EDUCATION NOTES

INVESTIGATING ARTWORKS IN THE GALLERY

www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/education

40 years
Kaldor public
art projects

1971
HARALD
SZEEMANN
1971
Harald
SzeemanN

Project It is not a theme but rather as a dimension.

We don’t wish to illustrate a style, a theme, but
I want to leave a nice well-done child here to offer a possible opening: to give connotation,
to sustain freedom against barriers erected by
29 April – 13 May 1971
Bonython Gallery, Sydney styles, nationalities and nationalisms, by the
idea of age limits ... as if the age of an artist
4 June – 4 July 1971 was a decisive factor for the youth of his work ...
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne To be intensities outside ideologies and stock
exchange. L’imagination au pouvoir – to quote
a motto from ’68. To celebrate fragility again.
Harald Szeemann, 49th Venice Biennale catalogue, 2001, on his choice of
title Platea dell’umanita [Plateau of humankind]

 Art Gallery of NSW 2009 / KALDOR PUBLIC ART PROJECTS / 1971 SZEEMANN
harald szeemann

Szeemann (second from left)

at a ‘meet the artists’ function
at John Kaldor’s showroom
Photo: Brian Adams

 Art Gallery of NSW 2009 / KALDOR PUBLIC ART PROJECTS / 1971 SZEEMANN
1971
Harald
SzeemanN

Introduction Szeemann travelled to Australia for his Kaldor project in 1971,

only the year after he had resigned from the Kunsthalle Bern
The influential Swiss art critic and curator of the Kunsthalle Bern,
and officially begun working as world’s first ‘independent
director of multiple Venice Biennales and documenta 5, Harald
curator’, and the year before he would curate his documenta 5
Szeemann redefined the boundary between artist and curator,
exhibition in Kassel, where he would transform what was once
establishing many of the basic premises of contemporary art
a diet of one-man shows and national and period surveys of art
exhibition today. He created the modern-day Großausstellung
into his first large-scale thematic exhibition.
(‘great exhibition’), in which the artworks are tied to a central
In his later career Szeemann continued to forge new
cross-disciplinary theme and reconfigured into startling, often
perspectives, leading international interest in Chinese contemp-
non-chronological juxtaposition. Szeemann singlehandedly
orary artists and art from the Balkan regions. For decades, he
proposed the notion of the independent curator, who restlessly
worked out of a studio he called ‘The Factory’ in the small Swiss
scouted around the world looking for identifiable patterns in the
village of Tegna, conceiving exhibitions that were international
culture. His groundbreaking exhibition of 1969, Live in your head:
in scope and consistently dodging the categories of traditional
when attitudes become form, was the first major survey of
museum practice, often daring to place historical and
conceptual art to take place in Europe, in which he experimented
contemporary artworks beside anthropological artefacts, sacred
with non-museum spaces. In 1971, he travelled to Australia at
objects, technical devices and occult instruments. Szeemann
the invitation of John Kaldor to curate an exhibition of the recent
sought, he said, to create shows that were ‘poems in space’,
work of more than 20 Australian artists: I want to leave a nice
with a genuine belief that art exhibitions were spiritual under-
well-done child here.
takings with the power to conjure alternative ways of organising
society. The curator as meta-artist, utopian thinker, even shaman.
ARTIST
Harald Szeemann PROJECT
born 1933 in Bern, Switzerland
Harald Szeemann travelled to Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne
died 2005 in Tegna, Ticino, Switzerland
during an intense two-week period in April 1971, visiting museums,
Harald Szeemann studied art history, archaeology and galleries and 70 artists’ studio. His exhibition of 22 young artists
journalism. He had a short but intense career in theatre during in Sydney’s Bonython Gallery interior and courtyard and later,
the 1950s, which included a homage to Dadaist Hugo Ball and a with an additional artist, at Melbourne’s National Gallery of
one-man production of Ur faust where he played all the roles Victoria was titled I want to leave a nice well-done child here.
himself. In 1957, he decided to enter the art world and direct It was the first major conceptual show in an Australian museum,
exhibitions, and by 1961, at the age of 28, he had been and critic James Gleeson in his review for the Sun explained its
appointed director of the Kunsthalle Bern, which had no importance to Australia: ‘it presents the conceptual artist’s point
permanent collection but a bare-bones venue that encouraged of view as decisively and with as much impact as the now
what was to become Szeemann’s signature style – a kind of famous Field exhibition’s presentation of abstract minimalism
improvisational, laboratory approach where an exhibition of the in 1968’ (5 May 1971, p 47).
most challenging vanguard work from America and Europe The 22 artists whose works were included in the Sydney
opened every month. This was where Christo and Jeanne- exhibition were: John Armstrong, Tony Bishop, Robert Boynes,
Claude had their first major project (wrapping the kunsthalle in Gunter Christmann, Tony Coleing, Aleks Danko, Margaret Dodd,
1968) and where Andy Warhol had one of his first shows in a Neil Evans, Ross Grounds, Dale Hickey, Tim Johnson, Peter
European institution. Kennedy, Warren Knight, Nigel Lendon, Ian Milliss, Ti Parks,
Live in your head: when attitudes become form was the first Mike Parr (who also designed the invitation), Guy Stuart and Alec
major survey of conceptual art to take place in Europe. Subtitled Tzannes, along with a collaborative work from William Pidgeon,
‘Works, concepts, processes, situations, information’, this 1969 Brett Whiteley and Tony Woods. For Melbourne, a work by Mike
exhibition marked an important shift as a method and model for Brown was added, while some of the artists created new works
exhibition practice, in that artists were more or less free to for that show.
contribute any work that they felt would be relevant. The 69
artists, in Szeemann’s words, ‘took over the institution’. They
also did their best to redefine the physical conditions for the
show: Lawrence Weiner removed three square feet of wall space;
Michael Heizer demolished the sidewalk with a metal ball;
Richard Serra contributed one of his Splash pieces, involving
molten lead. Richard Long left the institutional framework behind
altogether and went on a three-day hike in the Swiss mountains.

