Patrick Hartigan

is a Sydney-based artist.

By this author


Culture May 11, 2019

The Essential Duchamp

At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Essential Duchamp casts the work of the iconoclastic artist Marcel Duchamp in a contemporary light.

Life December 15, 2018

Lessons from manual labour

Subsistence labour in a small village in Slovakia teaches a valuable lesson about the relationship between time and work.

Life July 28, 2018

A village in Europe

A sabbatical to visit relatives in Eastern Europe brings a chance to discover the language of a small village.

Visual Art February 10, 2018

Rembrandt and the Dutch golden age

At an exhibition of the Rijksmuseum’s Dutch masters, the viewer is captivated by the care and penetration in the work of Vermeer, Rembrandt and Hals.

Visual Art December 09, 2017

Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images

The techno-fascism of Nazi Germany and the West’s postwar mass consumerism have been the subject of painter Gerhard Richter’s decades-long career, whether in photorealism or abstraction.

Visual Art November 04, 2017

Mika Rottenberg and Anri Sala

Two works – a video installation by Mika Rottenberg in Melbourne and a site-specific work in Sydney by Anri Sala – show how incongruous imagery can reveal the absurdity of the forces to which we unthinkingly submit.

Visual Art September 23, 2017

Rover Thomas at Sydney Contemporary

At Sydney Contemporary, the commercial realities of the art fair dissolve as he apprehends the elemental power of Rover (Julama) Thomas’s works.

Visual Art August 18, 2017

Tony Tuckson’s abstract expressionism

An exhibition of Tony Tuckson’s works on paper reveals an artist whose paintings did not so much respond to the world as express it.

Visual Art July 28, 2017

Jenny Watson’s ‘The Fabric of Fantasy’

Jenny Watson’s assured handling of paint, and the worlds hidden beneath it, as well as her exploration of feminism and psychoanalysis, make her a vital Australian artist.

Visual Art July 01, 2017

A Working Model of the World

An eclectic collection at UNSW Galleries explores human interaction with working models, as they straddle the divide between the imagined and the functional.

Visual Art May 06, 2017

Versus Rodin

The Art Gallery of SA’s crowded rooms of images and sculptures overwhelm the opportunity of its Versus Rodin exhibition to pit contemporary artists against the figurative master.

Visual Art March 25, 2017

Visions of Utopia and Superposition of three types

Two exhibitions of utopian abstraction enable comparison of pure ideological approaches with something gentler. The latter is more satisfying.

Visual Art February 18, 2017

Richard Long, Vernon Ah Kee and Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Amid a deluge of data, land and lore tell a compelling story of the actual over the virtual world.

Visual Art December 17, 2016

Nude: Art from the Tate collection

An AGNSW exhibition of iconic nudes on loan from Tate Britain pays homage to our fascination with the human form.

Visual Art November 19, 2016

MONA’s ‘On the Origin of Art’

MONA’s On the Origin of Art features curation by a cognitive scientist, a professor of literature, a psychologist and an evolutionary neurobiologist.

Culture October 15, 2016

Architect Vo Trong Nghia meditates on creative process

Nature and the interdependence of all things are the keys to architect Vo Trong Nghia creations.

Portrait September 24, 2016

MUMA curator Helen Hughes

In conversation with MUMA's new curator.

Visual Art September 10, 2016

‘Degas: A New Vision’ at the NGV

Edgar Degas’ early emphasis on the line in masterful renditions of nudes, dancers and horses gave way as his sight faltered, leading to his most interesting paintings.

Visual Art August 13, 2016

Nicholas Mangan’s ‘Limits to Growth’

Nicholas Mangan explores the tension between capital and dwindling natural resources, and how they come together in the grim story of asylum seekers held on Nauru.

Visual Art July 30, 2016

Diane Arbus: American Portraits

Diane Arbus’s intimate portraits are the work of a transgressive artist seeking to portray the almost invisible human truth.

Visual Art June 18, 2016

Tang: Treasures from the Silk Road capital

An exhibition of Tang dynasty art and objects shows how possessions – even in death – signified power.

Visual Art April 23, 2016

The 20th Sydney Biennale

Stephanie Rosenthal's sprawling 20th Biennale of Sydney references Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror.

Visual Art March 19, 2016

Lloyd Rees drawings at the Museum of Sydney

Lloyd Rees’s works remind that drawing is an expression of connectedness to our surroundings.

Visual Art February 20, 2016

El Anatsui: Five Decades

A major show of Ghanaian-born artist El Anatsui’s opulent sculptures folds and weaves scrap metals with ancient histories.

Visual Art December 19, 2015

Grayson Perry’s ‘My Pretty Little Art Career’

My Pretty Little Art Career puts Grayson Perry’s life of self-examination on display, from his kinky ceramics to works angrier but no less colourful.

Visual Art September 12, 2015

Robert MacPherson at GOMA

A new exhibition of works by Robert MacPherson at GOMA showcases an artist for whom life, art and work are inextricably bound.

Visual Art July 18, 2015

Moving pictures in Sydney galleries

A string of group shows at commercial galleries make a virtue of the conversations that can be had between paintings.

Visual Art June 13, 2015

Art as a Verb takes over Artspace

An exhibition about action in art prompts the question: Can you have the vigour without the rigour?

Visual Art May 02, 2015

The Photograph and Australia, at AGNSW

The Art Gallery of NSW's historical photography exhibition teems with history but meaning gets lost in the detail.

Visual Art April 04, 2015

James Turrell’s vestibule of lights

Light and space saturate the senses in James Turrell’s retrospective at the NGA.

Visual Art February 07, 2015

Ian Fairweather’s Drunken Buddha works reunited at TarraWarra

A drunken monk and an outdoor monk reunite as East meets West to illustrate the spirit beyond the surface.

Visual Art December 06, 2014

Pop to popism at Art Gallery of NSW

A welcome revisit of Pop art's canny embrace of mass consumerism.

Visual Art October 25, 2014

Gunter Christmann exhibition outside the box

The German-born gleaner and Darlinghurst institution in a retrospective at Heide.

Visual Art September 27, 2014

Robert Rooney’s out-of-the-ordinary photography

A voyage to a space where the pedestrian becomes a profound and uncommon place.

Visual Art August 30, 2014

Joe Furlonger and John Stezaker

Two very different artists traverse the twin peaks of innocence and economy.

Visual Art August 16, 2014

Cloud Arch makes Sydney the city of lightness

Not weighed down by noisy debate over public art, the City of Sydney shows a light touch with three bold new commissions.

Visual Art July 12, 2014

Titian and Tintoretto bring Venetian Renaissance to the NGV

Titian, the Italian master celebrated as the father of Spain’s Prado, finds his way to Melbourne.

Visual Art June 21, 2014

Concrete ideas at MUMA

A new exhibition explores the dichotomy between the real and the abstract, the free-flowing and the solid.

Visual Art May 17, 2014

The sculptural works of William Kentridge & Linda Marrinon

Two renowned figurative artists find magical ways to create their own history.

Visual Art April 12, 2014

Imagining desire at Sydney’s 19th Biennale

Overwhelming and sometimes strange, sprawling but also magical, the Sydney Biennale engages on many levels.

Visual Art March 22, 2014

Art Gallery of NSW opens its doors to the art of Sol LeWitt

As a pioneer of conceptual art, Sol LeWitt produced deceptively simple but dramatic works whose influence transcends.