The twin notions of “importance” and “influence” are similar yet distinct. To be important, to be of note and significance in your chosen professional field, indicates that you are a person of consequence and that your opinions and actions are to be considered. In the art world being important might mean that you sell a lot of art or give a lot of money to art institutions. You might own many paintings or manage a big art concern. There are many, many important people in the Australian art world.
However, to be influential is one step up. To be influential is to take your personal standing and direct it towards shaping the arts landscape. Influential people are important but, more significantly, they exercise power to make change. Influence can result from an individual’s own efforts or can come as a consequence of their job. But it is a fickle friend. More often than not when the job’s over, so too is a person’s influence and sometimes even their professional importance – an all too real crisis for many in the art world.
The 50 Most Influential People in the Australian Visual Arts in 2011 is based on the here and now. There have been substantial changes since it was originally published in 2009. Many once highly influential and active people (such as the Sydney artist Margaret Olley who cast a long shadow over much of the Australian art world for many decades) are no longer really part of today’s art scene to the degree that they once were. However, given the mercurial nature of power, those not on the list this year may well be on the list next year and vice versa.
Two overriding features bubbled up to the surface while compiling the 2011 influential list. Firstly (and unsurprisingly) how things change so quickly as people move around the arts industry. The second and biggest issue – an issue that became somewhat of a conundrum – is how few influential artists there are within the Australian visual arts. Do not get me wrong: there are many, many important living artists – you could fill list after list with those. That is not the point. This list looks at influence within the Australian art world rather than importance. It would seem that most important artists are still very focused on their practice (naturally) and rarely raise their heads above the studio parapet to engage with or influence the community outside of simply doing what they do. There are few artist striders across the arts influence landscape, few who dominate through their practice or personality to influence change.
I do hope this will change.
This list of visual arts influential people is strictly limited to 50 people. Harsh choices have had to be made. With over 15 years’ experience writing regularly on the art world for the national press I have learned to handle hate. I will cope with my choices. It is also fully acknowledged that any list is subjective and that the author’s own horizons can limit their knowledge. There were many individuals and art world positions that made it into my “Possible and Probable” file. However, 50 is 50 and not 51. Having said that, if you count up those listed in my 50 Most Influential People in the Australian Visual Arts you will, in fact, find a total of 49 people. I will leave it to your fertile imaginations as to whom I would choose to add to the list to make 50.
The Top 50
Academia
Bernard Smith, author, Melbourne
Artists
Hany Armanious, Australian representative at the Venice Biennale 2011, Sydney
Bill Henson, photographer, Melbourne
John Mawurndjul, artist, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
Danie Mellor, artist and on the visual arts board of the Australia Council, Canberra
Ben Quilty, artist and media personality, Paterson, New South Wales
William Robinson, Landscape artist (William Robinson Gallery at Queensland University of Technology 2009), Brisbane
Administrators
Geoffrey Cassidy, Director, Artbank, Sydney
David Handley, Director, Sculpture by the Sea
Vasili Kaliman, co-founder Art Month; Export Art Peer Assessment Panel Australia Council; galleriest; theartmarket Twitter feed
Lyn Williams, benchmark artists Estate management; philanthropist
Art Museums
Edmund Capon, Director, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Stefano Carboni, Director, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Tony Ellwood, Director, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Francesca Cubillo, Senior Curator, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Lisa Havilah, Director, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Nick Mitzevich, Director, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Ron Radford, Director, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Auction Houses
Chris Deutscher, Executive Director, Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne
Geoffrey Smith, Vice Chairman and National Head of Art, Sotheby’s Australia, Melbourne
Collectors
Marc Besen, collector and museum founder, Melbourne
Colin and Liz Laverty, Aboriginal art collectors, Sydney
Steve Nasteski, private collector/dealer, Sydney
Dick Quan, multi media art collector and man-about-art-fairs, Sydney
Kerry Stokes, collector, Perth
David Walsh, collector and museum founder, Hobart
Gallerists
Philip Bacon, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
Wally Caruana, Caruana and Reid Fine Art, Sydney; author; visiting fellow ANU, Canberra
Roshana Lewis, Lister Gallery, Perth
Jan Minchin, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
Roslyn Oxley, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Anna Schwartz, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Sydney
Media
Andrew Frost, art critic, ABC and blogger (The Art Life)
John McDonald, art critic, Sydney Morning Herald
Katrina Strickland, arts editor, The Australian Financial Review
Eleanora Triguboff, publisher, Art & Australia
Philanthropists
Gordon and Marilyn Darling, The Gordon Darling Foundation, Melbourne
Tim Fairfax, collector and major donor to the Queensland Art Gallery
John and Pauline Gandel, long time major donors to the National Gallery of Australia
Simon and Catriona Mordant, collectors and philanthropists, Sydney
Andrew Gwinnett, collector and benefactor to the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
John Kaldor, director and founder of Kaldor Public Art Projects and patron, Sydney
Rupert Myer, philanthropist and policy maker, Melbourne
Gene Sherman, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation
Still important but no longer in the top 50:
Steve Bush, publisher, Art World (magazine closed down)
Michael Buxton, collector, Melbourne
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, Chairman and donor, Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (next festival in 2012)
Kon Gioroutis, Head of visual arts board of the Australia Council, Sydney
Shaun Gladwell, artist, (living overseas)
Christopher Hodges, Utopia Gallery, Sydney (the Aboriginal art market has significantly contracted)
Bronwyn Johnston, Director, Melbourne Art Fair (MAF in its off year for 2011)
Barry Keldoulis, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Melbourne Art Fair, Sydney (MAF in its off year for 2011)
Tim Klingender, former Head of Aboriginal Art, Sotheby’s, Sydney (left Sotheby’s and yet to announce new venture)
Susan McCulloch, publisher and author, McCulloch & McCulloch, Melbourne (less publishing today than over the last decade)
Margaret Olley, benefactor, Sydney (much less active)
Justin Miller, former Chairman, Sotheby’s Australia, Sydney (left Sotheby’s Australia and yet to announce new venture)
Denis Savill, Savill Galleries, Sydney (not as active in the market as he was in 2008)
Paul Sweeney, Director, Papunya Tula Artists Association (the Aboriginal art market has significantly contracted)
Judith Ryan, Senior Curator Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (over the past year or so the art museum focus on Aboriginal art has been with the National Gallery of Australia which opened a new dedicated wing)
