The ultimate honour for any visual artist is to be recognised by their country as having contributed to the collective imagination and identity of the country through their individual vision. Each year Australians who have made a significant contribution are recognised in the Queen’s Birthday honours [OBE, CBE] in July and The Australia Day honours [OA, AM] on January 26. There are a number of categories both civil and military but the one that interests me is recognition in the visual arts. Just who of working artists in 2021 is likely to be eligible?
Many of the major names in Australian art have been recognised from Arthur Boyd AC OBE, to Sidney Nolan AC OBE to Grace Cossington Smith OA OBE to Jeffrey Smart OA. Of the 34 I have identified dating back to 1974 when the Order of Australia was inaugurated, 19 were landscape oriented, 7 ostensibly figurative, 2 were sculptors and one I can classify as Abstract in Robert Jacks. Some were multi-disciplnary. However, in recent years the number of visual artists being recognised in the Australia Day awards has diminished considerably with only art administrators in 2020 and 2021 and I have to ask why.
Recognition is based on a number of factors but a lengthy career helps. Most of my list were in their seventh decade and beyond when they received their Order of Australia and while Brett Whitely was only 53 when he received his OA, he died the following year and there are no posthumous awards. Boyd, Drysdale, Nolan, Pugh, Smart and Dobell among others can be said to have created a specifically Australian ethos distinct from any other cultural influence but their time was in the first half of the 20th century. Those who looked specifically at the Australian landscape such as Willams, Rees and Olsen produced iconic representations but as with most of the list of 33 they stood outside of mainstream art movements and very few can be placed within the post-modern era as breaking new ground. If we are looking for those that might qualify outside of more conservative approaches the likes of Fiona Hall and Tracey Moffat have already been recognised.
Those that have represented Australia at the Venice Biennale from 1993-2021 would seem to be candidates. Many were installationists, video artists and multimedia artists such as Fusimato, Mesiti, Gladwell and Morton. None of them have been recognised in the awards and almost none are household names with few even making it into compendiums on Australian art other than in a reference. It may well be that the internationalist feel to their work will deny them an award as specifically Australian and with many artists working in disparate countries from the USA to Europe to Asia, classifying their work as Australian may be difficult in the first place.
When it comes to awards in 2021 and 2022 who is going to be eligible? Perhaps only the likes of a Ben Quilty may be suggested with his stint as an Australian war artist but he is probably still too young. The wide variety of approaches to subject and media in the market do not suggest a single force capable of influencing the direction of art in Australia and the ties to the commercial gallery system is not a recommendation of anything other than investment suggestions and wall decoration. Artists working with corporate clients are also unlikely to be in the running. If age is a factor then we need to be looking at artists born in the 1940s and beyond who managed to not only survive the confusion of artistic directions of the next 7 decades but who in some way also managed to create something that could be identified as Australian. Most of the those figures already have a gong or died long ago.
Is it the very nature of visual art in this decade that is going to be the problem? Many artists have adopted what have become universal concerns such as global warming while others avoid global concerns for those internalised approaches found in abstraction. Some may well be recognised for ancillary concerns such as raising money for cancer or working with disadvantaged youth as has happened with high profile musicians and sports people but visual art may well not be strong enough in its own right to attract a nomination. Further to that, the Federal Government does not have an Arts Policy and investment in other than high profile organisations such as those connected with ballet and opera is nominal at best. Artists scratch a living and are largely left to fend for themselves. Meanwhile those at the coalface of scientific research or responsible for defending our shores are well represented in awards [as are politicians and judges]. I don’t deny them their worth but in the washup of history scientists may well go down in the annals as will the odd Napolean, but the culture of a country is measured in its creative people and their vision and not those that died in their multitudes on the battlefield or laboured to find a cure for Covid under the auspices of a pharma giant.