John Austin Photography

"It is not the business of state art galleries to become popular, but rather to purchase, exhibit, conserve and research art and to publish monographs on state artists.  Visitor numbers are secondary."

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I was told by a Northcliffe friend that some of my portraits of Howard Taylor were on display as part of the Art Gallery of Western Australia exhibition MATERIAL PRACTICE: Howard Taylor’s Journal, which is on until 2nd of February next year.  Another friend sent me some iPhone pictures of the show, as at eighty I had no plans to ever soil my boots with the grime of Perth again.

The pictures showed that two of my portraits of Howard Taylor, in his studio in Northcliffe 1988 and at Galerie Dusseldorf 1995, are currently presented as huge floor to ceiling digital copies as part of the HT show.  At no point was I consulted or informed about this misuse.  I do not normally allow digital prints of my work to be made.

In the purchase agreement from 2003 for the sale of these prints to AGWA is the obvious use for exhibition and copies may used for education and promotion, all quite normal and acceptable.  I keep copyright.  What shocked me was that AGWA changed the format and presentation of my work in a way that is totally out of keeping with the subtlety and sensitivity of HT's studies of forest light.  Also bad is the cropping and adding of the maquette of Colonnades on my 1995 photograph.

I might be eighty, but I am not dead yet so, ignoring my metro-revulsion, we went to Perth on the 3rd December to see the iniquity for ourselves.

At the gallery, on Wednesday 4th, I stood in shock that AGWA changed the format and presentation of my work drastically, with no consultation and a level of crassness verging on PostModernism.

A few moments after the first shock Associate Curator Emma Bitfield came into the gallery, and we were later joined by Jude Savage, Registrar and touring exhibitions organiser.  I feel it was a productive meeting during which I politely and clearly expressed my feelings about the insensitive presentation and AGWA’s lack of communication. 

We surmise that despite their expertise, experience and knowledge, AGWA curators are effectively powerless in the face of a bureaucratic management structure and an exhibition promotion design team whose current ethos is to shout the existence of each exhibition with a huge digitally enlarged photograph to attract visitors.  In the case of HT this visual assault totally disregards the subtlety and sensitivity of HT’s work.  Adding insult to injury, these huge, dull, brown monstrosities cost thousands of dollars more than I received for the original silver gelatine prints.

Lack of sensitivity by the technical team is illustrated by the lighting on Object in Niche 1988*.  In this image the original (site specific) south-light lighting is shown in my photograph compared to the abusive lighting used by AGWA installation team.  It would have been very easy and cheap to set up a soft light to correctly illuminate this work, which demands sensitive treatment.  Because light in an art gallery is normally from the top does not mean it always has to be, and this work is a prime example of why sensitive lighting is crucial for three dimensional work.  Compare the lighting on this work in my pic’ and the way this work is lit in the gallery.

And the walls were painted pale lilac, I asked Rae as I thought I was loosing my colour sense.

In a wireless interview on ABC in August 2020 the director, Colin Walker, admitted to being a bureaucrat who intended to “Create rock stars from our artists”.  Also he stated that he would be forging AGWA partnerships with big business to raise funds.  But mainly the desire of the State Government is to see AGWA attendance figures increase.

This brings me to my final criticism, regarding AGWA’s entrance gloom, shown in the head pic'. Gone is the Henry Moore from the walkway outside the gallery and the entrance is filled with with a total lack of anything visually alive to attract visitors, just a grey visual nothing.  Nothing outside or in the entrance to attract visitors the WA State Gov’t desires,

Positive outcomes are that from now on we understand it will be AGWA policy to contact an artist or photographer when their work is to be shown or used.  A positive aspect pointed out by friends is that these two reproductions have raised my pubic profile at the very time I am signing with a commercial gallery and I am starting to work and exhibit again.  Lastly, seeing prints of scans of prints of Rolleiflex negatives reminds me why Rolleis were the photographer’s workhorse for decades, and I still adore using them.

MATERIAL PRACTICE: Howard Taylor’s Journal, is on display at AGWA ‘till 2nd February 2025.

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*

Object in Niche 1988

Oil and wax on plywood panel over Oregon framework

89.0 x 123.0 x 12.0 cm

The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia

Gift of The Christensen Fund, 1994