Australia’s celebrated painter Charles Blackman’s, original paintings (not just prints!) are still available. Ah yes, one could own one of his original paintings for mere $37,000. Knowing what I know (very little mind you), I would have thought (proven to be wrong once again) most of his original and any substantial work would be owned by someone else by now. Not so.
Yesterday, Claremont Quarter opened its gallery/event space for Blackman+Bromley exhibition with selected guests. Several pieces already had a red circle, meaning sold. I would guess that quite a few from the invited guests would consider purchasing a piece or two from the opening night before the show is open to general public today.
There were lots of drawings, prints, and graphics which I think people would find more approachable unlike some abstract art. Dare I say, most of his work reminds me of child’s drawings. Yes, there I said it. And they are worth a lot because it’s done by Charles Blackman. There’s a little advice for you, parents! Keep your kids’ drawings and frame them. They are going to brighten up your stylish white wall if you couldn’t or wouldn’t want to pay for Blackman’s artwork.
Aside from my blatant statement of artist’s work looking like child’s play, the show was lovely. Well merchandised – I won’t even say that it was well curated as I know nothing about curating arts – so that any art novice would want to own some of Blackman’s. In addition to Blackman’s there were several works by David Bromley titled Homage to Blackman. If Blackman’s work wasn’t your cup of tea Bromley’s work could tickle your fancy.
I would like to see more exhibitions like this. Better still, people with some extra dosh should buy more art so that many more artists could flourish right here and could make a decent living. Someone pointed out the other day that the reason why artists are struggle so much is because of the labour government. The legislation was introduced some five years ago preventing from having artwork on the wall if they were purchased for superannuation purposes. What that means is that if you buy art for your retirements you can’t have them displayed on the wall. They have to be ‘stored’. It sounds just so stupid but politicians who were behind this legislation would have had pretty good reason for that (or they were just not into art!).
Despite all that, I believe in abundance. There are plenty of wealthy individuals out there. They could easily make a huge difference in events like this. I just hope that many people get to see the show. I also hope that the show could inspire people (specially those who otherwise wouldn’t see art exhibitions).
If you’re an art lover, you’d already know about this show. Go and see it. You never know you might want to buy one of the prints instead of shelling that out money for a bag by Marc Jacobs. Just saying.
