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The conditions that create contemporary art in one country differ considerably from those of others, therefore in order to understand Australian art now it is useful to cast a glance at the past.

I first visited Australia, arriving from London, in 1965, and it did not take long to understand why so many intellectuals, artists, poets, writers and creative larrikins had migrated north to the centre of the swinging sixties. Australia, by comparison, was both insular and conservative. It was not until the mid-1970s, after the Whitlam government initiated the Australia Council, that effective recognition of and support for contemporary art and artists, as well as for public galleries and their collections, for publishing and for exhibitions, was put in place. There were also individuals whose energy and vision was breaking down Australia's cultural isolation. John Kaldor began Kaldor Art Projects in 1969 by bringing Christo and Jeanne-Claude to Sydney to wrap Little Bay, following with Gilbert & George, Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik, Richard Long and Sol LeWitt, among others. In 1973, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis set up the inaugural Biennale of Sydney at the newly opened Opera House. The biennale, which moved to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1976, and effectively a triennial until 1982, brought to Australia a number of truly significant artists and vibrant work to show alongside the cream of Australian contemporary art ...

There is, then, a core to Australian contemporary art that extends from a first pioneering group, through further groupings, to today's crop of emerging artists, with each group responding to and being defined by distinctive conditions. Forged in the crucible that was then the art world
in Australia, the first pioneering group established their contemporary practice through challenging performances or actions as well as by profound sculpture and painting to variously probe neo-dada, tease conceptualism and develop the nascent appropriation. These artists, including Ken Unsworth, Mike Parr, Imants Tillers, Aleks Danko, Robert MacPherson, Stelarc and Peter Booth, were the first generation for whom an international art circuit became accessible. In 1978, Unsworth, Robert Owen and John Davis represented their country at the Venice Biennale as contemporary artists - the beginning of a constant presence in the oldest of all international forums. Unsworth's epic river-stone sculptures made a remarkable impact as fine examples of a vernacular yet universal language, prompting Robert Hughes to extol their virtues in Time magazine. These artists continue to be influential to this moment, and their prominence has both inspired and elicited investigation from subsequent generations ...

This article appears in excerpted form. You can read the entire article in Art & Australia's Winter 2010 issue.