The negative turn in Australian art: Reproducing the government's narrative

What is the point of art in Australia at the moment, and whose interests is it really serving?

My political commentary with Alexandra Marshall on Spectator TV Australia, discussing the negative turn in the Australian art scene and how government funding of art is reproducing the government's narrative, rather than speaking for the common people. Spectator TV Australia, ADH TV, Season 2, Episode 14, 24 May 2024.

The dodgy portrait of Gina Rinehart is one example of the cultural embarrassment that is 'modern art' 🎨

The Renaissance was 500 years ago, and their artists were vastly superior to ours.

For all the millions of dollars taxpayers donate to prop up the art world, all we ever… pic.twitter.com/w7eqmb1TZ7

— Alexandra Marshall (@ellymelly) May 29, 2024

Art’s gone Woke and no longer serves the common good

Mona Lisa from the Prado, Pudong Art Museum, Shanghai 2024

The recent brouhaha over an unflattering portrait of Gina Rinehart is emblematic of a much larger problem with Australian democracy. For centuries, art represented the glory of what Thomas Carlyle referred to as the ‘great men’ of history. Sure, there were great women, too, but the term ‘men’ meant ‘people’ until recent times. Interestingly, men can now be women, and while the whole Woke ‘thing’ is not my focus here, it is the backdrop to my argument that art is failing ordinary Australians who just happen to be paying for it.

Unfiltered had this to say about the article:

I love Michael de Percy’s story in Flat White on ‘Woke’ art. As an artist myself, the rapid decline of art in the West has seen ‘modern’ masterpieces share gallery space with literal trash. It has debased itself to the point where satirists have lost interest. How do you insult a blank canvas or a person dressed as a sheep, pretending to eat grass outside the gallery? They insult themselves. As Michael correctly states, ‘It is not organic, it is socialist. Artists flock to the inputs provided by government and they produce work that meets the requirements of government.’ And as we know, collectivists build ugly things.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Art's gone Woke and no longer serves the common good.

Art’s gone Woke and no longer serves the common good

Perhaps the National Gallery of Australia should be renamed the National Fringe Gallery of Australia...?

At least that would be closer to the politics it is currently playing with our money.https://t.co/s8OZzrGB5H

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) May 21, 2024

A Federal Budget to celebrate

 

It's not all lollipops and rainbows [Image from X].

A Federal Budget to celebrate

Is this the moment Labor self-destructs?

This year’s Federal Budget is a grifter’s paradise. It sets up all of socialism’s worst economic ideas in a contest against the Reserve Bank of Australia to see who is right: the socialist Treasurer or the Reserve Bank Governor – a person who knows our economy cannot thrive on lollipops and rainbows alone.

This is a Budget to celebrate because it will see the end of the worst government in Australian history. And it couldn’t come soon enough.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, A Federal Budget to celbrate.

https://t.co/C60Qeca6hW

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) May 14, 2024