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Art

Yesterday

Two ropes are tied around the neck of a Christopher Columbus statue before a group of people pull it down at the Minnesota state Capitol in St Paul, Minnesota, in 2020. Columbus’s legacy is viewed more critically today than when his Letters were auctioned last century.

A ‘Columbus letter’, the world’s first news release, sells for $6m

The 1493 pamphlet announcing Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the New World has a long history of being forged and stolen.

  • Julia Jacobs

This Month

Vincent Namatjira in front of Self-Portrait, 2022 at Yavuz Gallery, Sydney.

‘I use my paintbrush as a weapon’: Vincent Namatjira’s new exhibition

The acclaimed Indigenous artist takes aim at Empire and influence, using broad strokes of humour to skewer his targets.

  • Stephen Todd
Sheila Hicks at her studio in Paris in August.

‘Wake ’em up!’ This legendary artist is coming to Melbourne

Textile creator Sheila Hicks is bringing a giant blue-hued installation Down Under for the NGV Triennial.

  • John McDonald
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, arriving at court in August.

Michael Lewis on how Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX fell

The Moneyball writer’s account is among four new books to explore cryptocurrency’s boom and bust, its characters – and the ordinary people who lost so much.

  • Brooke Masters

September

Laurence des Cars faces the challenge of making the Louvre a relevant and inclusive 21st-century museum.

Overhaul to stop the Louvre becoming a museum piece

The venue’s first female president, Laurence des Cars, wants to remind people the world’s biggest museum offers more than the Mona Lisa.

  • Farah Nayeri
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Gold finger ring in the shape of a snake from about 300-100 BC.

Gallery blockbuster is out with the new, in with the (very) old

The National Gallery of Victoria is switching from the masters of modern art to an exhibition starring Tutankhamun, Cleopatra and other Egyptian artefacts.

  • Patrick Durkin
Oliver Anthony is the first performer with no previous chart history to achieve a Billboard No.1.

How Oliver Anthony became a sudden superstar

The country singer has gone from living in a campervan to being a contender to perform at the Super Bowl within a month.

  • Alister McMillan
Still Life, by Dorothea Francis (1903-1975), is estimated at $800 to $1200 in Leonard Joel’s Women Artists auction in Melbourne on September 18, 2023. 

The unlikely businessman who championed women artists

A Melbourne auction shines a light on a furniture salesman who used his own home as an art gallery.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
One to watch: Detail from Francis Meow’s acrylic on canvas, Visible Mend, 2023 (102 x 76cm) will have a price tag of $2,200. in the National Art School booth at Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, 7-10 September, 2023. Meow’s colourful work sold out at last year’s NAS graduate show.

500 artists, 96 galleries bring art home at Sydney Contemporary fair

The Sydney Contemporary art fair being held from September 7-10 is considered “probably the most significant art happening in the country”.

  • Updated
  • Elizabeth Fortescue

August

A Fine Romance, 1994, by Prudence Flint, was purchased by Artbank in 1995 for $1400 and is now valued at more than $8000..

At Artbank, every dog is having his day

Artbank, which leases art to businesses, governments and consumers, is celebrating a record year with a canine-themed exhibition for International Dog Day.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
Gough Whitlam with Blue Poles.

Beating the world to Blue Poles, 50 years on

As a hungry young reporter for The Australian Financial Review, Terry Ingram landed the major scoop of the Whitlam government’s plan to buy Jackson Pollock’s masterpiece.

  • Tom McIlroy
Elegant Assembly at Jishui Tan, by Luo Pin (1733-1799) and (possibly) Zhang Daowo (1757-1829). This handscroll in ink and colour on paper, measuring 1.32 metres long, was estimated at $80,000 to $120,000 in Bonhams’ Sydney sale, Asian Art, Including Paintings from the Wong Family Collection, on August 9, 2023. It fetched $615,000 including premium.

Chinese buyers send prices soaring for accountant’s scrolls

A collection that originated with a prominent Guangzhou family blew estimates out of the water, including a $393,600 sale on a high estimate of $5000.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
Arthur Streeton’s Evening Game, 1889, painted when the artist was 22, debuted in the historically important exhibition, the 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition, in Melbourne, 1889. The work in oil on cardboard is estimated at $400,000 to $600,000 in the catalogue for Smith & Singer’s August 23, 2023 auction in Sydney.

$600k for a small, ‘grotesque and meaningless’ painting?

Fred Williams might top Smith & Singer’s big mid-year sale of Australian and international art, but the more modest works have the most intriguing stories.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
Dylan Mooney and a selection of his works.

Why the art world is getting so excited about Dylan Mooney

The NGV has already bought 14 works by this 27-year-old legally blind artist, which is fine by him if it helps northern Australia’s seas and islands.

  • Dan F.Stapleton

July

Celebrated Victorian artist Graeme Drendel’s gouache and watercolour on paper, Model on Chair, 2003, is estimated to sell for between $300 and $500 through Gibson’s auctioneers in Melbourne next week. The small work (10 x 8.5 cm) is in a two-part auction of works from the Lyn Faulkner Art Collection.

Contra and controversy: accountant to the arts stars sells up

Lyn Faulkner, who has done the books for thousands of artists, is selling off her collection – including part of a controversial MONA artwork.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
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June

Quiet quitting? Damp lifestyle? The way we talk about our habits has become intertwined with our actions.

Quiet quitting? Damp drinking? Why we coin new terms for old feelings

The phrases we use to describe modern life are phenomena in themselves – and there’s a reason they all sound the same.

  • Maura Judkis
The painting was the last portrait Klimt completed before his death in 1918.

Klimt painting sets European record of $162m at Sotheby’s auction

“Dame mit Fächer” – Lady with a Fan – sold to a buyer in the room on behalf of a Hong Kong collector after a 10-minute bidding war.

Frida Kahlo’s 1949 self-portrait ‘Diego y yo’, an emotional response to her husband’s affair with actress Maria Félix, fetched $US34.9 million at auction in 2021.

Why Frida Kahlo eclipsed her more famous husband

Diego Rivera’s murals helped create Mexican identity, but as an exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia shows, his wife’s works evoke timeless emotion.

  • Michael Bailey
People respond more to colour after the pandemic: India Mahdavi

India Mahdavi makes NGV Pierre Bonnard exhibit feel like home

The contemporary designer behind the set for a French impressionist exhibition has put in her own furniture to give it a human scale.

  • Michael Bleby

Old director pins hopes on hot young artist

Veteran director Jim Sharman of Rocky Horror fame is selling off part of his collection of contemporary art, with high hopes for rising star Tom Polo.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

The Australian Financial Review Magazine

BOSS Financial Review

British beauty entrepreneur Sarah-Jane Duncanson “Trinny” Woodall at the Park Hyatt, Sydney.

Life & Leisure

Living it up, but not at The Ritz: Raffles London at The Old War Office has been restored to full baroque Edwardian elegance.

Rich List

Chemist Warehouse paid $364m in dividends in the last 12 months.