 Art Gallery of NSW 2009 / KALDOR PUBLIC ART PROJECTS / 1971 SZEEMANN
Szeemann was a prophetic activist in search of
visionaries. There are people who have an inexplicable
ability to detect subterranean currents of water or
(especially in the Alpine countries) crystals and veins
of precious ore, and Szeemann was like that – a kind
of dowser of artistic energy. He knew he had this gift,
and although he was not a significant theoretical writer,
he often wrote with great energy and detail about his
quest – in diaries, preparatory notes, open letters, and
beautifully impulsive catalogue essays and articles.
Daniel Birnbaum, ‘Passages’, Artforum International, 22 June 2005

WORLD EVENTS: 1971 After Szeemann, the figure of the curator would no longer be
seen as a blend of bureaucrat and cultural impresario. Instead,
_ The microprocessor – the foundation for today’s computers –
he emerged as a kind of artist himself. The collapsing definitions
is introduced
of curator into artist and vice versa reveal art and curatorial
_ Greenpeace founded practices to be ever evolving as the territories overlap.
_ Jerzy Kosinski publishes Being there, his satirical novel Szeemann’s 1969 exhibition Live in your head: when attitudes
on TV viewing become form at the Kunsthalle Bern irrevocably changed the
_ Hans Haacke’s exhibition about real-estate ownership public role of the curator who was now less a passive facilitator
cancelled by New York’s Guggenheim Museum than an active player – a refashioned creative agent responsible
_ Artist Chris Burden has himself shot in the arm with a for the exhibition’s very staging as an event. After resigning from
22-calibre rifle five times for Shoot piece his position at Bern, Szeemann became something that had never
_ Geoffrey Bardon encourages the Aboriginal people of Papunya previously existed: the independent curator. It was a role that
to paint a mural and then on canvas, leading to the Papunya would affect the most fundamental operations of the museum
Tula art movement community for decades to come, focusing less on conventional
_ 2nd Kaldor project: Harald Szeemann curates the exhibition tasks such as collecting, restoring or keeping board members
I want to leave a nice well-done child here at Sydney’s and trustees happy. Instead, Szeemann’s shows were a one-
Bonython Gallery and Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria person business, run on passion and obsession, with a team
of devoted collaborators taking care of exhibition architecture,
transportation, insurance problems, bookkeeping and all other
THEME practical matters.
The role of the curator
Where no obsessions are to be discerned.
Traditionally, a curator has been defined as the custodian of I have no reason to linger.
a museum or other collection – essentially a keeper of things.
The Association of Art Museum Curators identifies curators as Harald Szeemann
having a primary responsibility for the acquisition, care, display
and interpretation of objects, such as works of art. They work What is a collection? Curators select, assemble and arrange
with their institutions to develop programs that maintain the works in the most historically significant or resonant way, thus
integrity of collections and exhibitions, foster community forming a ‘collection’. Although this term conveys the impression
support, and generate revenue. of an imaginary totality, a collection is not a canon, with its sense
A curator of an exhibition is the person who is in charge of of closure. It is, in fact, really a ‘selection’, and no single museum
organising it. The curator decides on which artists’ work will be has access to everything. A collection is ever expanding and
featured, the title or name of the exhibition and its theme or ever accommodating, but also limited by time, space and money.
subject. The curator is traditionally the ‘object specialist’ who It’s closer to an anthology of works, and the activity of curating is
works in tandem with ‘audience specialists’, like educators and a bit like that of an editor preparing an anthology for publication.
public programs and other staff. Curators may thus reach Over time, major and minor works are teased out – major works
audiences not only through exhibitions, but publications, are those that seem to reconfigure the cultural geography. Some
websites, forums and other events. works become interesting in certain contexts, while many stay
While the traditional curator maintains a collection of art/ shelved in the basement for a long time.
artefacts by preserving, exhibiting and studying those objects,
the contemporary curator need not work with a collection or
objects at all, and instead engages with cultural meaning and
production, often from a position of development that is shared
with the artist. This requires sensitivity to the interests and
intentions of the artist.
As art practices expand, the work of the curator expands to
accommodate or reflect them. Harald Szeemann’s career marked
the change from working at some remove from the processes of
art production, to becoming actively involved in its development.
This shift in the role of the curator can be seen as a response to
the changing meaning and relevance of the art object over the
last four decades: dematerialisation prompted a redefinition of
art to deal with conceptual art, process art and performance art
among others.

