IN Masters

If you’re not a regular visitor to the Art Gallery of Western Australia, it’s time to change your habits. A collection of art’s modern masterpieces are spending the rest of the year in our city.

When was the last time you visited the art gallery? Reckon there’s nothing there for you?

Well, think again – especially when an exhibition of 20th century masters from New York’s Museum of Modern Art goes up on the walls.

The exhibition, called Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters, will feature more than 100 modern masterpieces by 14 of the most iconic artists of the last century. Ranging from Pablo Picasso to Andy Warhol the exhibition will also include celebrated works by Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Giorgio De Chirico, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock and Romare Bearden.

“These exhibitions are about making people feel comfortable in this space,” effuses Dr Stefano Carboni, the director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia. “Art is not for the elite. It’s not about not knowing anything but just being able to look at things. It’s about your personal feelings and reactions to a work of art.

“Whether you think it’s good or bad, any kind of reaction already means that you are in tune with it. You don’t necessarily need the help of experts to enjoy it because art is for everybody.”

Opening next month, the exhibition is a collaboration between the Art Gallery of Western Australia and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and is the first of six exclusive exhibitions from New York to be seen in Perth over the next three years. They will include a landscapes and still life show, iconic photography of New York, contemporary art through digital media, a design collection devoted to kitchenware featuring a complete kitchen, and post-impressionist masterpieces.

“The initial idea behind the collection is that instead of having a major show or an important international show every few years we would try to engage with a single institution once a year. In this case the public of WA could expect two such shows a year,” Stefano says.

Consisting of around 130 pieces, the exhibition starts in the 1900’s and ends with the work of the only living artist of the collection, 81-year-old Jasper Johns. Picasso will be represented by about nine oil paintings and six etchings while we’ll get to see three major works by De Chirico. Andy Warhol’s 32 legendary soup cans will be on display as will a self portrait and his Brillo Boxes.

The exhibition will be supported by a strong program of talks and activities. Stefano hopes this exhibition and indeed the whole series, will appeal also to tertiary students and the 18 – 35 age demographic alongside the dedicated and long-time lovers of the gallery. Because of the exclusive nature of the shows he also expects plenty of visitors from the eastern states.

Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters is at the Art Gallery of Western Australia from June 16 to December 3. Entry fees apply.

Image: Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987) Self-Portrait, 1966 Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on nine canvases Each canvas 22 1/2 x 22 1/2" (57.2 x 57.2 cm), overall 67 5/8 x 67 5/8" (171.7 x 171.7 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York Gift of Philip Johnson © 2012 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Perth's "tight" rental market

Unless you’ve had your head in the sand lately, you will have been hearing a lot about Perth’s “tight” rental market.

Like all property commentary, I think it’s important to take note of the statistics and then to ask ourselves why this might be so, as well as what does it mean for you; the buyers, sellers and investors.

My first point is that I believe that this isn’t a short-term phenomenon just brought about by Western Australia’s rapidly growing population and current market conditions.

Rather, I think it reflects a structural change in the residential market here and represents new investment opportunities for all participants in the property market.

Factors such as housing affordability, the more transient nature of work, the desire to live in urban centres with their associated urban village  culture and  services, and the experimentation with different lifestyle options ahead of making firm, future decisions are all, I believe, driving the surge in demand for rentals.

As such, we can see this spike in rental demand and low vacancy rates as being an indication of a structural change in the residential property market and one that market participants should recognise and jump on, to maximise investment returns.

In essence, it’s a positive time to consider developing  and purchasing properties for the rental market because I don’t see this so-called “rental squeeze” coming to an end anytime soon.

We’ve changed. Perth has changed, and there’s a lot going on. Not only that, there is a growing proportion of our population ready and willing to rent, and stay renting.

“We’ve changed. Perth has changed, and there’s a lot going on. Not only that, there is a growing proportion of our population ready and willing to rent, and stay renting.”

Demand for rental property is exceeding supply and doesn’t look set to be satisfied anytime soon.

On this basis investors can see a new investment with strong, stable returns and a good future, provided they make informed choices and engage a solid property management service to care for both their tenant and their property.

There’s definitely no longer an argument to stand on the sidelines in the Perth residential property market. Opportunity awaits.

IN Rainforests

A home in the middle of the Queensland rainforest was the perfect base for a stunning new nature photography book.

The pupa which hatched on Stanley Breeden’s desk is typical of how close to nature he is. Raising the butterfly from a tiny caterpillar has made it one of the stars of a beautiful new nature photography book.

Alongside his wife Kaisa, all they have to do is open the front door to be right in the middle of the Queensland rainforest. The pair have walked for hours, covering vast tracts of their Queensland property, which they have called home for more than two decades and the neighbouring national park.

Never without cameras on these walks, the couple have brought the images of their backyard together in a recently published book called Rainforest Country: An Intimate Portrait of Australia’s Tropical Rainforest. Combined with elegant and informative writings, the photos take you right to the heart of the rainforest. All that’s missing are the sounds and smells, but they’re easy to imagine when accompanied by page-sized photos.

For Stanley, digital photography opened up a whole new world of colour after a lifetime of shooting film. Never hugely satisfied with the colour spectrum of film photography he almost gave it away until his wife convinced him that using digital would change things.

It did and the results are evident in the book, as the photographs vibrate with life and texture. Whether it’s the perfect camouflage of a frog, the hard blue nuts which litter the canopy floor or the detail in the scales of a lizard, the colour is vibrant and arresting.

“Depending on the subject, it could take half an hour or we might have to come back over many weeks,” Kaisa says. “Sometimes, the subject might just get up and run away. Other times we have to wait for the right season, or just wait until we find something, which is why we worked on this book for about two years.”

The area Stanley and Kaisa photographed in northern Queensland is one of two international biodiversity hotspots in Australia, which are the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on earth. The other is in the south-west of WA where the Breeden’s did their last book.

“The patterns of nature and the sheer variety is something we are really captivated by,” says Kaisa. “For example a lot of flowers are like things from the ocean. We love getting up close to that. We are trying to encourage a renewed vision of nature and a view of it people have never considered before.

“Looking up close, like our photos, is something you can do anywhere, whether it’s a moth, a cricket or a blade of grass. Change your view, have some curiosity and have a close-up look.”

Rainforest Country ($75 RRP) is published by Fremantle Press and available at all good bookstores.