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Back From The Dead. The overriding theme of this year's Adelaide Festival is the comeback of Modernism, that is if it ever went anywhere to start with. As part of the festival, forums have pondered this idea and the biennial exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia, '21st Century Modern', curated by Linda Michael, is centred around contemporary Australian Modern art (this was once an oxymoron). In fact, if you look closely at the font used in the Adelaide Festival, Artist's Week and Writer's Week posters, you will notice it bears resemblance to one of the greatest modernist icons of all; Mondrian's paintings of white and coloured squares which were given titles such as 'Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow'. '21st Century Modern', running until 7 May, encompasses the entire underground section of the Art Gallery of South Australia, apparently for the first time. Here, modern inspired works fill the gallery with striking colour and generally large formats. Narelle Jubelin's tiny embroidered portraits and Gareth Donnelly's Art Of The Twentieth Century which is a miniaturised version of a gallery that holds most significant Western artworks, is an exception to these overwhelmingly large works. Where new media and photography have dominated the biennial exhibitions of the last several festivals, from this exhibition you could certainly surmise that painting has made a comeback. Another exhibition also exploring Modernist driven paintings, as well as prints, is 'The Colour Of Music' at Adelaide Central Gallery2. Curated by Annabel Pegus from the University of New South Wales, this exhibition runs until Sun 26 March. Despite many of the artists exploring modern painting techniques and styles from the twentieth century, particularly abstraction and Op Art, this exhibition is a somewhat refreshing take on a sometimes mundanely executed medium. In particular, the rhythms of Cathy Blanchflower's Aster X and sentiments expressed through the colours of Celia Gullet's Red Melody II stir a reaction that is rare in contemporary painting.  |
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