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<\/p>\n\u201c45 is arbitrary in many ways, but it\u2019s principally a way of celebrating the artists and the collection,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez has also been busy tackling various issues raised over the years. An excoriating report published by the Australian National Audit Office in April 2023, building on a 2006 report and 2014 review, found that Artbank had been coasting for decades without a strategy, and that its art acquisitions had failed to meet both Commonwealth Procurement Rules and its own collection plan.<\/p>\n
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Harry Newell\u2019s Circle\/s in the round: NEVER ODD OR EVEN, is showing in Melbourne. Credit: Simon Schluter<\/p>\n
The ANAO report found that collection management was so substandard the integrity of the collection was under threat, that the leasing scheme at the heart of the business was not fit for purpose and that Artbank\u2019s entire approach to the task of acquiring, managing and leasing art was substandard.<\/p>\n
It found the 2006 ANAO report made seven recommendations for improvements, which the department at the time agreed to undertake, but a departmental review in 2014 found those issues remained.<\/p>\n
Then, in June last year, a cross-parliamentary probity and ethics inquiry doubled down and demanded that Artbank seriously raise its game.<\/p>\n
In a report poetically titled \u201cThe Never-ending Quest for the Golden Thread\u201d, the joint committee of public accounts and audit expressed alarm at the degree of ineptitude revealed by the Audit Office report.<\/p>\n
For example, Artbank had essentially been pirating videos, it held 15 duplicate copies of 14 digital artworks and had leased those duplicate copies to six separate clients across 22 agreements.<\/p>\n
The committee refused to accept Artbank\u2019s attempt to justify the duplicates under a broad interpretation of the terms of its ownership.<\/p>\n
Artbank occasionally sells or gives artworks away, through a process called de-accessioning, but the reviews revealed a system so slipshod that in one case approval for 70 artworks was obtained four years after they were de-accessioned, with the paperwork concealing the fact that the works had long left the collection.<\/p>\n
Other artworks were approved but then languished in the collection for years.<\/p>\n
This wild recent history for a tiny team within federal minister Tony Burke\u2019s Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts certainly gives Artbank a reason to flick the switch to a celebration for its illustrious 45th.<\/p>\n
Just don\u2019t expect to read about any of it within the 300-page, exhaustively referenced tome.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez counters that by celebrating Artbank\u2019s history of influence on the visual arts in Australia, the book filling in the picture of the agency\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n
Also, to the immense credit of the current leadership, Artbank has begun publishing annual reviews, as demanded by the reports.<\/p>\n
And business is looking up. From having 390 clients at the time of the audit, Artbank\u2019s most recent review for 2023-24 reveals it has 601 clients who hired 4793 artworks from the 11,000-strong collection.<\/p>\n
The latest review includes a full list of new works, including prices paid and which gallery they were bought from.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe numbers answer just about anything the National Audit Office Report came up with,\u201d Rodriguez says.<\/p>\n
Artbank now has more than half the collection on loan each year, earning more than $4 million in fees.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez wants 70 per cent of the collection on loan, as was the case 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you do not set ambitious targets, you do not achieve ambitious things,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The 6200 artworks languishing in storage is a much lower figure than the more than 90 per cent of artworks that remain in storage at our public galleries. Then again, the whole point of Artbank is the art goes on display to the benefit of artists\u2019 careers.<\/p>\n
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Lara Merrett has had seven of her works acquired by Artbank.Credit: Kate Geragthy<\/p>\n
Artist Lara Merrett has benefited from Artbank acquiring seven of her works during the 2000s. In the ensuing years, the large-scale abstracts have often been loaned for display in the foyers of bustling city buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an emerging artist at that time, those loans were a critical opportunity to have my work seen beyond my circle of family and friends,\u201d Merrett says.<\/p>\n
Artbank\u2019s patchy recent history has led some art dealers to stop courting it. One says on condition of anonymity that the acquisitions have been unfocused since the departure of director Geoffrey Cassidy in 2012.<\/p>\n
Evan Hughes, art dealer and former NSW government arts adviser, says that \u201cArtbank has become a perverse quango that has long outworn its purpose or point other than keeping embassies from looking like suburban solicitors\u2019 offices\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf DFAT had been allocated $1 million for an art fund 45 years ago, they\u2019d have a tremendous collection and a healthy corpus with a better acquisitions budget than most state art galleries have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez says that in fact legal firms now account for a greater share of Artbank business than DFAT, which nonetheless remains an important client.<\/p>\n
The celebratory exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney are a chance for consumers to get acquainted with the collections and explore how renting art might work for them.<\/p>\n
The Melbourne showcase consists of some lesser-known works by A-list artists, among some A-grade works by lesser-known artists. Consider a sweet Jeffrey Smart landscape, a nice Margaret Olley still life, and unusual paintings by Howard Arkley and Sidney Nolan alongside an exquisite tapestry by the late Adelaide artist Pru La Motte and a lovely Robert Campbell landscape.<\/p>\n
In Sydney, Artbank has pulled together an exhibition of text-based paintings, prints and drawings that explores how artists play with words.<\/p>\n
Artbank\u2019s website is the best way to explore the collection and experiment with ideas for decorating your spaces affordably, albeit impermanently.<\/p>\n
The Sydney Artbank exhibition runs until January 30, and the concurrent Melbourne exhibition until January 16. Details: artbank.gov.au\/exhibitions \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n