The Art of Australia

A three-part series hosted somewhat stiffly by Edmund Capon, and screening on ABC1 from tonight, The Art of Australia is not a traditional history of Australian art. Rather, it aims to explore the way that Australian identity has been shaped by art and artists over the years since the European invasion began in earnest in 1788. To this end, the opening episode, Strangers in a Strange Land, almost completely overlooks the history and diversity of Aboriginal art, preferring instead to examine the ways that colonial artists such as Joseph Lycett, John Glover and Eugene von Guérard painted the landscape – and Australia’s Indigenous peoples – through romanticised, European eyes.

Capon does not make a particularly engaging host; while clearly familiar with his subject, his screen presence feels both reserved and a little smug (a sequence in which he discusses the Heidelberg School artists Streeton and Roberts and makes a point of using their respective nicknames, ‘Smike’ and ‘Bulldog’ is particularly cringe-inducing, as is a groan-inducing line about their influence: ‘By now the country was keen to shed the memories of its convict past, and what better way to do that with pictures of simple, honest folk toiling in pastures under blue skies?’). Additionally, his grand claims about the impact the arts have had in shaping our collective view of the landscape sometimes feel a trifle forced.

This fault is less noticeable in episode two, The Coming of Age, where Capon’s focus shifts subtly to discuss the way that Australian art has reflected the development of our nation. His point is illustrated by the works of modernists such as Grace Cossington Smith, whose vivid depictions of the Sydney Harbour Bridge reflect the way its construction captured the popular imagination of the day; and the glorification of a white Australia in Charles Meere’s Australian beach pattern. A tendency towards cliché still distracts, however, such as a sequence in which Capon discusses ‘the darker side of urban life’, as seen in the paintings of émigré artist Danila Vassilieff and Melbourne’s Albert Tucker, while standing in a heavily-graffitied Melbourne laneway.

Regrettably, Indigenous artists are nowhere to be seen in episode two. Capon happily discusses the impact that meeting Indigenous Australians in the outback had on the likes of Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan, and in turn, the way the artists’ subsequent depictions of the Australian landscape changed the way Australians saw their home, but one of the most significant landscape artists of the period, Albert Namatjira, is completely overlooked.

Episode three, Beyond Australia – which looks at Australian art in the 60s and beyond – may have a greater focus on Indigenous art, but was not included for review.

Crisscrossing the country and drawing sometimes striking parallels between the works of historical and contemporary artists, The Art of Australia is strongly shot and slickly produced, but its central narrative lacks impact, and its host fails to engage. The result is a television series that educates and entertains, but which fails to truly impress.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Screens Tuesday October 22, 29 and November 5 at 8:30pm on ABC1