David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :
'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)
(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.
stance (n.)1530s, "standing place, station," probably from French
stance "resting place, harbor" (16c.), from Vulgar Latin
*stantia "place, abode" (also source of Italian stanza
"stopping place, station, stanza," Spanish stancia
"a dwelling"), from Latin stans (genitive stantis),
present participle of stare "to stand" (from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm").
Sense of "position of the feet" (in golf, etc.) is first recorded 1897; figurative sense of "point of view" is recorded from 1956. The sense of the French word has since narrowed.
Stand Dance (TAR)

Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
KNULP ONLINE FUNDRAISER / SATURDAY DECEMBER 19This year - out of an abundance of caution - the annual KNULP fundraiser is moving online.
Join us today from 4pm (Sydney/AEDT) for a live fundraiser on Instagram @ knulpknulpknulp, with works by 40+ contributing artists.
Each work will be offered at a set price (between $100 - $1000) and the first person to comment ‘SOLD’ will win the piece.
With enormous thanks to all of our contributing artists:
Hany Armanious
Stuart Bailey
Dylan Batty
Neil Beedie
Tom Blake
Belle Blau
Maggie Brink
Mitch Cairns
Consuelo Cavaniglia
Carla Cescon
Mitchel Cumming
Scott Donovan
Mikala Dwyer
Liam Garstang
Alex Gawronski
Sarah Goffman
Michelle Hanlin
Elise Harmsen
Patrick Hartigan
Shane Haseman
Jesse Hogan
M P Hopkins
Ronnie van Hout
Emily Hunt
Andrew Hurle
Geoff Kleem
Jonathan M Kopinski
Mary MacDougall
Jason Markou
Rose Nolan
Vicki Papageorgopolous
Luke Parker
Tanya Peterson
Jason Phu
Elizabeth Pulie
Robert Pulie
Zoe M Robertson
Koji Ryui
Paul Saint
Maria Smit
Nicola Smith
Charlie Sofo
Nick Strike
Jelena Telecki
David Thompson
Philipa Veitch
Justene Williams
Louise Zhang
Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water.
- P J Harvey
Yosa Buson (1716-1784) Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
KAWS engages with universal feelings of isolation and loneliness through his works, in reaction to the turbulent world we live in today. His larger-than-life sculptures are playful, toy-like figures, however at closer look, they reveal a fragility and darkness in the vulnerable poses of the characters. The exhibition will include a newly commissioned 7-metre bronze COMPANION sculpture GONE, 2019, standing solemnly in a Pietà pose, evoking a sense of sorrow and empathy. On display in the NGV’s Federation Court, this monumental work will be the largest bronze KAWS has created to date.
KAWS, GONE, 2019 collection NGV
In an art calendar decimated by the pandemic, and in a year in which we have all suffered such sensory deprivation, the global unveiling of the first in what he’s calling his Porcelain series has become even more of a red-letter event. Fittingly perhaps, given our social estrangement and affection deficit disorder, his muse is Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Inspired by 18th-century porcelain figurines, the sculpture is a synthesis of classical ideas of beauty and cutting-edge production techniques. As with so much of his work, it uses mirrors and reflections – a device intended to make his art more accessible by turning the viewer into a participant in the piece. “The surface people are looking at is the right here, right now,” he says of the super-sized statuette. “The image itself is a historical viewpoint.”
Given the artist’s celebrity, and the undisclosed [$25 million!]
price tag attached to the work, Venus may be the most consequential American acquisition to arrive in Australia since Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles in the early 1970s. The key difference – and one that offers a protective shield from tabloid outrage and political philistinism – is that no public money is involved. Instead, a small group of NGV benefactors, including members of the Smorgon, Clifford and Fox families, has financed the entire project.
Nick Bryant, The Age/Good Weekend, 5 Dec 2020
Jeff Koons "Venus" 2016–20 (render) mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating 254.0 x 144.5 x 158.4 cm Edition 1/3 + 1 A/P National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased with funds donated by Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund, Leigh Clifford AO & Sue Clifford, John Higgins AO & Jodie Maunder, Paula Fox AO & Fox Family Foundation, Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest and NGV Foundation, 2020 © the artist and Gagosian.

Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
See French sculptor Jean Ipoustéguy's controversial sculpture installation titled ‘Death of the father’ today at NGV. https://twitter.com/NGVMelbourne/status/887401675580997637/photo/1
Jean Ipousteguy, Death of theFather, 1967-68, collection NGV
We are young enough to remember when in 1972 NGV director Eric Westbrook announced the expensive acquisition of Jean
Ipoustéguy’s Death of the Father. It was installed theatrically spotlit in a black-walled chamber of it's own at one end of the main exhibition hall. Patrick McCaughy, critic for The Age, railed against the work and it's purchase. We joined the Melbourne masses who came to see what the fuss was about.
We recalled that controversial acquisition while thinking about the comparable NGV acquisitions of 2019 and 2020 by KAWS and Koons.
This invaluable research paper by Melbourne University's Christopher R. Marshall provides an overview filled with interesting detail.
Read it or download the pdf here. A glimpse :
The eventual 1968 relocation of the NGV down
St Kilda Rd nonetheless brought a major shift in
emphasis. Even prior to this, though, the change
in agenda towards an assertively modernist
approach to collections development and
institutional identity was signaled by the
appointment in 1956 of Eric Westbrook to the
Directorship of the NGV. As a committed
modernist with a strong background in
international touring exhibitions, Westbrook
wasted no time in making his new agenda felt.
One of the key statements of this new focus came
in the 1960 purchase of Henry Moore’s Draped
Seated Woman, a landmark acquisition that was
met with a barrage of press, both positive and
negative. I have discussed elsewhere the
importance of this acquisition “as an emblem of
the National Gallery of Victoria's modernity” as
based particularly on the NGV’s desire to use the
acquisition as the centre piece to a new emphasis on collecting contemporary sculpture.20 It
certainly represents the archetypal instance of what
I shall here identify as the second stage in the
NGV’s engagement with monumental sculpture.
…the purchase marks a very important
change in the policy of both the Felton
Bequest and my own Trustees and we
hope that it will lead to the building of a
very fine collection of recent sculpture.
Everything in Australia points to it being
a country where sculpture should be
presented, not only from the character of
the people, but also from our superb light
which is as close to that of Greece that I
have yet found.
The dream of creating in Melbourne a new
Acropolis-like ensemble of monumental
international contemporary sculpture proved
challenging, as it transpired, and the collection in
waiting idea registered so prominently by the
Draped Seated Woman remained more or less a
chimera at the NGV in the years to come. A great
deal of the reason for this was financial.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA


Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
SYDNEY - Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is presenting a cross-generational exhibition, A Painting Show featuring new works by three of Australia’s most important painters working today. All three artists are expressive, gestural and considered in their mark making - masterful colourists conjuring up vivid, fantastical realms, yet their unique styles have paved their way as distinct voices within the Australian and international art world.
Paintings by Tom Polo, Gareth Sansom and Jenny Watson are exhibited within the unique context of the last month of 2020 where the fibres of society are strained. Within a social fabric of distanced inter-personal relationships, disconnection and technological interfaces dominating modes of communication, painting allows us to take space and stand still.
The process of viewing painting is an intimate act, enabling one to stop momentarily and lean in close, to pay attention to minute details. The act of viewing provides an antidote to the hurtling speed of advancement, a tonic to the over-saturation of visual noise and screen-time. A Painting Show becomes therefore, a call for togetherness, to connect through looking, ultimately an opportunity of introspection and reconnecting the dots.Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
Jozan Ishikawa (1583-1672)
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
PODCAST EPISODE #57
Then and Now: Paula Cooper Gallery
Apr 2019 (40 minutes)
Episode Description : Paula Cooper Gallery has survived and thrived in a mercurial art world for more than five decades.
On today’s show, the legendary dealer talks about the history and future of her gallery together with Steven Henry, who has been the gallery director for more than two decades, Allan Schwartzman, co-founder of Art Agency, Partners, and host Charlotte Burns.
Charlotte Burns: As we round out, I wanted to ask the three of you: from your combined experiences over the years, are there other words of wisdom that you would give either to collectors or artists who are listening to the show?
Paula Cooper: Look. Look more. Just look. And be patient and look.
Steven Henry: Trust your eye and —
Paula Cooper: And relax! Jesus, people get very uptight sometimes and nervous like it’s a test or something.
[Laughter]

TARist with 'Paula', oil on canvas by Rudolf Stingel
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
A neoLOGOS/HA HA for some, maybe,
but nothing new for others :


by Yamaoka Tesshu (1836-1888)
by GOCHO Kankai (1749-1835) aka Australian tide disciplined
collection FIAPCE
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
In mythology, folklore and the Shinto religion of Japan,Tenjin (天神) is the patron kami (deity) of academics, scholarship, of learning, and of the intelligentsia.
Tenjin is the deification of Sugawara no Michizane
(845–903), the famous scholar, poet and politician of the Heian period.
Ten (天) means sky and jin (神) means god or deity. The original meaning of Tenjin, sky deity, is almost the same as that of Raijin (a god of thunder)
Title: “Tenmangū,” Sugawara no Michizane as Tenjin Traveling to China
Artist: Sengai Gibon (Japanese, 1750–1837)
Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
Date: early 19th century
Culture: Japan
Collection: Metropolitan Museum, NY
Below: TARist as TARzen carrying Title branch from
Bonzaview to Melbourne

Theatre of the Actors of Regard
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA