0:00:02 > 0:00:04This programme contains some scenes
0:00:04 > 0:00:09which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15A place of golden beaches and bodies. Barbecues and bikinis.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Endless empty land.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19Sydney Harbour...
0:00:19 > 0:00:21But art and culture?
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Australia's been my home for over 30 years,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33and I've often thought about the first settlers who landed here
0:00:33 > 0:00:37on this fatal shore over two centuries ago.
0:00:38 > 0:00:39To these strangers,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43this place seemed utterly devoid of civilisation.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Of course, they were wrong.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55But how could these often reluctant arrivals make a new life,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58let alone come to feel at home
0:00:58 > 0:01:01in an empty, disturbing and distant wilderness?
0:01:03 > 0:01:07I want to explore how art and artists played their roles
0:01:07 > 0:01:10in this unfolding drama.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12From early settlement till today,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16I'm taking a trip deep into the art of Australia.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22This is one of the great icons of Australian art.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26I'll be looking at the work of significant artists,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29both past and present.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33What is it with this lurid, lurid yellow?
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Their work reveals much about Australia's identity
0:01:37 > 0:01:38and how it's evolved.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42She's going up and she's going down.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46For me Australian art has always been a big part of the quest
0:01:46 > 0:01:51to make sense of this vast continent and our place in it.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54Its haunting landscapes.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56Its ever-present dangers.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Its dramatic and controversial history.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06And of course, its great beauty.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15Australian art reflects the development of a unique
0:02:15 > 0:02:17and incredibly diverse culture.
0:02:26 > 0:02:27Who's for an ice cream?
0:02:30 > 0:02:31It's a great story.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35This is my journey into how it all happened.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38The story of the art of Australia.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06I love it here.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10The Sydney Opera House is Australia's most recognisable
0:03:10 > 0:03:11cultural icon.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13A cathedral to the arts.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18On the surface it proclaims Australia
0:03:18 > 0:03:20as a modern progressive country.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24A land with its own pride and identity.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27No longer isolated on the edge of the world.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52I remember so well my very first visit to Australia.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54And of course I was brought here to the Opera House.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58I walked into this fantastic building,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01I saw a terrific performance of Madame Butterfly,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05and then I came out here afterwards on this terrace overlooking
0:04:05 > 0:04:07the harbour to have a drink.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11I looked around and I thought, "Wow. I've arrived."
0:04:19 > 0:04:23But as a newcomer, I sensed a peculiar tension.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29The building is the vision of a Danish architect, Jorn Utzon.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35The decision in 1957 to hire a foreign architect
0:04:35 > 0:04:38to design such an important icon
0:04:38 > 0:04:43exposed a fundamental anxiety - the cultural cringe.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48The idea that culture had to be imported
0:04:48 > 0:04:52and that European culture was somehow superior.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59In Australia in the 1950s, this notion was commonplace.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02There was growth and prosperity.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06The suburbs sprawled and the world was shrinking.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10For the first time, Australia was becoming less isolated.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16More than a million new migrants arrived,
0:05:16 > 0:05:18and they were no longer just British
0:05:18 > 0:05:21but Greek, Italian and Eastern European.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27The new medium of television deepened the connection
0:05:27 > 0:05:31to the wider world, but also brought the worry of the Cold War
0:05:31 > 0:05:34as the influence of American culture grew.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42But this exposure proved to be a double-edged sword.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46Whilst artists could travel more easily to find inspiration
0:05:46 > 0:05:51overseas, trailblazers like Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55who'd done so much to create Australia's artistic identity
0:05:55 > 0:05:56left for London.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01And that was the problem.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04If you had to leave to make it as an artist,
0:06:04 > 0:06:08then Australia must be a cultural backwater.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12A place where art and artists were viewed with some suspicion.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19In some ways, this anxiety had always been there.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23In the convict period, the pictures of Joseph Lycett
0:06:23 > 0:06:26tried and failed to present Australia
0:06:26 > 0:06:28as more than just a prison.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34Though the magnificence of the place fired imaginations,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38it took the entire 19th century before the impressionists
0:06:38 > 0:06:41really captured Australia's essence.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Then in the 20th century two world wars
0:06:48 > 0:06:53and a profound loss of innocence helped inspire the masterworks
0:06:53 > 0:06:56of modern artists like Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00But now they worked abroad.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05The irony was, as Australia worked ever harder
0:07:05 > 0:07:07to overcome its cultural anxiety,
0:07:07 > 0:07:12the deeper the artistic identity crisis became.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15From the '50s to the 21st century
0:07:15 > 0:07:18the convulsions and controversies that resulted
0:07:18 > 0:07:23shaped out and enabled Australia to find cultural recognition
0:07:23 > 0:07:26and come to terms with its own place in the world.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44The story of how this happened begins far away from the arts scene
0:07:44 > 0:07:48on Bribie Island off the coast of Queensland,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52where an artist had made his home in a thatched hut.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56A man who came to art late, in his 40s.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59His name was Ian Fairweather.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06He was a recluse who shunned the art world.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10Ironically he was one of the first artists to introduce Australia
0:08:10 > 0:08:15to a radical international art form - abstract painting.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28In 1953 Ian Fairweather came here.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Up till then he'd been the most extraordinary itinerant.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38From Scotland, to Canada, to China, to Australia,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41the Philippines, back to China, back to Australia.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46On one occasion he nearly even lost his life on a crazy raft journey
0:08:46 > 0:08:47to Indonesia.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52But back to Bribie Island he came, and made his home here.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56"Glad to be back in the sun," he said,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58"in the friendly bush."
0:09:00 > 0:09:03A maverick way ahead of his time,
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Fairweather brought his artistic influences to bear on a subject
0:09:07 > 0:09:11previously ignored by Australian art.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16Its Asian neighbours, their peoples, landscapes and spirituality.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24This ambitious work, Anak Bayan, or Son Of Country,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27measures nearly two and a half metres wide.
0:09:28 > 0:09:35It was painted on Bribie Island in 1957 under primitive conditions.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37It's the name of a busy street in Manila
0:09:37 > 0:09:40where he lived during the 1930s.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44It's an abstract map of Filipino people
0:09:44 > 0:09:48thronging in the street, with glimpses of Cezanne,
0:09:48 > 0:09:53but with a tenacious line drawn straight from the expressive force
0:09:53 > 0:09:54of Chinese calligraphy.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01This is the exact spot where Ian Fairweather had his shack.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08Marked now, for some peculiar reason, by a very large rock.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15He was the artist's artist. They saw him as the godfather of abstraction.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19An eccentric, a hermit, an inspiration.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26The artist who painted this portrait of Fairweather praised him
0:10:26 > 0:10:32for providing a physical and spiritual bridge into another world.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36His name was John Olsen.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42In 1956, as an adventurous 28-year-old,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Olsen travelled to Spain.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54Instead of staying overseas like Sidney Nolan
0:10:54 > 0:10:58and Arthur Boyd, he returned in 1960.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Influenced by Fairweather and the colours and vitality
0:11:02 > 0:11:07of Mediterranean culture, he painted this picture - Spanish Encounter.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Olsen tells the story that he painted this in five hours
0:11:17 > 0:11:19one night.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22He'd had a row with his girlfriend that night and she'd gone to bed
0:11:22 > 0:11:25and Olsen stayed up all night painting this.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30It's full of wonderful hints
0:11:30 > 0:11:33and reminiscences of his time in Europe and Spain particularly.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35You can see in here little hints of Picasso,
0:11:35 > 0:11:40of Miro, of Dubuffet, Tapies, all the artists he loved.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42Of course the result is a picture of incredible, I think,
0:11:42 > 0:11:44vitality and exuberance.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47You can't stand in front of this picture
0:11:47 > 0:11:51and not be moved by the sheer emotion of it all.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53He's flexing his muscles. He's flexing his mind.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55He's flexing his imagination on the canvas.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Look at this line going down here and these lines across here.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02There's tremendous expression, tremendous energy.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07It's a very bold painting. Nothing like this had been seen before.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11So when it was first shown in Sydney it generated huge excitement,
0:12:11 > 0:12:13and the artists looked at it and said,
0:12:13 > 0:12:15"Maybe this is the future of Australian art."
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Today John Olsen is the grand old man of Australian art.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27Back then he was at the forefront of the abstract revolution.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31He was fighting to take Australian art in a whole new direction.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34I felt everything was open.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36It was just an open field
0:12:36 > 0:12:41and I felt that there was more to do in Australia.
0:12:41 > 0:12:48And what I brought back was the confidence
0:12:48 > 0:12:53and the feeling that I'd seen the best that Europe had to give.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55- Yeah, and that was... - And that liberated me.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Yeah, it was inspiration. Inspiration liberates.
0:12:58 > 0:12:59Exactly right.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03So...I was cheeky.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06A lot of your fellow artists thought you'd gone a bit mad,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08a bit bonkers, didn't they?
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Well, that was their problem, not mine.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Olsen fought for abstract art's acceptance.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20It was fresh, energetic and modern.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Another group flew the flag for more traditional figurative art,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31representing the real world.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42In many ways it was an aesthetic battle between past and future.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48One side standing for tradition, the other demanding change.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Before long, these revolutionaries used abstract art
0:13:55 > 0:14:00to redefine traditional Australian themes, like the landscape.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24Like Olsen, Fred Williams had experienced the latest trends
0:14:24 > 0:14:25in Europe.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29But in the late 1950s, when he returned to Australia,
0:14:29 > 0:14:33he joked to friends that he wanted to paint the gum tree.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37At the time nothing could've been more unfashionable.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43Undeterred, Williams took abstract art into the bush,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46and like the impressionists of the 19th century
0:14:46 > 0:14:50developed a radical new way of seeing the landscape.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56In Silver And Grey you can see Williams' unique interpretation
0:14:56 > 0:14:58of the Australian bush.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Never before had the landscape been so poetically distilled,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06like a visual haiku.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10Here Williams has scattered his symbolic motifs of the bush
0:15:10 > 0:15:14across the canvass like seeds across a field.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20It is an abstract painting, but I think it beautifully evokes the mood
0:15:20 > 0:15:22and texture of the Australian bush.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30Yet, just as Williams was perfecting his own Australian abstraction,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34another trend from abroad would drive abstract art
0:15:34 > 0:15:35to greater extremes.
0:15:45 > 0:15:51It happened during a period of great social and political upheaval.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54As Australia began to turn away from its British roots,
0:15:54 > 0:15:59young people started rebelling against traditional values.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Women demanded equal rights, and large numbers protested against
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Australia sending troops to fight in Vietnam.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14America was on the march in the Cold War,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17and art was part of a charm offensive.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22In 1967 a hugely influential exhibition,
0:16:22 > 0:16:28Two Decades Of American Painting, toured America's Asian allies -
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Japan, India and Australia.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35This was a chance for Australian artists here
0:16:35 > 0:16:38to see works by the stars of American abstraction.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54New York had become the epicentre of the abstract art movement,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57and its influence was spreading.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59ARCHIVE: Painters flock here from all schools of art,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01abstract expressionism,
0:17:01 > 0:17:05romantic realism, drippers and splatterers.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08The best and the worst can be found here.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Australian artists turned to America for inspiration.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Sid Ball was there, soaking up the energy.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23I'd gone to America and I saw the greatness of American art.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25What was the real excitement about it?
0:17:25 > 0:17:29It was the breakaway from cubism at the time throughout the world,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33in America especially. You had people like Mark Rothko...
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, all those guys.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39..using colour towards extreme.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42They saw how colour can be flattened and expansive.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54When Ball returned to Australia, he started spreading the news.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59This extreme version of abstract art, Colour Field Painting,
0:17:59 > 0:18:00was where it was at.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Being Australian and painting Australia was irrelevant.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10Soon other Australian artists eager to be part of the movement
0:18:10 > 0:18:15joined him. In 1968 they caused a major sensation
0:18:15 > 0:18:19at the newly opened National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25This is the great moment in the story of Australian art.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28- The famous poster of The Field. - You designed the poster, didn't you?
0:18:28 > 0:18:31I did indeed. It caused a lot of controversy.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37The Field was the very first exhibition at the new gallery.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41The board of trustees had wanted a retrospective
0:18:41 > 0:18:43by the impressionist Arthur Streeton.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47But, instead of gum trees they got this.
0:18:47 > 0:18:54A gallery lined with silver foil and 74 ultra-abstract works.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57It split the art world.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00For supporters, this was a pivotal moment.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05Abstraction moved from the margins to the mainstream.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Australian art was shedding its parochialism.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15But for many it felt like a step too far.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19It was too derivative and said nothing about being Australian.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Artists like John Olsen were sidelined by the new wave
0:19:31 > 0:19:33of abstraction.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35His Five Bells, for example.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40A great celebration of the fertile inner life of nature
0:19:40 > 0:19:42was deemed to be too Australian,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46with all these lines going all over the place, too messy.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48It wasn't clinical enough.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52It was not abstract enough for the new order.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00Now everything in Australian art was being challenged.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04It was a full-blown cultural revolution.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Many artists rejected painting and sculpture altogether,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12embracing performance, installation, conceptual and environmental art.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20Art was splintering into a myriad of styles.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Yet still, a nagging doubt remained.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27If it was elsewhere, it was somehow more clever, more relevant,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29more happening.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33And the foreign influences just kept coming.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41In October 1969, something quite remarkable happened here.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48In this bay, just a few kilometres south of the city of Sydney,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53Christo, the great wrapper, and his wife Jeanne-Claude came out here
0:20:53 > 0:20:56and wrapped those cliffs.
0:20:56 > 0:20:57In fact, it was more than that.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02They wrapped no less than two and a half kilometres of the coastline.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13They came from Paris at the invitation of Hungarian-born
0:21:13 > 0:21:17businessman and collector John Kaldor.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20He wanted to bring artists to Australia to introduce
0:21:20 > 0:21:23the public to the best contemporary art from around the world.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39They used 95,000 square metres of fabric to wrap these cliffs.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42There were 15 professional mountaineers.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47And there were over 100 students to help tie the fabric down.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54The public was astounded.
0:21:54 > 0:22:00Not just by the scale but by the sheer audacity of the project.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Although it isn't my cup of tea, I should imagine that to many
0:22:03 > 0:22:07thousands of people it would be their cup of tea with cream added into it.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10I think it's a great thing to have happened here
0:22:10 > 0:22:14and I think it will do Australia and its artists a great deal of good.
0:22:14 > 0:22:15Very exciting.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18The very fact that he's chosen somewhere like Australia,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20which is pretty off the map to most people.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23This was one of the most outstanding events in the history
0:22:23 > 0:22:25of contemporary art.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28It was no local event - it was a worldwide event.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36Christo and Jeanne-Claude made their names here at Little Bay,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39but quickly moved on to greater success,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42wrapping buildings and monuments around the world.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53The wrapping of Little Bay had a huge impact on the local art scene.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56It was the largest artwork in the world,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59but it was a hard act to follow.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04The cultural crisis of identity for art in Australia was growing.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06How should it move forward?
0:23:09 > 0:23:13The crisis came to a head in 1973,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16a pivotal year when one of the artists who'd helped define
0:23:16 > 0:23:19Australian art returned from London.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23Even for the best artists,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26transcending their Australian-ness was problematic.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Arthur Boyd made his name in the 1950s
0:23:32 > 0:23:35when he came here to the Northern Territory.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41The trip inspired his Half-Caste Bride series.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46It had catapulted him to fame here and in Britain,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49where he'd lived for most of the next 20 years.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56But now he was back, and suffering an existential crisis.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05For Boyd, being Australian had become a creative millstone,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08restricting his artistic freedom.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13He worried the younger generation of abstract artists simply felt
0:24:13 > 0:24:18paintings like his, even painting itself, were no longer relevant.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22He painted a series of works expressing his torment.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30The most sinister is Interior With Black Rabbit.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43For me, this picture sums up the dilemma
0:24:43 > 0:24:47that Arthur Boyd had been struggling with for three decades.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52In fact, I suspect that's him, the crumpled figure in the corner,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56weighed down with history, here in the dark,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59out in the glaring light of the landscape.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02It's a painting that speaks eloquently
0:25:02 > 0:25:05and powerfully of that sense of dislocation.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Boyd was frustrated.
0:25:14 > 0:25:15No matter how good his art was,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19he was always being pigeonholed as an Australian artist.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22He wanted to be recognised as an artist,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26not just an Australian artist.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29It was the same old problem - how to be Australian
0:25:29 > 0:25:32and beyond Australia at the same time.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46Later in 1973, the Queen arrived to open the Sydney Opera House.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51However, behind the celebrations,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55the cultural cringe had erupted into full-blown conflict.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02The daring design by Danish architect Jorn Utzon
0:26:02 > 0:26:05epitomised the tensions between Australia's yearning to be noticed
0:26:05 > 0:26:11and the anxiety that its home-grown culture was terminally parochial.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19Utzon had already resigned in disgust long before its completion,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22feeling his vision had been fatally compromised.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Then, in the very same week,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29a fight broke out over yet another cultural import.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44When the National Gallery of Australia bought this painting,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Blue Poles, by American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock
0:26:49 > 0:26:51for a record price,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54it was, for many, the last straw.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57A major controversy erupted.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01Many demanded answers to why Australia had shipped in culture
0:27:01 > 0:27:04at such premium prices,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07especially art that looked like this.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13When the government finally agreed that it could be purchased for
0:27:13 > 0:27:18A1.3 million, there was the predictable outcry in the media.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23The conservative press had a field day.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Would you pay 1.3 million for this?
0:27:27 > 0:27:31Believe it not, we've discovered a piece of wood that rivals Blue Poles.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37On the other side of the divide, Gough Whitlam,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40the first Labour Prime Minister in over two decades,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43was keen to prove Australia's cultural independence
0:27:43 > 0:27:46and cosmopolitan taste.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48He pushed trough the purchase.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57But as the battle raged over Blue Poles,
0:27:57 > 0:28:02one artist in Sydney was completing his masterpiece.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05A painter whose work held the promise that Australia's
0:28:05 > 0:28:10cultural inferiority might just be overcome.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12His name was Brett Whiteley.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Australia had never seen anything like him.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32Trained in Sydney, he had lived in London when it was swinging
0:28:32 > 0:28:37in the '60s and hung out in New York at the Chelsea Hotel
0:28:37 > 0:28:40with Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44He was Australia's first rock star artist.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49The Whiteley studio.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55When I arrived here the first artist I really wanted to meet
0:28:55 > 0:29:00was Brett Whiteley, the enfant terrible of Australian art.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02And I met this mercurial,
0:29:02 > 0:29:07quicksilver person whose mind just jumped all over the place.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09When I look at this wall, this is Brett Whiteley.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11It's full of all those quirky moments
0:29:11 > 0:29:13with this darting mind of his.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15Look here.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17He wrote there, "Oysters think."
0:29:17 > 0:29:20And up there's my favourite - "Life is brief,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23"but my God Thursday afternoon seems incredibly long."
0:29:26 > 0:29:29You know, he might have looked a bit like Harpo Marx
0:29:29 > 0:29:31and been this mercurial character,
0:29:31 > 0:29:33but he was a very serious artist
0:29:33 > 0:29:37and he was also the most wonderful, spontaneous draughtsman.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45In the late '50s, Whiteley had travelled to rural New South Wales
0:29:45 > 0:29:48to paint the old mining town of Sofala,
0:29:48 > 0:29:50a favourite of Australian painters.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Although it's a charming, rather conventional work,
0:29:53 > 0:29:57it did help him to win a travelling scholarship.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02In 1960, aged just 21, Whiteley headed to London,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05where he found a more positive attitude towards artists.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12My generation feel, when they come to London, that there is a specific
0:30:12 > 0:30:16professional attitude, a type of behaviour towards what they're doing.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18In Australia,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22they've got to justify their basic social position as being artists.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26He shot to stardom when this work was bought by
0:30:26 > 0:30:29the Tate Gallery in 1961,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33making him the youngest artist ever to enter the collection.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38But by the time he came back from nearly a decade away,
0:30:38 > 0:30:40he was painting like this.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04This is the most amazing, revolutionary
0:31:04 > 0:31:07and explosive painting you could possibly imagine.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12Nobody had seen anything like this before or since.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16It's title, Alchemy, for a start,
0:31:16 > 0:31:20means that transmutation from base lead to gold.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23But it turns out to be Brett Whiteley's
0:31:23 > 0:31:25great autobiographical journey.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29It starts here with birth, these great voluptuous figures.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32It moves to the nightmarish visions
0:31:32 > 0:31:35of the 16th century painter Hieronymus Bosch.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39And these lurid gaping teeth.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42And then we get a glimpse of Brett himself.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45And then into a moment of calm,
0:31:45 > 0:31:47the landscape with the bird.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55But right in the middle is the word "It". What does it mean?
0:31:55 > 0:31:58Does Brett know what it means? Does anybody know what it means?
0:31:58 > 0:32:00It's great design.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04But he says "It" is the progression to the next thing.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20In the 1970s his star was in the ascendant.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23No-one could match his prolific output,
0:32:23 > 0:32:27his bravura, the sheer energy and colour of his work.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40In the '60s when I first found myself as a painter,
0:32:40 > 0:32:45abstraction and the idea that one could and should paint that way
0:32:45 > 0:32:49without the baggage and clutter of figuration from the past,
0:32:49 > 0:32:53was a very liberating and extraordinary sort of feeling.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56But that soon changed.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59Ultimately, Whiteley found abstraction limiting
0:32:59 > 0:33:03and went on to create his own erotic lyrical style.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06However, as the years went on,
0:33:06 > 0:33:10being the bad boy of Australian art took a terrible toll.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13In 1992, aged just 53,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16he was found dead from an overdose.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18The hope that Whiteley,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21with his paintings acclaimed both here and abroad,
0:33:21 > 0:33:25would help overcome the sense of cultural inferiority
0:33:25 > 0:33:27was never fully realised.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35I spent many and often languid afternoons in this room with
0:33:35 > 0:33:37Brett Whiteley.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Chatting about this and that, about art, of course.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43People, politics, space travel.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45And world affairs.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47There was not much that Brett Whiteley
0:33:47 > 0:33:49wasn't actually interested in.
0:33:49 > 0:33:54And as really the first Australian artist to sort of comfortably
0:33:54 > 0:33:59strut the world stage, he really was interested in everything.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08And I also think that it's quite impossible...
0:34:12 > 0:34:15..to meet anybody else quite like him.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23I often think that Brett's work really resonated
0:34:23 > 0:34:27because of its deeply Australian sensibility.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31He painted the outback, the harbour, and this picture.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36His tribute to the indigenous bark painter David Yirawala.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45Yirawala had received international acclaim.
0:34:45 > 0:34:46Picasso said,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49"That is what I have been trying to achieve all my life."
0:34:52 > 0:34:57Whiteley met Yirawala in 1971, and felt a strong affinity with
0:34:57 > 0:35:02the ceremonial leader from Arnhem Land in Australia's far north.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06Like all indigenous Australians,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10Yirawala had been granted citizenship in 1967.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14But he wasn't the first.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18More than a decade earlier, one Aboriginal man had captured
0:35:18 > 0:35:22the nation's attention with his paintings.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25For this, he became the first indigenous Australian to be
0:35:25 > 0:35:28made a citizen and granted equal rights.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35Albert Namatjira was taught to paint on the mission where he'd grown up.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42His watercolours of the bush made him famous.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47But some in the art world dismissed them as too derivative.
0:35:47 > 0:35:48Too European.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Meanwhile, Yirawala's extraordinary bark paintings,
0:35:54 > 0:35:58though praised, were seen as primitive artefacts,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01and consigned to tribal sections in museums.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07Indigenous art, like the people who made it,
0:36:07 > 0:36:09just couldn't win.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11- What do we want?- Land rights!
0:36:11 > 0:36:12- When do we want them?- Now!
0:36:15 > 0:36:19By the time Whiteley met Yirawala the Land Rights Movement was
0:36:19 > 0:36:20already gaining momentum.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26Art was a driving force in this process,
0:36:26 > 0:36:28art that bloomed in the desert.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33A movement that would ultimately help Australian art surmount its
0:36:33 > 0:36:37ongoing identity crisis and claim its distinctive place in the world.
0:36:45 > 0:36:52It's amazing to think that a world famous art movement started here
0:36:52 > 0:36:56in this tiny community out in the middle of nowhere.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Even if it is a spectacular nowhere.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23The so-called discovery of Aboriginal art
0:37:23 > 0:37:25has become the stuff of legend.
0:37:25 > 0:37:31In 1971, art teacher Geoffrey Bardon came to the remote Aboriginal
0:37:31 > 0:37:35community of Papunya, in the Northern Territory.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38He found a desolate and dispirited settlement,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42plagued by poor living conditions and racial tensions.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Intrigued by the children's sand drawings,
0:37:45 > 0:37:48Bardon encouraged the elders to paint their ancestral
0:37:48 > 0:37:53dreamings on this wall with modern acrylic paints.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09This is new.
0:38:09 > 0:38:15The original 1971 mural was painted over by the local authorities.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19So Bardon had the idea of giving the artists small canvas boards
0:38:19 > 0:38:21to paint on.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24The tradition was, of course, sand painting -
0:38:24 > 0:38:29by its very nature temporary, but that, of course, was the point.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35Transferring their imagery onto permanent wooden boards
0:38:35 > 0:38:39and canvases created a problem.
0:38:39 > 0:38:40On one hand,
0:38:40 > 0:38:45recording their stories was a way of preserving Aboriginal culture.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50But on the other, these sacred images were not meant for outsiders.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00They hit upon an ingenious solution.
0:39:00 > 0:39:05The dots that often surrounded their images in the sand were used
0:39:05 > 0:39:09to obscure certain aspects of the paintings.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13Over time, dots and dot painting developed from being merely
0:39:13 > 0:39:17a masking device to a fully-realised aesthetic feature.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22The sacred imagery and symbolism was adapted,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26new colours were used and suddenly there was an art that was
0:39:26 > 0:39:29ancient in tradition and modern in appearance.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37Warlpiri man Michael Nelson Tjakamarra
0:39:37 > 0:39:40had been a buffalo hunter, a truck driver,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44and a drover before he took up art at the age of 30.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49His grandfather had taught him sand and body painting.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52At Papunya he learned the new style.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54No, that's all right.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57That's OK...
