Category: Arts

  • The legacy of Martin Luther

    Remembering Martin Luther – rebel priest who led the Reformation It is 500 years since Martin Luther, a professor in moral philosophy and an ordained monk, nailed his Ninety-Five Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences, to the door of the Castle Church in the German town of Wittenberg. His dissertation, written in Latin, was…

  • Riveting book on Australia and China

    Exploring Australia-China history Canberra writer and journalist Rob Macklin has written a highly relevant, timely and utterly riveting book on the intricate relationship between Australia and China. Over the years, I’ve read most of Macklin’s 28 books but this is his best. It’s a cracker. With China established as Australia’s major trading partner, and the Beijing…

  • Kay Lanceley’s 80th

    A stellar crowd of friends gathered at Lucio’s restaurant in Paddington, Sydney, on Saturday 12 August 2017, to welcome Kay Lanceley into the gracious company of octogenarians. She did it in typical style, with much laughter and general gaiety. As very young people might say, the celebration was “awesome”. Kay, widow of the acclaimed artist Colin Lanceley…

  • Cooking the books

    NSW Budget becomes the excuse for fake news extravaganza … Item One: “World-class” hospital at Tweed Heads … Item Two: Massive taxpayer grant to NSW Art Gallery … World news in summary: Mrs May embraces Orange Order and Trump’s big dollar gamble. Stop Press: Winter break Cooking the books When I worked fulltime as State…

  • Art Gallery turmoil makes waves

    Brisbane audience welcomes book on Art Gallery of NSW … AGNSW director Dr Michael Brand spotted in Venice: next stop Brisbane … Theresa May’s big election gamble … Rupert Murdoch’s loses his news room gorillas … NSW Coroner report on Lindt Café siege: whitewash or what? … Art gallery turmoil making waves News travels fast. When…

  • Culture and the French

    Judith White’s newly-released book, Culture Heist: Art versus Money, has stirred the possum in Sydney’s art world and divided it into two opposing camps. On one side is the top heavy, out-of-touch management of the Art Gallery of NSW and on the other is a wide body of opinion among art lovers. The AGNSW bureaucrats…

  • Shenanigans at the Art Gallery of NSW

    Theresa May’s election gamble in Britain … Tories should win at a canter, BUT …. Some headlines starting to turn ugly …. Now NSW police has a special thought unit … Annual storm over ANZAC Day won’t die away … Culture Heist launch Judith White’s book, Culture Heist: Art versus Money, published by Brandl & Schlesinger,…

  • Public gallery under the microscope

    Sickness at the Art Gallery of NSW: an insider’s account … Family First? New Kenyan-born senator is a millionaire … Donald Trump is supporting the election of Mrs May and Ms Le Pen – why? … A night at the Packer Family Logies … Blackpool, city of depression … Great Crashing Bores Public art gallery…

  • The romance of Malcolm and Pauline

    PM Malcolm Turnbull surrenders to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation … Critical moment in French presidential race … Albert Namatjira legacy needs your help … Remembering England’s Shrewsbury pickets … Real news from Afghanistan and Ecuador … Turnbull & Pauline: A love story In the 1990s France’s far right National Front under the leadership of Jean-Marie…

  • Tribute to Phillip Knightley

    Phillip Knightley, master craftsman of newspaper journalism, leaves a legacy of accuracy, independence and getting stuck into the rich and privileged … Mainstream media straining for rebirth of fascism … Why media got Austria so wrong …. Time to fight for the ABC Personal tribute to my captain Phillip George Knightley, newspaper journalist par excellence,…