Evert Ploeg, Equation of a Life – a portrait of Professor Derek Denton (detail, full portrait below)
The Federal Government’s much touted Innovation Agenda places heavy emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).
Here at ArtsHub we have endorsed the push back that ​encourages an adjustment to STEAM, adding an A for arts in recognition of the importance of the arts in stimulating student creativity as a necessary prerequisite and co-requisite to innovative thinking. It’s a direction that ​has received lip service if nothing else from the Government​.
Read: Arts to come in innovation policy says Minister
Science is also getting a lot of attention in the arts as a stimulus for creativity, particularly for work addressing environmental and technological subjects.
But an additional value of the arts for the science agenda was on show today with the revelation of the latest commission for the National Portrait Gallery.
Equation of a life – a portrait of Professor Derek Denton by Evert Ploeg is a striking example of how the artist’s eye can make a dry subject newly engaging. Professor Denton is an internationally celebrated research physiologist with his study and theories focusing on consciousness in evolution, a subject that – while important – is abstract and difficult for the public to understand.
Ploeg has placed his subject behind perspex, upon which the audience can see diagrams, notes, formulae and illustrations; depicting Denton immersed in his world.
The National Portrait Gallery already exhibits Ploeg portraits of actress Deborah Mailman, art collector and philanthropist John Schaeffer, and astronaut Paul Scully-Power.Ploeg.
But perhaps he is best known for his portrait of the Bananas in Pyjamas which was refused entry to the Archibald Prize on the grounds that it did not depict a real person, and which was later purchased by the ABC.
