Moran Art Prize

The Moran family have at times been steeped in controversy. They also live now as a happy family unit in the extraordinary Swifts in Darling Point. Swifts, built in 1876 by Sir Robert Lucas Lucas-Tooth is possibly the most valuable house in Sydney with it's many acres.    

The Moran Art Prizes are amongst the most valuable in Australia and the awards were given out today in the beautiful Juniper Hall  (also owned by the Morans and faithfully restored) in Paddington.
Louise Herman won first prize with this stunning portrait of photographic artist Bill Henson who has also been surrounded by controversy over his work.
Alisha Staines picked up the Student Prize Year 10-11 for her photo those that don't jump will never fly (left) and below that is Emily Riley's Colour of Life the winning snap in Student Year 9-10

The exhibition of all the winning photographs and much much more is now on at Juniper Hall in Oxford Street Paddington

Right :  Bill Henson, Lewis Miller, Edmund Capon & Peter Moran with Louise Herman accepting her award.

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Cirque du Soleil opened last night in the big top at the Entertainment Quarter at Fox Studios.

Attending as our snap shows: actress Claudia Karvan and her son, Alex Greenwich MP and Sharri Markson the Media Editor on the Australian Newspaper.

No Dramas at Bill's Show

Ros Oxley & Bill Henson

David Wenhem & Kate Agnew

 The last time the Shuttle attended a Bill Henson show at Ros Oxley's Gallery in Paddington we encountered the State wallopers barring entry and piling the exhibits into a large paddy wagon. Oh for the publicity!.
It spread around the world and even had then PM Kevin Rudd proclaiming the photographs-some of teens - 'disgusting' (although he said hadn't actually seen them) while the Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull declared them to be art (and as he owned a Henson I guess he would).

SBS TV's Jenny Brockie

Thursday night's opening was a rather sedate affair but all the better for seeing Henson's latest works which really are quite beautiful. The new exhibition  marks the return of Henson’s fascination with the human form, after a 2010 show of landscape photography. In an interview for the Sydney Morning Herald, Henson told art critic John McDonald the exhibition : “will focus more on the body, and less on landscape”. There are 18 works in total and editions of 5 of each at a cool $30,000 a go which makes around $2,500,000 worth of art on the walls. Get out those Box Brownies now and start snapping away.

John Moriarty admires the art

Watch the video below of the 2008 police raid on the gallery.
Bill Henson : 20 Sep-13 Oct Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 8 Soudan Ln, Paddington 2021  

Henson re-emerges..

18 months after the controversy swirled around the removal of his photographs of naked adolescents, photographic artist Bill Henson appeared at the Art Gallery of NSW to launch a book by one of his greatest supporters, gallery director Edmund Capon

Capon's I Blame Duchamp is a series of art essays and is the last offering before Capon's imminent retirement after 30 years of building the state gallery into one of the world's great cultural institutions.

As an assistant director of the Far Eastern Section at the world's greatest museum of art and design, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Capon was a relative unknown when hired to head the NSW Art Gallery for an interim period. He never left and has exhibited an amazing ability to schmooze politicians suffering from cultural cringe and wealthy benefactors alike, whilst enthusing an often apathetic public. Today, exhibitions draw capacity crowds and the legendary portrait contest, The Archibald creates endless controversy and has become an annual public favourite

Edmund has no plans for when he retires soon except to "travel back to London and tour Europe". "But I'll be back here to live" says Capon.

As for Henson who has exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum  in New York and at the Venice Bienalle, he went into a public hiatus when the chic Ros Oxley Gallery in Paddington was raided by police in May 2008 and 2 huge portraits of naked 13 year old youths were removed. He remains unfazed by the media frenzy that engulfed the nation and brought condemnation from the Prime Minister downwards as public figures lined up on opposing sides during the very public battle with claims of "kiddie porn". He revealed that many of his former youthful models had come forward as adults to lend him support. Ironically, the shock jock driven scandal sent prices of his work sky-high.

surely some mistake...

In May 2008 a controversey over some nude teen photographs by internationally aclaimed artist Bill Henson swept the nation as the Ros Oxley Gallery in Paddington was raided by police with the offending items carted off to assess whether they could be deemed to be illegal porn. Self appointed child advocate Hetty Johnson demanded that heads roll, shock jocks went into screech mode, State and Federal politicians weighed in and the owner of the gallery, Ros Oxley who resides in Sydney's, if not the countries most splendid harbourside home, the gothic pile Carthona, decamped with her family to Switzerland for a few months.

Oxley friend and Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull declared the photos to be art and confided that the walls of his Point Piper mansion hosted a few Henson items. But newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd weighed into the frenzy describing the photos (without actually seeing them) as "absolutely revolting".

Fast forward to the present date and the soon to be announced Prime Minister's Literary Awards  which has a $100,000 prize up for grabs. And there amongst the contendors- Henson vocal defender David Marr with his latest book 'The Henson Case' in which the brilliant Sydney Morning Herald journalist and former Media Watch host dissects the whirlwind that surrounded the whole affair. Winning the prize would catapult the book into instant best seller status.

A prize giving ceremony not to be missed.