UID:
kobvindex_INT0002508
Format:
238 pages
,
illustrations (some colour)
,
30 cm
ISBN:
9781875632534
,
1875632530
Content:
"Pictura Britannica brought together over 100 works and 48 artists from all over Britain and was the first comprehensive showing of contemporary British art in Australia since 1985. Pictura Britannica projected the image of a dynamic and culturally diverse Britain in the 1990s. Among those invited to participate were young emerging artists such as Louise Hopkins, Permindar Kaur and Richard Billingham, and high-profile artists including Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Vong Phaophanit, Anya Gallaccio and Douglas Gordon. Two senior artists, Richard Hamilton and John Latham, were selected because of the great relevance of their longstanding concerns to many of the younger artists. Various themes were suggested throughout the exhibition: competing versions of nation; anxious relationships to nature; multiple layers and complex formations of identity; new spaces of social interaction in a media-shaped world; the changing role of a 'citizen' in modern society; contested stories of history, class and popular culture; the ambiguity of art's status in a communications-driven society; traces of the past resurfacing in the present; social constructions of the body; the ambiguity of history; the subtlety of visual perception, auditory sensation, bodily presence and mark making. Thematic contents, however, cannot be divorced from the particular forms, details and media through which artists realise their works. In quite specific ways artists convey ideas or constructs about the world - as it may be directly encountered, reconsidered, or even re-imagined. Several artists visited Sydney for the exhibition - including Anya Gallaccio, John Frankland and Richard Wright - to make site-specific installations. This exhibition formed part of newIMAGES, a year long program of events marking 50 years of the British Council's presence in Australia."
Language:
English
Keywords:
Exhibition catalogues
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