 Art Gallery of NSW 2009 / KALDOR PUBLIC ART PROJECTS / 1971 SZEEMANN
COLLECTION CONNECTIONS SELECTED REFERENCES
Relevant works in the Art Gallery of NSW collection _ Tobia Bezzola, Hal Foster & Jean-Marc Poinsot, Harald
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection Szeemann: individual methodology, JRP|Ringier, Switzerland 2008
• Jihad Muhammad John Armstrong (Australia, b1948) _ Sophie Forbat (ed), 40 years: Kaldor Public Art Projects, Kaldor
One to twenty 1975 Public Art Projects, Sydney 2009
rope, wood, birdcage, clay; 190 x 260 x 100 cm _ Gerhard Mack & Harald Szeemann, Art museums: into the
Purchased 1976 177.1976 21st century, Birkhauser Verlag, Basel 1999
• Gunter Sylvester Christmann (Germany; Australia, b1936) _ Hans-Joachim Muller, Harald Szeemann: the exhibition maker,
Eleven a.m. 1969 Hatje Cantz Publishers, New York 2006
synthetic polymer paint on canvas; 132 x 132 cm _ Hans Ulrich Obrist (ed), A brief history of curating (documents),
Purchased with funds provided by the Sali Herman Gift Fund 1969
OA25.1969
JRP|Ringier, Switzerland 2008. Maps the development of
curating, from early independent curators such as Szeemann to
• Tony Coleing (Australia, b1942) the inception of the various biennales and fairs
Untitled 1970
colour lithograph; 71.1 x 96.5 cm Websites
Purchased 1974 36.1974 _ Kaldor Public Art Projects Explorer, Art Gallery of NSW
• Aleks Danko (Australia, b1950) www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/kaldor_projects
‘just a pile of tricks’ _ Kaldor Public Art Projects
handmade ceramic brick; 8.7 x 21.9 x 7 cm www.kaldorartprojects.org.au
Gift of Betty and Brian Kelly 2008 379.2008
_ Association of Art Museum Curators
• Margaret Dodd (Australia, b1941) www.artcurators.org/aboutus_plan.asp
This woman is not a car 1982 _ ‘Harald Szeemann 1933–2005’, Frieze Magazine, issue 91,
16 mm colour and black-and-white film, optical sound; 23 mins duration May 2005
Purchased with assistance from the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council 1986
www.frieze.com/issue/article/harald_szeemann_1933_2005
36.1986
_ ‘The role of the curator’, Tate Online
• Tim Johnson (Australia, b1947) www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/majorprojects/nauman/
Fittings 1971 themes_4.htm
book of 28 photocopied leaves on paper, edition of 90; 6.1 x 20.7 x 0.5 cm
(closed)
Accessioned 2009 284.2009

