The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand is delighted to report that two significant members of the art and art history community were recognised on the prestigious Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Both recipients have had an enormous and significant impact on their respective fields and the awards are an indication of the esteem in which members of the art-related professions are held in this country and internationally.
Emeritus Professor Virginia Spate received the Companion (AC) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for eminent service to higher education, particularly to art history and theory and to the advanced study of the contemporary arts, as an academic, author and curator, and as a role model for young art historians. Professor Emeritus Spate is a British born, Australian art historian who received her education at the University of Melbourne, Cambridge University and Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania. She lectured in art history at Cambridge University and in 1978 became Power Professor of Fine Art at the University of Sydney. She received the Mitchell Prize for her publication on Claude Monet in 1992 and a Centenary Medal in 2003 for service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of art history. In 2004 she was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Among her many important publications are her important study of Orphism as well the artists John Olsen, Tom Roberts, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. Spate is Professor Emeritus at the Power Institute, University of Sydney.
Dr Christian Andrew Thompson received the Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the visual arts as a sculptor, photographer, video and performance artist, and as a role model for young Indigenous artists. Dr Thompson is an Australian-born, London-based contemporary artist whose work explores notions of identity, cultural hybridity & history. In 2010 Thompson made history when he became the first Aboriginal Australian to be admitted into the University of Oxford in its 900-year history. He holds several degrees including a Doctorate of Philosophy (Fine Art), Trinity College, University of Oxford; a Masters of Fine Art (Sculpture) RMIT University and Honours (Sculpture) RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He has held 27 solo exhibitions, both in Australia and internationally, and has work placed in a number of collections including The National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern, and the Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands.