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It is impossible to contemplate the local landscape of contemporary art without the mighty shadow of Nick Waterlow OAM (1941-2009). In commemorating his achievements and lasting legacy, this Winter 2010 issue of Art & Australia looks not only back but forward through time. In noting the landmark exhibitions and artworks Waterlow oversaw and commissioned, from the numerous Biennales of Sydney to The Aboriginal memorial now in the National Gallery of Australia collection, we have invited some of his distinguished colleagues to also reflect on how his influences and values continue to shape contemporary art practice in this region.
A regular contributor to the magazine since 1977, Nick became an editorial adviser in 2003 and our pages and projects have been greatly enriched by his generous insights and wise counsel. 'Nick was a great believer in witnessing history and activating change', says artist Brook Andrew, whose 2010 collage Witnesses to history was specially commissioned for our front cover. A believer that great art should live in 'a continuous present' Waterlow's spirit is very much alive in this year's 17th Biennale of Sydney and in the work of such modern masters of modesty and spirituality as Colin McCahon, a towering figure honoured with an essay in this issue.
Vol 47 No 4 Winter 2010
A regular contributor to the magazine since 1977, Nick became an editorial adviser in 2003 and our pages and projects have been greatly enriched by his generous insights and wise counsel. 'Nick was a great believer in witnessing history and activating change', says artist Brook Andrew, whose 2010 collage Witnesses to history was specially commissioned for our front cover. A believer that great art should live in 'a continuous present' Waterlow's spirit is very much alive in this year's 17th Biennale of Sydney and in the work of such modern masters of modesty and spirituality as Colin McCahon, a towering figure honoured with an essay in this issue.
Vol 47 No 4 Winter 2010
Nick's eyes
... Nick was a creator. He was always pondering, deciding, choosing. He knew that artistic truth resists paraphrase and prefers to show rather than to tell or explain. He wanted to create exhibitions with open endings. He trusted his instincts, his eye. He...
Marking the test of time: Nick Waterlow and The Aboriginal memorial
... When it came to commissioning The Aboriginal memorial, 1987-88, I was coming back through Sydney and curator Bernice Murphy said to talk to Nick because he was the director of the 1988 biennale. I had this concept in my head so I went to talk to him. It...
Nick Waterlow, the biennale, and me
... Following the generic titles of the first two editions - 'The Inaugural Biennale of Sydney' (1973) and 'Recent International Forms in Art' (1976) - Nick obviously took it by the scruff of the neck with the third biennale, 'European Dialogue' (1979). It...
Nick Waterlow: The ability to be uncertain
... When Nick first joined us as an independent consultant the idea that a Macquarie Group Collection should symbolise the youthful enthusiasm of the organisation had already been established, but we lacked the input of someone outside the bank who actually...
A bird's eye view: Nick Waterlow's exhibitions
For many people in Australia, Nick first came to prominence as curator of that 1979 biennale. It was a groundbreaking exhibition, arguably the most important Sydney biennale to date. Nick's deft curatorial skill revealed to us here in Australia not only how...
First among equals: Nick Waterlow and the 2000 Biennale of Sydney
The year 2000 was charged with a momentous sense of history, a heady consciousness of being present at the turn of the new millennium that dramatically shaped the theme of the 2000 Biennale of Sydney. The biennale board's objective was to 'draw attention to...
The creation of contemporary Australian Art
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...
Brook Andrew: Sensation and sensory politics
The idea of a jumping castle that is also a war memorial is surely a perverse oxymoron. What is a memorial, after all, but a space of solemn contemplation, a testament to lives lost, a lasting monument. And what better signifies the trope of childhood high...
Victory over death: For Nick Waterlow
By the summer of 1969, New Zealand painter Colin McCahon had begun to search for fresh subject matter to paint. It was a period of increasing acclaim and recognition for McCahon. In July of the previous year, influential American art critic Clement Greenberg,...
'We are two people but one artist': Four decades of Gilbert & George
On the occasion of their return to the AGNSW for '40 Years: Kaldor Public Art Projects', Gilbert & George spoke with Michael Fitzgerald about dancing to their own tune ...Gilbert & George: We never felt we were performance artists. We made ourselves...
Fair game: Art versus sport in 'the lucky country'
Reflecting on his beginnings as a playwright in the early 1970s, David Williamson aired a familiar lament: 'It was believed that anyone with talent in writing, theatre or film should leave the country immediately and work elsewhere before they were stifled by...
Preparing the ground: On the founding of Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art
In 1984, when Bernice Murphy and Leon Paroissien surprised the art world by accepting co-curatorship of the Power Collection, job-sharing in itself was a novelty. It was a very different time, one in which, as Murphy has said, exhibitions of contemporary art...
The material of meaning: Illuminating the art of Joseph Kosuth
Joseph Kosuth relishes linguistic philosophy as I discussed in an interview on the occasion of his exhibition ' ''An Interpretation of This Title'' Nietzsche, Darwin and the Paradox of Content' at Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney ...Joseph Kosuth: I wanted to...
Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces and Art & Australia Emerging Writers Program: Helen Hughes
'Talking Tapa: Pasifika Bark Cloth in Queensland' considered the various permutations of the Pan-Pacific textile artform, tapa, across ten different island nations in the south-west Pacific region. As such, the exhibition was more an archiving of the...
Art & Australia / Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award: Susan Jacobs
Susan Jacobs's practice mimics that of a passionate scientist, albeit one with loose hypotheses and a relaxed methodology. In the collaborative work Exhausted nature, 2008, Jacobs and Andrew Hazewinkel attempted to make a camera lens out of ice. That the lens...Powered by: 
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NSW 2021 Australia
Tel: +61 2 9331 4455
Fax: +61 2 9331 4577
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