• Peter Kennedy (Australia, b1945)

Seven people who died the day I was born – April 18, 1945
(part 1) 1997–98
type C photographs, fluorescent tubes with text, metal; 262.5 x 600 cm
Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2003 31.2003

• Ti Parks (United Kingdom; Australia; New Zealand, b1939)

One thousand drawings 1973
pen on paper, mixed media; 244.0 x 549 cm
Purchased 1976 150.1976

• Brett Whiteley (Australia, b1939, d1992)

Aboriginal drawing c1970
synthetic polymer paint, ink, gouache, collage on paper; 73.5 x 71 cm
Purchased 1970 WA9.1970

 Art Gallery of NSW 2009 / KALDOR PUBLIC ART PROJECTS / 1971 SZEEMANN
ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

Szeemann was known as the first ‘independent curator’ in the Research the response in Australia to Szeemann’s exhibition
world. While this was considered an innovation at the time, I want to leave a nice well-done child here. Reviewing the
curatorial practice of this nature is considered standard today. exhibition today, with the distance of time, discuss if you view
Investigate Szeemann’s education, training and work at the its format, content and presentation in the same way it was
Kunsthalle Bern. Suggest how this might have influenced his perceived in 1971.
independent philosophy and spirit as a curator. Consider what
In ‘The role of the curator’ (see Theme on page 5), it is suggested
the implications would be to operate as a curator independent
that as the practices of artists expand so do the practices of
of a museum, then and now.
curators, to accommodate or reflect them. Select an art museum
One of Szeemann’s innovations was to develop thematic in your local area and examine its exhibitions. Compare collection
exhibitions, moving beyond traditional formats of solo artist or exhibitions with temporary exhibitions and analyse them in terms
chronological historical hangs. Research biennales, documenta of curatorial practice. Identify traditional and more contemporary
and other independently curated exhibitions. Create a list of curatorial practices such as those developed by Szeemann.
the curators developing them and the themes they are working Examine, as a comparison, the exhibition 40 years: Kaldor Public
with. Identify and discuss if there have been any thematic trends Art Projects at the Art Gallery of NSW.
at certain times.
Propose an exhibition based around a key theme that is relevant
It has been suggested that Szeemann re-invented the role of to you and your audience. Research and nominate a group of
curator from a passive one to an active one. Identify within his artists, Australian and international, from any time or culture, to
curatorial practice why this distinction has been made and how represent this theme. Present a brief justifying these choices and
he aligned his role more closely with the role of the artist and pitch it to your peers. Propose a non-museum venue and title
vice versa. Investigate, in particular, his groundbreaking 1969 that would amplify this theme and your rationale for the audience.
exhibition Live in your head: when attitudes become form. Discuss the idea that installation of artworks is a form of
interpreting them. Debate the curator’s responsibilities to the
Szeemann was invited by John Kaldor to Australia for the second
artist and the viewer in presenting works of art for public display.
Kaldor project, one year after he had officially left the museum
system and started working as an independent. Propose why
this opportunity might have interested both Szeemann and
Kaldor. Outline the Kaldor project Szeemann developed and the
elements that were signature to this work. Discuss the artists
and works selected for the exhibition and why you think they
were included. Szeemann was fond of poetic and enigmatic titles
for his projects. List some of them. Suggest how the title for his
1971 Australian exhibition reflects his curatorial strategy.

Acknowledgements All works © the artist

unless otherwise indicated
Coordinated and written by
George Alexander and Tristan Sharp, Published to coincide
Public Programs Department, with the exhibition:
Art Gallery of NSW 40 years: Kaldor Public Art Projects
Design Analiese Cairis, Zoe Cooper 2 October 2009 – 14 February 2010
Editor Kirsten Tilgals
Produced by the
Cover: Harald Szeemann at a ‘meet Public Programs Department
the artists’ function at John Kaldor’s Art Gallery of NSW
showroom (detail) Art Gallery Road, The Domain
Photo: Brian Adams Sydney 2000 Australia
pp@nsw.gov.au

© 2009 Art Gallery of NSW

www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

 Art Gallery of NSW 2009 / KALDOR PUBLIC ART PROJECTS / 1971 SZEEMANN