HARALD SZEEMANN

Harald Szeemann was the late twentieth century’s most celebrated and influential curator. He pioneered the display of conceptual art and performance, created some of the first cross-disciplinary, non-chronological exhibitions, and experimented with non-museum spaces. Blurring the boundary between artist and curator, Szeemann forged many of the basic premises of contemporary art exhibition today.

As director of the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland over 1961–69, curator of the groundbreaking documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972, and curator of the Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2001, Szeemann presented innovative shows throughout his career. His 1969 exhibition When Attitudes Become Form: Live in Your Head is known for pioneering conceptual art.

In 1971, John Kaldor invited Szeemann to curate an exhibition in Sydney and Melbourne promoting cultural exchange and engaging with “dominant international trends”. Over two weeks, Szeemann visited studios, galleries, museums and private collections in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne to view the work of seventy artists.

The result of Szeemann’s visit was I want to leave a nice well-done child here, a dynamic exhibition of works by twenty-two young artists at Sydney’s Bonython Gallery and, later, with additional work by Mike Brown, at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. It was the largest exhibition of conceptual art ever staged in an Australian museum.

Ti Parks, John Armstrong, Tony Coleing, Tony Bishop, Margaret Dodd, Ross Grounds and Nigel Lendon exhibited a range of large-scale works and small, detailed objects. Gunter Christmann and Dale Hickey were represented by abstract paintings, Guy Stuart by mixed-media constructions and Robert Boyne by figurative fragments in acrylic. William Pidgeon, Brett Whiteley and Tony Woods collaborated on a linked portrait on a 4-metre canvas.

Photographic works included Aleks Danko’s slide project and Warren Knight’s prints covered in hand-drawn patterns. Interactive works, such as Ian Milliss’ Circle game, in which a ring of cloth becomes a circular tug of war, Alec Tzannes’ Contact, with 221 perspex discs that are moved across the floor, and Peter Kennedy’s sound recordings, also featured.

Mike Parr created the exhibition invitation and presented Shadow piece. Tim Johnson’s Light (event) installation saw the artist systematically smash six fluorescent lights. Neil Evans performed Wait for two hours with a catalogue number around his neck.

The Sun’s James Gleeson asserted, “The Szeemann selection isn’t the exhibition for the eye – it is intended for the mind. One must approach it without prejudices and with one’s sensory equipment stretched to the utmost in an effort to reach the purpose deep within the unfamiliar forms”.