0:39:57 > 0:40:01- That's it in the middle, is it? - Yeah.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05This is an old story.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08Yeah, very old story, this one.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10But being done in a very modern way.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14You didn't create this image,
0:40:14 > 0:40:16this was handed down to you from...
0:40:16 > 0:40:18Handed down from generation to generation.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21From the family line.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Your fathers, grandfathers, like that.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26To us.
0:40:26 > 0:40:27Have you passed this...?
0:40:27 > 0:40:29You pass it on when they grow up,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31because they'll have little grandchildren.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33They're all learning to paint, are they?
0:40:33 > 0:40:34THEY LAUGH
0:40:34 > 0:40:37Not yet.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42Tjakamarra moved to Papunya in 1976.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45He learned to paint his dreamtime stories
0:40:45 > 0:40:48from some of the big names of the Papunya movement.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Artists like Tim Leura and Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00Two years after he painted his first picture,
0:41:00 > 0:41:04he won the first National Aboriginal Art Award
0:41:04 > 0:41:07with this work, Three Dreamings.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09Suddenly Tjakamarra found himself
0:41:09 > 0:41:14at the epicentre of an international art movement.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19It's amazing to think that
0:41:19 > 0:41:26from the beginnings of this whole Papunya school in the early '70s,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29- it became known around the world, didn't it?- Yeah.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32How do you feel about that?
0:41:32 > 0:41:34Oh, good, yeah, proud of it.
0:41:35 > 0:41:37That's all right, it will show the world.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39- Yeah.- ..Our background.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Cos your work's been included in those shows
0:41:42 > 0:41:45in Paris and Japan...
0:41:45 > 0:41:49- Everywhere, Germany.- Germany, yeah.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55The revolution that started in Papunya
0:41:55 > 0:41:58soon spread to other indigenous communities.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01An incredible diversity of art began to emerge.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05Each region had its own distinctive style.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11These splashes...it's your trademark now, isn't it?
0:42:11 > 0:42:13Yeah, my trademark.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15Yeah.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Indigenous art stars emerged,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21each with their own individual styles,
0:42:21 > 0:42:23like Emily Kngwarreye,
0:42:23 > 0:42:25who didn't start to paint seriously
0:42:25 > 0:42:27until she was 80.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29Her large, bold abstract paintings
0:42:29 > 0:42:33took the world by surprise.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36While Rover Thomas, a stockman-turned-artist
0:42:36 > 0:42:39from the Kimberley region of Western Australia,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43became known for his striking use of block colour.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46These works strongly evoke senses of place,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48meaning and tradition
0:42:48 > 0:42:51but are fashioned in a contemporary way
0:42:51 > 0:42:54that appeals on purely aesthetic grounds.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56They began to fetch the sort of sums reserved
0:42:56 > 0:42:59for A-list Western artists.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02For so long, Australian art
0:43:02 > 0:43:04had been searching for an identity.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08Searching for a way to be recognised internationally
0:43:08 > 0:43:12and yet still be Australian.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15But now, suddenly, here was an art style
0:43:15 > 0:43:18abstract enough to fit among the white walls
0:43:18 > 0:43:20of the modern art gallery,
0:43:20 > 0:43:24but authentic enough to be utterly Australian.
0:43:24 > 0:43:25As Robert Hughes said,
0:43:25 > 0:43:29"The last great art movement of the 20th century."
0:43:29 > 0:43:32Australian art was set free.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36# Celebration of a nation
0:43:36 > 0:43:38# Give us a hand!
0:43:38 > 0:43:40# Celebration of a nation... #
0:43:40 > 0:43:43As Australians celebrated the Bicentenary
0:43:43 > 0:43:46of European settlement in 1988,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49indigenous culture was recognised and embraced
0:43:49 > 0:43:52as part of the national story.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57Australians could take pride in the achievements
0:43:57 > 0:43:59of indigenous art.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02It made people aware of the depth of wisdom
0:44:02 > 0:44:07and experience that lay behind this creativity.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10In 1988,
0:44:10 > 0:44:14as a symbol of its commitment to reconciliation,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17the government commissioned an important work of art,
0:44:17 > 0:44:21a mosaic for the new Parliament House in Canberra,
0:44:21 > 0:44:23from Michael Nelson Tjakamarra.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27He reworked his painting Possum And Wallaby Dreaming
0:44:27 > 0:44:29into a massive mosaic.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Almost 200 square metres,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35it has 90,000 hand-guillotined
0:44:35 > 0:44:39granite pieces in a kaleidoscope of colours.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44For the government, their links with aboriginal art were vital.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48A sign of respect for indigenous traditions and land
0:44:48 > 0:44:52and an acknowledgement of past mistakes.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54By the early '90s,
0:44:54 > 0:44:57the political will to redress these past mistakes
0:44:57 > 0:45:00was firmly on the agenda.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03Surely we can find just solutions
0:45:03 > 0:45:06to the problems which beset the first Australians,
0:45:06 > 0:45:11the people to whom the most injustice has been done.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13In 1993, after an epic struggle,
0:45:13 > 0:45:15indigenous Australians'
0:45:15 > 0:45:17rights over their traditional lands
0:45:17 > 0:45:19were finally recognised in law.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24At home, Australian indigenous art
0:45:24 > 0:45:27offered a celebration of country
0:45:27 > 0:45:29and a tool for reconciliation.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31But abroad,
0:45:31 > 0:45:35it became a powerful cultural export.
