Michael Zavros

Nothing is left to chance and every detail is carefully calculated: the hyperrealistic (and divisive) paintings of Michael Zavros

Retrieved on: 
Lunedì, Giugno 26, 2023
Acropolis Now, Painting, Neurotic, Obsession, Exhibition, Gold Coast, Myth, Favourite, Ancien, Thought, Flood, Dream, Climate change, Australian, Water, Reading, Michael Zavros, Photography, Gallery, Family, Social media, Film industry, Interior design, Entertainment, Fashion design, Jewellery, Paint, Cypriot Greek

Even the essays in the catalogue accompanying this new exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, are riddled with quotations from the artist.

Key Points: 
  • Even the essays in the catalogue accompanying this new exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, are riddled with quotations from the artist.
  • Assembled by curator Peter McKay, it contains over 100 pieces, primarily paintings, but also including sculptures, photographs, video pieces and performance art.
  • Read more:
    What should the Australian War Memorial do with its heroic portraits of Ben Roberts-Smith?

Mastery of technique

    • Zavros exhibits a mastery of an exquisite technique and a refined sensibility.
    • In his earliest pieces, clippings from a fashion magazine were meticulously reproduced as oil paintings as in Man in wool suit (1998).
    • The huge Acropolis Now (2023) mural in acrylic, measuring about 7.5 metres by almost 20 metres, frames the entrance to his exhibition.
    • This applies to some of the most accomplished and acclaimed pieces including Bad Dad (2013), and Phoebe is dead/McQueen (2010).

Conspicuous consumption

    • On a very simple level, one can say much of his imagery touches on highly desirable luxury goods, as items of conspicuous consumption.
    • The artist has reasoned that, as many people aspire to own such items, exquisitely rendered images of them would appeal to the same people.
    • Is Zavros celebrating the existing world order and its elite and the consumption of luxury goods, or is he critiquing it, shining a light on folly and exposing it with irony and creating subversive art?

Power and prestige

    • The large installation piece Drowned Mercedes (2023) has the aspirational car of his dreams made functionless by being filled with water.
    • In the garage of the house where he normally parks his car, during the floods the water would have flooded this car.
    • This gleaming symbol of power and prestige is destroyed through the impact of climate change.

What should the Australian War Memorial do with its heroic portraits of Ben Roberts-Smith?

Retrieved on: 
Lunedì, Giugno 5, 2023
Airborne, Heart, Pressure, Somalia affair, Federal Court of Justice, David Shoebridge, Painting, Sydney, Exhibition, Ben, Canadian War Museum, Monash University, Federal court, Dilemma, Judgement, The Canberra Times, Conscience, War, Portrait, Torture, Australian, Collection, National Council, 98th Guards Airborne Division, Michael Zavros, Courage, Australian Defence Force, Jewellery, Interior design, Gunsmith, Lace, Entertainment, Computer data storage

Justice Anthony Besanko ruled the newspapers had established, by the “balance of probabilities” (the standard of evidence in a civil lawsuit), that Roberts-Smith had committed war crimes.

Key Points: 
  • Justice Anthony Besanko ruled the newspapers had established, by the “balance of probabilities” (the standard of evidence in a civil lawsuit), that Roberts-Smith had committed war crimes.
  • Following the ruling, much public debate has focused on what the Australian War Memorial should do with Robert-Smith’s uniform, helmet and other artefacts of his on display.

The case of the oil paintings

    • The memorial also has two heroic oil painting portraits of Roberts-Smith by one of Australia’s leading artists, Michael Zavros.
    • These paintings were commissioned by the memorial in 2014.
    • Pistol Grip (Ben Roberts-Smith VC) is a larger-than-life-sized depiction of Roberts-Smith, camouflage arms outstretched, mimicking the action of holding a pistol.

Moral and ethical ambiguity

    • In 1992, the Canadian Airborne Regiment was deployed as peacekeepers to Somalia.
    • In 1993, 16-year-old Shidane Arone was found hiding in the Canadian base, believed to have been stealing supplies.
    • Master Corporal Clayton Matchee and his subordinate Private Kyle Brown were charged with his murder and torture.
    • It addresses an ethical grey area many soldiers face during active service when the hierarchy of command comes into direct conflict with conscience.

The complexity of contemporary art

    • Brandon’s curatorial decision to display Kearns’s Somalia paintings strike at the heart of what is special and important about contemporary war art in a national museum.
    • Contemporary art presents ethical and moral complexity, grey zones and a range of perspectives.
    • The portraits should be displayed in ways that address this complexity, capturing the evolving story of Roberts-Smith in explanatory wall text.
    • The most compelling contemporary art works – and the most valuable museum displays in our national institutions – are those that consider our complex stories, raise important and self-reflective questions, and challenge simplistic narratives.