In 1944, wealthy local newspaper owner RF Elliot left his large art collection to the Mildura council, on the provision that they came up with a building to serve as an art gallery to display his collection.
I know this because yesterday, having an idle hour after visiting the Sunraysia Cellar Door, I decided to visit the Mildura Arts Centre and see the galllery.
Apparently there were 175 artworks in the Elliot collection bequeathed to the local community and that many of them were coveted by galleries all over the country.
I don’t know for sure, because none of the pieces in the Elliot collection were on display. Instead, there were a large number of contemporary works, a minority of which were interesting and aesthetically pleasing, but the majority of which were at best risable.
There were some drawings which, at first glance, appeared to be blu-tacked to the wall.
I have never really thought what wokeness in Art really means but I now have worked it out.
When you are a parent and your four year old scribbles something in crayon at Kindy, you stick it on the fridge and tell them they are very clever and you are proud of them. That’s natural for parents to do.
When you are not a parent but curate an art gallery and you are faced with the scribbles of some over indulged adult brat who believes or pretends that they are artistically gifted, and you validate their lack of talent by sticking their art on the wall of a public gallery in the name of inclusiveness or artistic interpretation…. Well that’s wokeness.
The first woke artist was the emperor Nero, but art critics in his day had no choice but to praise him – or face the lions.
These days, instead of lions we have a woke group think where art critics do not want to be found out for the lacks of knowledge in their chosen subjective field that they have, so they will indulge any pretentious fake and spoilt brat who claims to have artist talent.
And where is the Elliot collection? That’s what I’d like to know.
Lost For Words! 