Ben Apfelbaum

CORONAVIRUS TRAPS ARTWORKS HERE AND ABROAD

Many artists especially in the audio visual sections of the art world have been rushing to fill the vacuum left by the lack of audiences due to the corona virus. Podcasts are blossoming on a multitude of platforms and many art galleries are putting their exhibitions online.

However Karl Quinn of the Sydney Morning Herald has discovered an unintended consequence of Covid 19.  Some of the world’s most valuable works of art are trapped in Australia unable to return to their home bases from prestigious art galleries around the world. Australia is in a reciprocal situation  with many of our treasures languishing overseas.

National Gallery of Australia (NGA) Director Nick Mitzevich said, “We don’t just let them go out on the back of a truck. They are couriered and the couriers are conservators, they look after the works.” Coming to and from Australia often involves stopovers and one can’t just leave works of art lying on the tarmac with luggage which can resist changes in  temperature, humidity or rain when transferred to another aircraft. Conservators must guard these works of art on their journey and must always have a human being by their side.

At the moment the most prominent of[ these artworks are, ” the nearly 100 Matisse and Picasso works from 23 lenders around the world, such as the Tate in London, the Met in New York and the Musee Picasso in Paris “,  Mitzevich said.

The NGA has a mirror image regarding its works overseas numbering 1200 works. In addition there are works leant interstate from within Australia and these too must remain where they are.

Nor is the NGA alone,. The National Gallery of Victoria confirmed its Keith Haring/Jean – Michel Basquat : Crossing Lines exhibition has not left Australia.

In an unusual move the Art Gallery of New South Wales has  refused to disclose whether it currently holds any major works from abroad, citing security concerns.

Just as people are going nowhere and practising social distancing, it is the same situation  for these works of art.

Featured image : Henri Matisse – Still Life with Sleeping Woman 1940, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC . All images by Ben Apfelbaum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.