0:45:36 > 0:45:41by now, aboriginal art was internationally fashionable.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44The corporate world was quick to take advantage.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48BMW called on Michael Nelson Tjakamarra
0:45:48 > 0:45:51to paint one of their cars,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54just as they'd asked the likes of Andy Warhol,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57Roy Lichtenstein and Alexander Calder.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06And in 1994,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09I received an unusual request -
0:46:09 > 0:46:11to launch a jumbo jet...
0:46:13 > 0:46:17and play a small part in helping to send indigenous art
0:46:17 > 0:46:20to the world, quite literally.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23Launching a jumbo jet is not a task
0:46:23 > 0:46:28normally found in a gallery director's job description
0:46:28 > 0:46:31but this is no ordinary aeroplane.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34This was a flying work of art.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41The 747 was painted by artist and designer John Moriarty,
0:46:41 > 0:46:44commissioned by Qantas to liven up their livery.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48Like other companies, Qantas wanted
0:46:48 > 0:46:50to be associated with aboriginal art
0:46:50 > 0:46:52but this was special.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55This was the nation's flagship carrier
0:46:55 > 0:47:00exporting a celebrated art movement around the world.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03This is that very plane.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06It's been completely repainted, of course,
0:47:06 > 0:47:08but a trace of its history remains
0:47:08 > 0:47:10in the little motif of the kangaroo.
0:47:15 > 0:47:16Today, indigenous art
0:47:16 > 0:47:20is still playing a role as cultural ambassador
0:47:20 > 0:47:25at a huge exhibition in Brisbane, the seventh Asia Pacific Triennial,
0:47:25 > 0:47:26APT.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36This is a recent work by Michael Cook,
0:47:36 > 0:47:42one of the five indigenous artists chosen to represent Australia.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46His witty photomontages comment on themes of colonisation
0:47:46 > 0:47:49and what it means to be "civilised"...
0:47:52 > 0:47:55..turning the colonised into the coloniser.
0:47:59 > 0:48:07Just as America used abstract art as a PR tool during the Vietnam War,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11at the APT, aboriginal art is being used as a calling card,
0:48:11 > 0:48:17a means of building the connection with Australia's Asian neighbours.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20This is a unique event.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24There is no other art exhibition quite like it in the world.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28It's about the art of Vietnam, of India, Indonesia,
0:48:28 > 0:48:32of Mongolia, of Afghanistan, of Korea, Bali,
0:48:32 > 0:48:34and Australia.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38It really is a declaration of how Australia sees itself today,
0:48:38 > 0:48:42no longer focused on Europe and America
0:48:42 > 0:48:45but here in the Asia-Pacific.
0:48:53 > 0:48:58The APT has brought a very fresh view of the art, heritage
0:48:58 > 0:49:01and creativity of the region,
0:49:01 > 0:49:04this region where Australia belongs.
0:49:06 > 0:49:12For me, the APT illustrates perfectly Australia's transformation
0:49:12 > 0:49:15from British colony to modern society.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20Of how Australia's moved beyond its European roots
0:49:20 > 0:49:24to embrace its geographical and cultural realities.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Who we are in Australia has changed,
0:49:28 > 0:49:31and so has Australian art.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41I am always captivated by Bill Henson's beguiling, layered
0:49:41 > 0:49:44and slightly unsettling images.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47They're not concerned with being Australian.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52Your art is completely universal.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54You're dealing with universal issues,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57you're not dealing with peculiarly Australian issues.
0:49:57 > 0:49:59That's how it feels to me, certainly,
0:49:59 > 0:50:01but no-one's outside their time and place.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10There are inevitably traces of who you are
0:50:10 > 0:50:14and where you are and when you were in everyone's work.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16It's there in any artwork you want to look at
0:50:16 > 0:50:20but it's certainly not a preoccupation of mine,
0:50:20 > 0:50:25thinking about where I am or thinking about Australia.
0:50:33 > 0:50:39Rosemary Laing's often-confronting images demand attention.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44And that is her intention.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48She disturbs complacent reality.
0:50:48 > 0:50:55Her profile as an artist has grown, both in Australia and abroad,
0:50:55 > 0:51:00but what's also changed is Australia's attitude towards artists
0:51:00 > 0:51:03and their role in society.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05It wasn't something that was cherished,
0:51:05 > 0:51:09that is, to be an artist within one's culture.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14Working as an artist here, I would be treated one way,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16and then working as an artist when I was elsewhere,
0:51:16 > 0:51:19I was treated completely differently, wonderfully.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21- But back here...- It's interesting.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24- Back here it was just like... - What was the difference?
0:51:24 > 0:51:27It's better off saying you're a cleaner than saying you're
0:51:27 > 0:51:28an artist.
0:51:30 > 0:51:35Today, being an artist in Australia is something to be celebrated.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39Art here has never been more lively. There are more artists,
0:51:39 > 0:51:44more galleries and more exhibitions than ever before.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49For a young country like Australia,
0:51:49 > 0:51:54having an equally young culture used to cause anxiety.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57But today, it's truly liberating.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01And there's an amazing irony in all this.
0:52:01 > 0:52:06Australia has always imported and borrowed a rich variety
0:52:06 > 0:52:09of influences from overseas.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12This now makes it the perfect place
0:52:12 > 0:52:15to be at the forefront of contemporary culture,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18which is global and gregarious.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25In Australia, maybe the future has already arrived
0:52:25 > 0:52:31at a place that redefines the term "art gallery".
0:52:31 > 0:52:32OPERA PLAYS
0:52:34 > 0:52:39Like the Sydney Opera House, it's a piece of art in its own right.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43A subterranean world
0:52:43 > 0:52:49in an unfashionable working-class suburb of Hobart in Tasmania.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54Welcome to the Museum of Old and New art - MONA -
0:52:54 > 0:52:57a museum that's forcing people to see art
0:52:57 > 0:52:59in a completely different way.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05Is it a crazy collection of curios,
0:53:05 > 0:53:07arranged without rhyme or reason,
0:53:07 > 0:53:11or the ultimate expression of contemporary culture?
0:53:22 > 0:53:25It is distinctively Australian, precisely
0:53:25 > 0:53:29because it can absorb influences from anywhere.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32There's something wonderful about this place,
0:53:32 > 0:53:34it's absolutely one of a kind.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37It could only have happened here.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42It's the unique vision of a maverick Aussie millionaire
0:53:42 > 0:53:45who made his fortune in, that's right, gambling,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49who has no time for the rules and is driven only
0:53:49 > 0:53:52by his amazing instinct for risk.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55His name is David Walsh.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57It's his private gallery and collection,
0:53:57 > 0:54:01and he can pretty much do whatever he wants with it.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04Whenever I come down here, I think, "My God,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08"does anybody see the world as David Walsh sees it?"
0:54:08 > 0:54:11"Does anybody see the world as anybody else sees it?"
0:54:11 > 0:54:13is my question,
0:54:13 > 0:54:16and I kind of think we're trying to portray some of that message here
0:54:16 > 0:54:20by being anarchic and attempting to...
0:54:20 > 0:54:22Turn the tables.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24Yeah, a public collection
0:54:24 > 0:54:28tends to have an air of authority,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31the state behind it, the notion of wisdom built in.
0:54:31 > 0:54:36One of the things we do at MONA that really a public gallery can't do
0:54:36 > 0:54:39is we can mess with artists, we can reinterpret,
0:54:39 > 0:54:41we can put one work inside another work,
0:54:41 > 0:54:45we can try and make the whole thing a Disneyland,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48we can...try to entertain.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53Some people are offended, some find it disgusting.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57I've had some letters from people that said it changed their life.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01For two centuries,
0:55:01 > 0:55:04Australian art has been looking for a place of its own
0:55:04 > 0:55:06amid a welter of foreign styles.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09With the exception of aboriginal art,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12it has depended on adopting and adapting ideas
0:55:12 > 0:55:15that originate elsewhere,
0:55:15 > 0:55:19picking the best and giving them an Australian twang.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22For so long, that was seen as a problem,
0:55:22 > 0:55:26as if Australian culture was always behind the times,
0:55:26 > 0:55:31but MONA is unashamedly post-modern.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33It copies, it appropriates,
0:55:33 > 0:55:37it rearranges art and our lives.
0:55:37 > 0:55:44And, of course, it confronts our obsession with sex and death.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58The story of Australian art since the 1950s
0:55:58 > 0:56:01has been the tension between wanting to express something
0:56:01 > 0:56:04distinctively Australian
0:56:04 > 0:56:07and wanting to be truly international.
0:56:07 > 0:56:13And to bring down the boundaries between what art is and can be.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18And I think that's exactly what David Walsh is doing here at MONA.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29At the heart of the museum is a giant snake,
0:56:29 > 0:56:33made up of over 1,600 individual paintings.
0:56:33 > 0:56:39It's by one of my favourite Australian artists, Sidney Nolan.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41When I look around this place,
0:56:41 > 0:56:46I feel Nolan's dream to develop a uniquely Australian vision
0:56:46 > 0:56:47has been realised,
0:56:47 > 0:56:51but in a way he could never have imagined.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54Nolan's snake is a dreamtime being,
0:56:54 > 0:56:58a reminder that, far from being a cultural backwater,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Australia is actually home to
0:57:01 > 0:57:06humankind's oldest continuous artistic tradition.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13When Europeans arrived, they had no idea of this.
0:57:13 > 0:57:21Regardless, art continued to reflect Australia's dramatic evolution.
0:57:21 > 0:57:23Perhaps art never stopped being about
0:57:23 > 0:57:26coming to terms with this extraordinary place,
0:57:26 > 0:57:28even though the obsession
0:57:28 > 0:57:32with referencing Australia has long gone.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36From the moment I arrived here,
0:57:36 > 0:57:39nearly 35 years ago,
0:57:39 > 0:57:43my journey into art has helped me to understand
0:57:43 > 0:57:46what this country is about,
0:57:46 > 0:57:49what it is to be Australian.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53Art explores the heart and soul of this country
0:57:53 > 0:57:56in ever more interesting ways,
0:57:56 > 0:58:00how its diversity of peoples express their feelings,
0:58:00 > 0:58:01sentiments and instincts
0:58:01 > 0:58:06for the land, for each other, for our lives.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08The art of Australia is a conversation
0:58:08 > 0:58:10with the past, the present and the future.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15It's a conversation to which there is no end.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19Plenty of debate, discussion, controversy and fulfilment,
0:58:19 > 0:58:22but no ending.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24There will always be more to this story.
0:58:53 > 0:58:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd