Issue 41

‘I believe an artist has to get a life rather than a career. They have to experience the wide variety of things that life can give you, all the changes that can happen.’ William Robinson’s cover story interview with Louise Martin-Chew for this issue of Artist Profile is a fascinating read, full of apt observations and good advice, especially for anyone whose life is involved in the visual arts.

There are particular artists whose achievements are important to an understanding of visual art. Robinson is undoubtedly one of those artists, and not to recognise him is to be unaware: there are few who can surpass his sensitivity. And at 81, he still has something to achieve.

After being absorbed in media accounts of the 2006 “July War” between Israel and Lebanon, in her Paris studio, Jude Rae decided to make portrait drawings of locals in Paris to raise money for the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance from civilian spaces. Rae explains to Lucy Stranger why her reaction to art and politics in this war led to a new body of work.

Artist Liz O’Reilly shares her moving story, and that of four other artists, of their experience of the spiritual associations of Lake Mungo and their relationship with the tribal elders of the Paakintji, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngyiampaa lands, as those elders struggle for the repatriation of Mungo Man to his ancestral home.

In the 1960s Sidney Nolan produced a series of notable paintings reflecting the two and a half months he spent in Africa. More than 50 years later Andrew Turley embarked on a journey to retrack Nolan’s African experiences. He discusses the discovery of a new link to those paintings beyond the images Nolan presented.

We interview Margaret Loy Pula for the first time and hear about her first exhibition in New York with Viennese artist Hermann Nitsch. She shares her feelings upon seeing her mother’s and daughter’s paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we also learn how experiences of her Anmatyerre culture are realised through her fine dots.

Ros Auld welcomed Judith Pugh to her home and studio, near the NSW regional city of Orange, where her ceramics reflect the earth and the colours of her garden. We hear about a life thoughtfully spent living a vocation in the arts.

These and many other inspiring experiences fill this issue of Artist Profile.

– Kon Gouriotis

COVER

WILLIAM ROBINSON by Louise Martin-Chew

ISSUE

Melbourne Art Fair Vs Sydney Contemporary by Michael Young

PROFILES

SANNE KOELEMIJ by Elli Walsh
MARGARET LOY PULA by Kon Gouriotis
JUDE RAE by Lucy Stranger
PAUL SELWOOD by Bridget Macleod
LEONARD BROWN by Kon Gouriotis
STEPHANIE REISCH by Louella Hayes
BRADD WESTMORELAND by Owen Craven
ROS AULD by Judith Pugh
SONIA PAYES by Ashley Crawford

INSIGHT

Preview: Notfair Melbourne, by Sophia Cai
Essay: The Photography of Raphaela Rosella, by Kim Guthrie
Preview: Jennifer Goodman, by Ted Snell
Archive: Sidney Nolan in Africa, by Andrew Turley
Residency: Lake Mungo, by Liz O’Reilly
Process: Kate Dorrough
Process: Douglas Stichbury
Preview: Angela Valamanesh, by Lucy Stranger
Letter of reply: Michael Rolfe replies to John McDonald on the crisis in regional galleries
View Australia
Discovery: Shaun Hayes