Canbrart

There was a time when the phrase 'art in Canberra' seemed a contradiction in terms. It was thought that public servants lived in Canberra, not artists, and our city was better known for political rather than aesthetic decision-making. Art, it was assumed, flourished only in Sydney or Melbourne. After all, these great centres support a host of commercial galleries, museums, art joumals, artists, citics and serious collectors.

Canberra is still a small city, not very different from the large country town it used to be twenty years ago, when every second advertisement on television seemed to publicize sheep dip. Art was something that appeared only sporadically; timidly at church fêtes, determinedly in the shows at Daramalan College (Kevin Connor, Keith Looby) and with conspicuous flourish in the exhibitions by the Wednesday Group in the Monaro Mall. With crusading zeal the Australian National University imported a number of well-known artists — John Perceval, Arthur Boyd and Jan Senbergs to name only a few — in the hope of sparking local interest.

Interest has grown over the years, and today the notion of art and artists in Canberra no longer has only curiosity value. The many fine exhibitions held by public galleries in the ACT — the Australian National Gallery and the Drill Hall Gallery, the Canberra Contemporary Art Space, the Nolan Gallery at Lanyon and the Canberra School of Art Gallery — have ensured this. The Canberra Institute of the Arts has attracted a professional staff and produced a steady stream of proficient graduates to create and feed a busy artistic current in and around the ACT. The nationally distributed journal Art Monthly now operates out of Canberra and a small number of commercial galleries supply the very modest market for art. Canberra has become a centre for the study, appreciation, and production of art.

This has been recognized by the Australian National Gallery in its acquisitions of work by Canberra-based artists over the last decade. The Gallery has, in fact, purchased as much work from Canberra over the last five years as the state galleries in Sydney and Melbourne have purchased from their own cities' artists during the same period. Such work has always been integrated into the Gallery's exhibitions of Australian art, so that local work was seen in a national context and could be measured against the best from the rest of Australia. For the first time, however, this Gallery has mounted an exhibition drawn exclusively from the work of artists living in Canberra and its surrounds — Canbrart: A Selection of Works by Artists from the ACT and Districts.

This venture owes much to the support of the Gallery's Director, Betty Churcher, who strongly believes in the need to foster good relations between a museum and its public, and to stimulate the local art community. The works shown in this exhibition, however, do not represent the Gallery's 'official' response to art of the region: the selection is purely my own. If I had chosen to exhibit work purchased by various curators for the collection, I could have presented a consensus of what the institution believes is the most interesting work made in this region over the last few years, and certainly there is no lack of material. This seemed unsatisfactory, however, as the work in the collection was acquired over a twenty-year period in response to national trends, and is therefore not a harmonious group, nor representative of all the artists I wanted to show.

This exhibition is intended to demonstrate that there is a diverse and rich body of work being produced in Canberra and environs. I have made no attempt to chart an artistic history or present an even-handed overview of art in Canberra.

Regrettably, not every artist can be represented on this occasion, and in the end my selection was limited by the size of the exhibition space and the need for a coherent display. The works in this exhibition have not been brought together to suit a particular theme that, in effect, chooses the works. Rather I have opted for a display that reflects my enthusiasm for individual artists, and to a lesser degree surveys the kind of work being made in our capital. Most work included here is recent, fresh from the studio.

This account is, I freely admit, a biased one. Its value lies in its ambition to promote greater recognition of the work being done by local artists to a larger audience, and this is how its success should be measured.

It is my hope that this kind of exhibition will be repeated in the future, perhaps every two or three years, to serve as a regular showcase for our artists. Easy access to some of the most exciting local art will encourage Canberrans to develop an appreciation of and enthusiasm for work produced here, for ultimately only support from the public will allow the arts to thrive in our city.

Michael Desmond
Curator, the Drill Hall Gallery