts to an Australian institution. Exhibition: Kaldor Public Art Projects: 40 Years, Art Gallery NSW, 2 October 2009 – 14 February 2010

Posted: Wednesday, 9 September 2009

Public Lecture: All Welcome
12.30pm Monday, 21 September 2009
Dept Art History & Film Studies
Mills Lecture Theatre 209, Mills Bldg, Fisher Rd, University of Sydney

This paper takes up the relationship between art history and philosophy. The problem posed by that relationship emerges as most philosophers who write about art, pluck examples to furnish their writings without recognizing the depth and detail of the 'same' object' were it to be considered historically.

Andrew Benjamin is Professor of Critical Theory and Philosophical Aesthetics and Director of the Research Unit in European Philosophy at Monash University.

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Posted: Wednesday, 9 September 2009

Public Lecture: All Welcome
6.00pm Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Mills Lecture Theatre 209, RC Mills Bldg, Fisher Rd, University of Sydney

Andrew Shoben will talk about the potential of small interventions, embedded into the urban fabric of a public space, to allow some form of self-expression in areas of the city that people see everyday but normally exclude and ignore. Through a series of examples, the lecture will articulate the potential of a new public art that responds to and reflects the diversity of life, lived in and around a public space.

He will focus on the importance of creating spaces that offer people passing by an opportunity to join an unexpected ‘community of presence’ that initiates an intimate communication, placing the viewer at the centre of the creative experience, which can often lead to a personalisation of the urban environment.

Andrew Shoben is the founder of greyworld, a world renowned artists' collective who create art in public spaces. Shoben’s work finds expression through the mediums of installation, sculpture and multiples. His primary objective is to create public art that involves the human in an urban context. greyworld has permanent installations in twelve countries across the world. Recent projects include Invisible, a large scale multi-sited work in Burnley UK made in association with Channel Four's Big Art Project, and The Source, a 32m kinetic sculpture for the London Stock Exchange which opens the London markets each morning to an estimated global audience of 80 million. Andrew is a regular contributor to television, radio and print, and lectures extensively around the world. After lecturing at the Royal College of Art for four years, he recently became Professor of Public Art at Goldsmiths University. More information at www.greyworld.org
This event is co-hosted with the British Council, in partnership with Footscray Community Arts Centre.

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Posted: Tuesday, 25 August 2009

12.30pm Monday, 7 September 2009
Mills Lecture Theatre 209, RC Mills Bldg, Fisher Rd, University of Sydney
Free, All welcome.

This lecture points to wider historical questions which have tended to be passed over in presentation of modern and contemporary Chinese art. Among these are the question of the autonomy of ‘Chinese-style’ and ‘Western-style’ art practices and of their interpretive structures in the twentieth century; the kinds of historical time implicit in the development of modern Chinese art if we avoid or defer the bifurcation ‘Chinese’ / ‘Western’; the kinds of sense we can make of Chinese modern and contemporary art if we deploy certain international comparisons from other Asian contexts.

This will be the keynote presentation for the international conference, Negotiating Difference. Contemporary Chinese Art in the Global Context, Venue: Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), Berlin, October 22-24, 2009.

John Clark is Professor of Asian Art History at the University of Sydney with a concurrent Professorial Research Fellowship of the Australian Research Council. Among his books are Modern Asian Art (Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), the co-edited Eye of the Beholder (Sydney, Wild Peony, 2006), Modernities of Chinese Art (forthcoming Brill 2009) and Modernities compared: Chinese and Thai Art in the 1980s and 1990s (in press, Sydney, Power Publications 2009).

Posted: Tuesday, 25 August 2009

6.00pm Tuesday 25 August 2009
Mills Lecture Theatre 209, RC Mills Bldg, Fisher Rd, University of Sydney
Free, all welcome

By examining the wider erotic sense of cooking utensils and of preparing a feast in early modern culture, this lecture contrib-utes to rethinking both the phallic model of masculinity and the way in which we investigate the meaning of images.

Pat Simons is currently Associate Professor in History of Art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, but she previously
taught at the Universities of Melbourne and Monash and at the Power Institute. A specialist in Italian Renaissance visual
culture, her publications have treated such issues as patronage, the portraiture of women, the construction of masculinity,
anatomical “secrets,” and the visibility of same-sex eroticism. Her most recent articles are on the sexuality of the figure of
Hercules, the multivalence of pissing putti, and the representation of bathing women. The lecture draws from her forthcom-
ing book Semen-otics: Embodied Masculinity in PreModern Europe.

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Posted: Wednesday, 12 August 2009

The new National Portrait Gallery was an opportunity to look across the history of portraiture in Australia, to identify those artists who have made the greatest contributions to the genre. Taking in the histories of sculpture, drawing, print-making, photography and painting, this talk will look at the way in which the National Portrait Gallery has created a new framework for our appreciation of Australian portrait traditions.

Andrew Sayers is Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. He was appointed to the position in 1998. After studying at the University of Sydney, he began his career at the Art Gallery of New South Wales before moving to Newcastle Region Art Gallery as Assistant Director. Previous to his appointment at the National Portrait Gallery he was Assistant Director (Collections) at the National Gallery of Australia.

Andrew has been responsible for several exhibitions of Australian art, particularly in the areas of drawing and portraiture. He has written extensively and is the author of Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford University Press 1994) and Oxford History of Art: Australian Art (Oxford University Press, 2001).
(Photo by Elizabeth Hawkes)

Tuesday, 30th June 2009
6.00pm refreshments 6.30pm lecture: Schaeffer Fine Arts Library/Mills Lecture Theatre, RC Mills Bldg, Cnr Fisher Rd & Physics Rd, University of Sydney
Cost: Alumni $25 Friends, $25.00, Students $10.00
Bookings essential: Tel: 9351 6908 Email:

Posted: Thursday, 11 June 2009

Tuesday 30th of June, 2009
6.00pm refreshments 6.30pm lecture: Schaeffer Fine Arts Library/Mills Lecture Theatre, RC Mills Bldg, Cnr Fisher Rd & Physics Rd, University of Sydney
Cost: Alumni $20 . Friends $25 . Students $10
Bookings essential: Tel: 9351 6908 Email: power.institute@arts.usyd.edu.au RSVP by 29 June.

The new National Portrait Gallery was an opportunity to look across the history of portraiture in Australia, to identify those artists who have made the greatest contributions to the genre. Taking in the histories of sculpture, drawing, print-making, photography and painting, this talk will look at the way in which the National Portrait Gallery has created a new framework for our appreciation of Australian portrait traditions.

Andrew Sayers is Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. He was appointed to the position in 1998. After studying at the University of Sydney, he began his career at the Art Gallery of New South Wales before moving to Newcastle Region Art Gallery as Assistant Director. Previous to his appointment at the National Portrait Gallery he was Assistant Director (Collections) at the National Gallery of Australia.

Andrew has been responsible for several exhibitions of Australian art, particularly in the areas of drawing and portraiture. He has written extensively and is the author of Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford University Press 1994) and Oxford History of Art: Australian Art (Oxford University Press, 2001).

(Photo by Elizabeth Hawkes)

Tuesday, 30th June 2009
6.00pm refreshments 6.30pm lecture: Schaeffer Fine Arts Library/Mills Lecture Theatre, RC Mills Bldg, Cnr Fisher Rd & Physics Rd, University of Sydney
Cost: Alumni $20 . Friends $25 . Students $10
Bookings essential: Tel: 9351 6908 Email: RSVP by 29 June.
This event is hosted by the Power Institute Alumni & Friends Association.

Posted: Monday, 29 June 2009