Reference: Sculpture by the Sea - The First Fifteen Years 1997-2011 - a brief retrospective by John McDonald and Michael Hill. ‘A celebration of Sydney's annual Sculpture by the Sea coastal walk.’ Lists all sculptors selected 1997 - 2011. [To be indexed urgently] [’As part of our celebrations for the tenth anniversary exhibition in Cottesloe we have released this essay written by John McDonald from our Sculpture by the Sea book. If you would like a copy of the book with hundreds of unforgettable photographs from the first 15 years of exhibitions (1997 – 2011), why not consider supporting our not-for-profit organisation by purchasing our Sculpture by the Sea book? Click here to buy it online or come visit us during the last weekend at our Cottesloe exhibition to get your copy.
Written by John McDonald
How long does it take for an annual art exhibition to have a history? Two years? 10 years? It is an achievement for any large-scale exhibition to last a decade. Very few shows display the staying power of the Archibald Prize for portraiture at the Art Gallery of NSW, which began in 1921 and seems as popular as ever - even if the quality of the entries often suggests a good argument for euthanasia.
By the end of 2011 David Handley’s good idea will have been seen for the fifteenth time at Bondi; for the seventh time at Cottelsoe Beach, Western Australia; and for the second time in Aarhus, Denmark. Along the way there have been shows in Tasmania, Noosa, Albany and Darwin for the 1998 Olympic Arts Festival, and Martin Place in the City of Sydney. Another satellite was ‘Ephemeral Art at the Invisible Lodge’, in which a small number of artists created sculptures solely out of materials found on Tasmania’s Freycinet Peninsula around Friendly Beaches Lodge run by Freycinet Experience.
We tend to think of sculpture as something large, ponderous and immovable, but over the past 15 years – the time span that constitutes a generation, according to the philosopher, Ortega y Gasset - the SXS concept has shown itself to be remarkably versatile. From the very beginning, when the inaugural one-day event in 1997 attracted 25,000 people, it has enjoyed an astonishing popularity. Indeed, the popular appeal of SXS has occasionally worked against it. In the days of Courbet and Manet, Zola and Baudelaire, artists and writers were concious of the need to be popular. The patronage of noblemen and prelates had waned, with the general public being the new arbiters of success or failure.
In our day, when government agencies and museums are willing to support the most unlovable or controversial art, popularity has taken on a different meaning. That which is adored by the masses must necessarily be no good. To be truly important, art must be unpopular, and preferably incomprehensible.
For much of its lifespan SXS has sought to convince that a show may be both popular and of the highest quality. It has also had to argue that massive popularity does not translate into a financial windfall.
David Handley recalls that the entire budget of the first SXS was $11,000, of which $8,500 was spent on artists’ awards. The show itself was put together by volunteers, happy to get behind an initiative that gave sculpture some much-needed exposure. I was asked to make the initial selection along with Ron Robertson-Swann, and we were astonished by the quantity and variety of entries for an exhibition that would run for only one day, from morning till dusk. It seemed there was a previously unsuspected subculture of sculptors in Australia, occupying different level of amateurism and professionalism. For every established sculptor such as Michael Le Grand, the co-recipient of the major prize in the first SXS, there were others working away on weekends and evenings in backyard studios.
That first SXS had an infectious energy, and was bouyed up by the kind of good will that is increasingly rare nowadays. There was a general determination that this celebration of sculpture should not be an isolated occurence, but an annual event. What followed was a decade and a half of hard work, good and bad luck, fund raising, fact finding, network builiding, publicity blitzes, and all the logistical nightmares associated with a show that needs to move massive sculptures around the world and install them in unconventional locations.
Over 15 years, SXS went from being a one day wonder, staffed by friends and well-wishers, to a highly professional organisation with its own corporate structure; a crack installation team under the leadership of Axel Arnott and subsequently Noah Birch; a vigorous program of sales and commissions; and a web of contacts among sculptors and arts professionals that extends around the world. SXS has continued to channel a very large percentage of the money it raises back to exhibiting artists in terms of set-up costs, travel assistance, awards and fellowships, though they are the first to acknowledge more support for the artists is required.
One of the most important aspects of SXS has been the participation of so many international sculptors, and laterly the oportunity it provides for Australian artists to show their work in Europe. Some international sculptors, such as Keizo Ushio and Koichi Ishino of Japan and Keld Moseholm of Denmark, have becomes SXS regulars and favourites. Occasional exhibitors, such as the celebrated British sculptors, Anthony Caro and Philip King, have thrown their support behind the exhibition, lending it credibility and gravitas. The overseas artists have also proved highly successful, with Czech artist, Vaclav Fiala, receiving the major prize in 2004 and 2005.
The other most significant development has been the establishment of SXS as a not for profit incorporated association in 2003, opening the door to donations and bequests from corporate and private patrons. In 2011 the NSW State government also became a major supporter, having been impressed by an economic impact study of 2009 which showed that SXS generated almost $24 million worth of benefits for the State each year.
It hasn’t been a tale of smooth, inexorable progress, but a succession of stops and starts. SXS has had its hard times, often having to fight for its financial survival. Over the years the statistics reveal that the Bondi show has been extended from one day to three weeks, and attendances have grown from 25,000 to 500,000. This figure makes it easily Australia’s most successful art exhibition in terms of numbers. To take just one point of comparison: the National Gallery of Australia recently boasted record-breaking visitor numbers of 476,000 for the exhibition, Masterpieces from Paris. The show ran for 20 weeks to achieve this figure.
Extrapolate the SXS numbers over 20 weeks and one arrives at a figure of 3.3 million. This is, of course, only a statistical fantasy, but it serves to underline that fact that SXS exerts a phenomenal hold on the public imagination. True to David Handley’s original ambition, it has become one of the most eagerly anticipated events in Sydney’s cultural calendar.
Within 7 years, the Cottelsoe edition of the show, has experienced the same booming success. Although the population of Perth does not allow for huge attendances, SXS easily outdraws any other art event in Western Australia with over 200,00 visitors. In terms of sales and commissions, Cottelsoe has proven to be the most successful venue of all for the artists.
The last frontier for the SXS team was to take the show overseas – an idea that required major international support in order to overcome the financial and logistical problems. Every month or two for 12 years an offer for an overseas show has arrived but none were suitable or were declared too difficult. The opportunity ultimately arose because of the romance of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson of Tasmania. The couple had visted SXS at Bondi in 2000, and expressed a desire to see such a show in Denmark. In 2009, after an exhaustive preparation process, that exhibition was realised in Denmark’s second city, Aarhus.
The scepticism that some in Aarhus felt for the idea was blown away by the visitor numbers: over 500,000 over 4 weeks. Denmark had never seen anything like it, and the show now seems destined to be a regular feature of life on the Jutland peninsula.
From one day at Bondi to a month in Denmark, SXS has taken on an unstoppable momentum. It has brought Australian artists into close contact with their overseas peers, and has given the world a demonstration of Australian initiative and ingenuity. It has raised the profile of sculpture and provided a new model of a quality art exhibition that appeals to the broadest possible audience. As the juggernaut rolls on, these achievements should not be perceived as the pinnacle of success, but as a platform from which to shoot for the stars.’]
[’"To celebrate the first fifteen years of Sculpture by the Sea we have produced a book featuring hundreds of images from each of the Australian and Danish exhibitions, together with essays by John McDonald, Dr. Michael Hill and David Handley".’] [To be indexed]
Publishing details: Sculpture by the Sea Inc., 2011,
Paperback – 232 pages, Profusely ill. in col.
Location: 0