Public Record Office Victoria and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria were pleased to present the 2024 Victorian Community History Awards at a ceremony at the Langham in Southbank. Art consultant and historian Rodney James won the Victorian Premier’s History Award for Letters to a Critic: Alan McCulloch’s World of Art. The book provides a detailed examination of McCulloch, one of Australia’s longest-practising art critics who championed emerging artists and promoted a new awakening in modern art in Melbourne in the 1960s. The judges said:
Letters to a Critic makes an important contribution to the history of Melbourne and Victoria’s art worlds and creative life through a detailed examination of the art critic Alan McCulloch, who was a significant voice in the second half of the twentieth century. It follows McCulloch’s commitment to the development of improved arts awareness and to encouraging and promoting emerging Australian artists. His reviews and critiques of emerging artists, who were often working within new and experimental modes, provided important support for their careers. In championing a new awakening of modern art, McCulloch contributed to the reshaping of Melbourne in the 1960s. He developed and championed the popular Herald Outdoor Art Show, and also supported avante garde painters and sculptors. He embraced the field of Aboriginal art in the 1960s, and promoted work that Melburnians weren’t quite yet ready for, such as Vault (1980) by sculptor Ron Robertson-Swann (recently listed on the Victorian Heritage Register). Although largely focused on Melbourne, McCulloch’s work also influenced developments in regional Victoria, and in other states and territories. With an exquisite production design by the Miegunyah Press, the book is an artwork in itself.
Interestingly the Oral History Award winner, Alexandra Pierce, features Susan McCulloch – Alan McCulloch’s daughter – in her podcast Women, Conscription, War. Susan spent her 23rd birthday in gaol having been arrested the day before at a demonstration. Rodney also writes about this in Letters to a Critic.
Another art history, Victoria’s Earliest Porcelain Works: Art Pottery, Crockery and Insulators by Gregory Hill, was awarded the History Publication Award.
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- Rodney James
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- All the winners of the VCHAs
See the media release for a full list of winners: Art Critic Biography Wins Premier’s History Awards | Premier
And PROV’s website for more information: Community History Awards | PROV
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