In a week full of the glitter of celebrity and the opaque mirrors of politics it seems appropriate to refocus on the big question of who will take up the reins of the National Gallery of Victoria.
This is no flippant question as culture in Australia is now big business. Finding yourself in proximity to its magic ambience will bring power, prestige and position well evidenced by the rise of philanthropy and major corporations aligning themselves with the apparent 'power' of art. Culture, it is believed, rubs off and becomes a sign of your educational status, your sense of national pride and your ability to engage the world of ideas that hover just above the masses.
Art is the most savoury of educational experiences and the most seductive in terms of financial ones.
Impeccable scholarship would have once been the only qualification to fill the role of Gallery Director at a major cultural institution in Australia. There was little regard to things such as charisma, political clout, or management brilliance. Now such appointments come with a horizon of expectations that would have been once reserved for the enthroning of an Archbishop or a monarch. A director of an art gallery is now a caretaker of national pride and community aspiration.
These cultural priests or gurus need to grip their always-full wine glass with all the inherent complexity of post-modern theory, they need to do miracles by turning simple material things into priceless objects, they need to convince the skeptical of their ability to skate upon thin ice, to walk on water, and turn fuzzy financial clouds inside out to reveal their golden lining.
Now that the Art Gallery of NSW has announced the appointment of Michael Brand as its new director, the pressure is on for Melbourne. Brand comes with well-deserved credentials, having worked at major institutions with vast resources such as the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Brand managed the difficult negotiations of returning works to their countries of origin that had been obtained through possible black market sources. He did this in a manner that garnered goodwill and in return obtained priceless works for loan, that had never been seen before in the US.
Clearly Brand has the political ability to fill the colourful