Australia’s Most Significant Thematic Christian Art Prize

ONLINE OPINION
By Peter Sellick

2004 Mandorla Art Award Winner: Michael Kane Taylor, "Pedilavium", Digital print on paper on canvas.

AUSTRALIA---It is the aim of the Mandorla Art Award to challenge artists to create art that is a response to a set reading from Scripture. By doing this we hope to encourage works that belongs to the great tradition of Christian art that attempts to deepen the faith. We find it an irony that although art in the Latin West and Orthodox East found its beginning in this tradition, very little art in this vein is now produced. Moreover, churches now rarely commission art whose function it is to enrich the imagination of worshippers. There are exceptions, the windows of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Bunbury, produced by the late Robert Juniper being one excellent example. [link]

The Mandorla Art Award exhibition will be open to the public between the 19th and the 27th July at Linton and Kay Galleries 137 St Georges Tce. Perth. Details may be found at http://www.mandorlaart.com.

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Australia Post Donates Boss Ahmed Fahour’s $2M Bonus to Islamic Museum of Australia

HERALD SUN
By ELLEN WHINNETT

Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour is patron of the Islamic Museum of Australia. Source: Supplied

AUSTRALIA---The Herald Sun can reveal Mr Fahour asked for the bonus to be donated directly to the ­Islamic Museum of Australia, of which he is patron. The donation was made months ago, but has only emerged now, when Australia Post is sacking 900 staff to stem the losses at its domestic mail division. Mr Fahour said he and his family had been able to make a “substantial contribution’’ to several not-for-profit organisations in recent years. “Earlier this year, I announced that my family had contributed $4 million to the Islamic Museum. We have also made contributions to a number of other community causes such as schools, sporting clubs and the arts,’’ he said. [link]

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Buddhas from A Bottleshop: Finding Guru Rinpoche

BUDDHIST ART NEWS

A Waste Cardboard Installation: Buddhas from a Bottleshop.

AUSTRALIA---Enter into the realm of the manifestations of Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, the bringer of Buddhism to the Himalayas. Buddhas as you may never have imagined them, not in shining gold or bronze, but formed from the detritus of a bottle shop. This project also relates to a long term reflection on my understandings of the sacred in Australia; in particular relating it to my 36 years of working with people in a remote Indigenous community of the south west Gulf of Carpentaria. [link]

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Monday's Madonna & Child is by Raphael via the Prado Museum

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

"Holy Family with Saint John" (c. 1516) by Raphael 

Last month, one of the finest collections of Italian masterpieces ever to come to Australia were unveiled at the National Gallery of Victoria on May 16th. The collection includes Raphael's "Holy Family with Saint John or Madonna of the Rose" as today's Madonna & Child.

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William Blake at Australia's National Gallery of Victoria

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

William Blake's Dante running from the Three Beasts (1824-1827) illustration for The Divine Comedy by Dante 

AUSTRALIA---The National Gallery of Victoria presents an exhibition showcasing its collection of works by William Blake. The exhibition includes watercolours, single prints and illustrated books. Due to the material’s light sensitivity, these works are only infrequently exhibited and the exhibition provides the rare opportunity to see the Gallery’s complete holdings of Blake’s work which span his full career, from his earliest to his latest years. The NGV owns thirty-six of the 102 watercolours Blake executed in the 1820s to illustrate Dante’s Divine Comedy, which are regarded as among the artist’s finest and most impressive creations. Founded in 1861, the National Gallery of Victoria is Australia’s oldest public art gallery.

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