ASIA
26 March 2014
Sydney's golden age
Sydney's golden age is splendidly exhibited at the New South Wales Art Gallery. Today, however, the harbor-city is curiously losing its edge to the ugly duckling of Melbourne.
Sydney's golden age is splendidly exhibited at the New South Wales Art Gallery's latest show, "Sydney moderns: art for a new world". Today, however, the harbor-city is curiously losing its edge to the ugly duckling of Melbourne.
By the end of World War I in 1918, Australia was one of the most urbanised nations in the world. Sydney, the country’s largest and fastest growing city, was rapidly becoming a cosmopolitan metropolis. Between the 1910s and 30s, it was significantly reshaped: new architectural monuments changed its appearance, department stores altered patterns of consumption, apartment blocks rearranged domestic life, and a subway network moved transport underground.
Rising above the developing city, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with its powerful network of steel girders and tapering arch, epitomised the ambitions of modernity. Constructed between 1923 and 1932, it connected the northern and southern shores of the harbour and was the greatest feat of interwar industry undertaken in Australia.
The Bridge's construction is wonderfully depicted in the NSW Art Gallery exhibition by Grace Cossington Smith's painting "The bridge in-curve". Another Cossington Smith work, "The curve of the bridge" reminds us of the bridge's immensity.
Harold Cazneaux's work shows the finished bridge with just a few cars. It is difficult to imagine how visionary the bridge project was. From a narrow economic point of view, the construction of the bridge was not justifiable. There was hardly any traffic at the time. But the bridge planners had a wise vision of the future.
Roland Wakelin's "Down the hills to Berry’s Bay", and several other paintings, highlight the beauty of Sydney Habour's foreshores, which we can still appreciate today, and show the clear influence of Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne.
This great exhibition has many things to offer the visitor. Themes like colour and light, colour-music, modern life, still life, landscapes of modernity, the cit, cubism, and abstraction, finishing with a living room scene. Many artists make their appearance such as Roy de Maistre, Roland Wakelin, Margaret Preston, and Thea Proctor.
However, despite the outstanding beauty, this exhibition leaves one with the impression that Sydney may be losing its edge.
Already, the New South Wales Art Gallery is a minor museum compared with Melbourne's "National Gallery of Victoria". Melbourne is also judged by the Economist Intelligence Unit to be the world's most livable city. Sydney has a respectable, but distant, ranking of 7th. Monocle's Most Livable Cities Index also puts Melbourne ahead of Sydney. And Melbourne trumps Sydney on a recent Global Innovative Cities Index.
The State Government of Victoria (of which Melbourne is the capital) has been bold enough to say that Victoria enjoys Australia’s most advanced and best connected system of road, rail and marine transport infrastructure -- and that it also offers fast, reliable and cost-effective access to utilities.
Regrettably, most people would agree. Sydney has suffered for many years from traffic congestion, lousy public transport, and poor infrastructure more generally. This is due to years of mismanagement, political squabbling and even corruption.
There seems to be no sound strategic vision or political willpower to invest sufficiently in the city's infrastructure or its society. Many parts of the city's western suburbs are economic and social wastelands.
Does it matter that Sydney should be slipping behind Melbourne? Yes indeed!
Sydney has so much of a natural edge on Melbourne, thanks to its beautiful harbour and beaches, and wonderful climate. And Sydney has been bequeathed unrivaled historical gifts in the form of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
Sydney is now also losing its edge over well-managed regional competitors like Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul. These cities are of course at the heart of the Asian Century, to which Sydney and the rest of Australia aspires.
As the Australian economy is now heading into a period of growing uncertainty, it is hard not to see a parallel between the fate of Sydney and the nation itself. This is the familiar tale of the lucky country that wastes its luck.
Executive Director
Asian Century Institute
www.asiancenturyinstitute.com
By the end of World War I in 1918, Australia was one of the most urbanised nations in the world. Sydney, the country’s largest and fastest growing city, was rapidly becoming a cosmopolitan metropolis. Between the 1910s and 30s, it was significantly reshaped: new architectural monuments changed its appearance, department stores altered patterns of consumption, apartment blocks rearranged domestic life, and a subway network moved transport underground.
Rising above the developing city, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with its powerful network of steel girders and tapering arch, epitomised the ambitions of modernity. Constructed between 1923 and 1932, it connected the northern and southern shores of the harbour and was the greatest feat of interwar industry undertaken in Australia.
The Bridge's construction is wonderfully depicted in the NSW Art Gallery exhibition by Grace Cossington Smith's painting "The bridge in-curve". Another Cossington Smith work, "The curve of the bridge" reminds us of the bridge's immensity.
Harold Cazneaux's work shows the finished bridge with just a few cars. It is difficult to imagine how visionary the bridge project was. From a narrow economic point of view, the construction of the bridge was not justifiable. There was hardly any traffic at the time. But the bridge planners had a wise vision of the future.
Roland Wakelin's "Down the hills to Berry’s Bay", and several other paintings, highlight the beauty of Sydney Habour's foreshores, which we can still appreciate today, and show the clear influence of Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne.
This great exhibition has many things to offer the visitor. Themes like colour and light, colour-music, modern life, still life, landscapes of modernity, the cit, cubism, and abstraction, finishing with a living room scene. Many artists make their appearance such as Roy de Maistre, Roland Wakelin, Margaret Preston, and Thea Proctor.
However, despite the outstanding beauty, this exhibition leaves one with the impression that Sydney may be losing its edge.
Already, the New South Wales Art Gallery is a minor museum compared with Melbourne's "National Gallery of Victoria". Melbourne is also judged by the Economist Intelligence Unit to be the world's most livable city. Sydney has a respectable, but distant, ranking of 7th. Monocle's Most Livable Cities Index also puts Melbourne ahead of Sydney. And Melbourne trumps Sydney on a recent Global Innovative Cities Index.
The State Government of Victoria (of which Melbourne is the capital) has been bold enough to say that Victoria enjoys Australia’s most advanced and best connected system of road, rail and marine transport infrastructure -- and that it also offers fast, reliable and cost-effective access to utilities.
Regrettably, most people would agree. Sydney has suffered for many years from traffic congestion, lousy public transport, and poor infrastructure more generally. This is due to years of mismanagement, political squabbling and even corruption.
There seems to be no sound strategic vision or political willpower to invest sufficiently in the city's infrastructure or its society. Many parts of the city's western suburbs are economic and social wastelands.
Does it matter that Sydney should be slipping behind Melbourne? Yes indeed!
Sydney has so much of a natural edge on Melbourne, thanks to its beautiful harbour and beaches, and wonderful climate. And Sydney has been bequeathed unrivaled historical gifts in the form of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
Sydney is now also losing its edge over well-managed regional competitors like Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul. These cities are of course at the heart of the Asian Century, to which Sydney and the rest of Australia aspires.
As the Australian economy is now heading into a period of growing uncertainty, it is hard not to see a parallel between the fate of Sydney and the nation itself. This is the familiar tale of the lucky country that wastes its luck.
Author
John WestExecutive Director
Asian Century Institute
www.asiancenturyinstitute.com