Key Outcomes for Visual Arts
Session Seven
Art Documentation
Howard Morphy spoke of the importance of documentation, particularly in the context of the Gappan Gallery where the session was held, surrounded by a stunning exhibition of printmaking.
Brenda L. Croft told how as a Gurindji woman raised in urban areas and educated at a Sydney art school, she opened a studio and gallery. During the mid-1980s it was difficult to get art shown as authentic Aboriginal if it was by urban Indigenous people. With that, of course, came the implication that these artists were not authentic Aborigines. After the studio was established, Indigenous arts bodies from all around Australia approached it for assistance in putting on shows. Having the experience of running a gallery which over a short period accumulated a 'wealth of material in photographs of people, price lists from exhibitions, catalogues,' and so on, and as an 'occasionally' working artist with the experience of archiving her own work, she realised early the necessity of proper records. Both for institutions and for individual artists, documentation is the picture of what has happened: an institutional memory in the case of a gallery and in the case of the artist, an indispensable means of tracking work. As curator of the late Michael Riley's upcoming retrospective exhibition, she knew first-hand how the lack of attention to record keeping impacts future understandings of an artist's body of work. It is not important for these records to be high tech, just essential that they be kept. Through her role, the National Gallery of Australia offers a range of services and facilities to remote arts centres in managing their archives. Currently, for example, she works with Yirrkala to preserve its print archive, which is dispersed and suffering from tropical conditions.
Araluen Maymuru described how she began working with Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre five or six years ago, first touching up artworks and then moving on to work in the print room. She has been involved in a project to move the archival system to computer. The Centre is also moving towards a clear system for the editioning and provenance of records.
Vivien Johnson is concerned with the documentation of the arts in central Australia, including the detection of forgeries. More broadly, she is working on a dictionary of Australian artists. This involves putting biographies online of all artists working in Australia since colonisation. In her work with the detection of forgeries, she is concerned both with protecting artists' copyright and moral rights over their art, but also with educating those interested in Indigenous arts about the status of the respect that should be paid to the collaborative art making in Indigenous practise. She is raising awareness and teaching respect for that process. She works as well for the Papunya Tula artists in tracking through the puzzles presented as a result of a period during the 1970s when scant records were kept regarding who produced works.
Beverly Knight said that whilst she has always kept detailed records as a gallery owner, she realised their importance more with each passing year. She described the thorough documentation her gallery provides to purchasers. This is important to assist with protection of copyright and moral rights for the artist and so that the buyer is educated. It contains such detail as the name of both printer and artist, if the artist is not printing his or her own work. She works with artists to assist with documenting their prints and with the editioning process. Whilst many galleries do not deal in prints, they are a way of developing younger and emerging artists. These record keeping tasks are crucial for documenting early career works.