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TOWARDS 3000/CELEBRATING ART AND HUMANITY
Welcome to the website of the ARCHIVE OF HUMANIST ART. This is an early introduction to the ARCHIVE and some plans for its future. Should you find it of interest and wish to contact the ARCHIVE please feel free to do so at the address which follows this text material.
The ARCHIVE OF HUMANIST ART is an artist-initiated project. It was established by the artist William Kelly in 2000. It aims to look to the future of art and the world while acknowledging those artists and thinkers who have helped us to a greater understanding of our place as human beings. It is a collection of works by artists working at the turn of the century/millennium whose art and beliefs support the notion that there is a fundamental connection between the images we make and the world we create.
These works of art clearly address issues related to the human condition. They express our sensitivity, diversity, aspirations, social and spiritual concerns and the poetry that is our lives.
As such there are works which speak of the environment, of human violence, love, of indigenous people's rights, of reconciliation, social justice, human rights, community and other subjects of concern.
The aim of the Archive is to add judiciously to its existing collection of international contemporary humanist art (from South Africa, New Zealand, USA, Tibet, Australia, Spain, Canada, China, Scotland,…) and, as possible, to make available, exhibit and highlight that work which helps us to understand more about our humanity and those concerns which are distinctly human and humane.
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Over the coming ten years the ARCHIVE OF HUMANIST ART will carefully continue to round off its collection. Following this period it is planned to donate it en toto to an appropriate public/university collection somewhere in the world which will
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present a permanent exhibition of selected work from the Archive
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house and give access to a study collection
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continue to foster the aims of the Archive.
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The Archive is principally a collection of contemporary works on paper with many of these being limited edition prints. The collection includes works which are figurative and non-figurative, approach their content from perspectives of perceptual realism, expressionism and range from figuration to abstraction. Their media include those of the conventions of drawing and traditionally understood printmaking, to collage, photographs and computer generated images.
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As a fledgling project the Archive has covered much ground in establishing a framework and initial processes to help insure its longevity. While it is moving towards its stated goals it is putting into process appropriate methods of cataloguing, documenting and conserving these works. Information about the Archive continues to spread and it has attempted to assist with requests whenever possible - most recently 10 works were borrowed from the Archive for the landmark exhibition Arte Hacia la Reconciliacion - Art Towards Reconciliation, for a travelling exhibition organized by the Guernica Museum in Spain. To date, this exhibition has travelled extensively in Spain and, in Germany, to Dresden and Berlin. The inaugural exhibition of work solely from the collection of the Archive occurred in March-April 2003 at the Counihan Gallery In Brunswick (Melbourne, Australia). A future exhibition is currently being planned to travel in the United States.
Selected works from the collection of the Archive. Details. Click on each thumbnail for a full, enlarged image.
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Red Planet Posters - Artist: Pam Branas (Australia) "Pachamana: The Spirit of Mother Earth" |
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Note: all sizes are in centimetres. Height precedes width. All works are on paper unless otherwise noted.
All work is copyright the artist unless otherwise noted. In respect of international copyright no material is to be reproduced without the expressed consent of the artist/artists involved and/or the holder of copyright for the work.
Additional “collections” within the ARCHIVE include numerous images from:
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BREAD AND PUPPET PRINT WORKSHOP
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PRINTS FROM THE PEACE PROJECT
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A FOUNDATION COLLECTION OF ARTIST DESIGNED POSTERS ON ISSUUES OF HUMAN RIGHTS, ENVIRONMENT…
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SOUTH AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS PRINT PORTFOLIOINTERNATIONAL PRINT PORTFOLIO: UNITED NATIONS 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
"The act of reviewing history alters history."
T.S. Eliot
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light,
not our darkness, that most frightens us."
Nelson Mandela
In a radical departure from the conventional art history text, this unique volume brings together a number of the world's great artist/image-makers and thinkers on issues of art and its expression for contemporary humanity. With early seminal texts by novelist Thomas Mann, theologian Paul Tillich, art historian Herbert Read as a foundation, the content then moves through late 20th Century to post "September 11" material with contributions by Lucy R. Lippard, Barry Schwartz, Suzi Gablik, Vaclav Havel, Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin, Gunter Grass, Rob Watts, Doreen Mellor, Douglas Kellner, Robert Godfrey, Ricardo Levins Morales, Nigel Spivey and others. It bridges grass roots to academic cultural dialogue. Focusing on prints - limited editions, hand pulled posters and photographs - it includes images from poster collectives, work by Peter Schumann from the "cheap art movement", paperwork by Claire Van Vliet of Janus Press, photographs by Judith Joy Ross, Dominic Hsieh, and Nick Ut's powerful image "Vietnam Napalm", through to drawings and limited edition prints by leading artist printmakers from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and North and South America.
It is a book that intelligently celebrates the engagement of art with life - with issues of social justice, peace, human rights - paying tribute to the seldom acknowledged contribution of Modern Art to humanist thought. In so doing, it reassesses what has been called "mainstream" art, placing it is its proper perspective as a tributary to the worldwide contribution of humanist art.
RELEASE: Published by Macmillan Publishers Australia ($38.50 AUD) information on the availability of the book worldwide can be gained by contacting JENNY ZIMMER at Macmillan Australia by
Tel. + 61 3 9825 1099
Fax + 61 3 9825 1012
“RECLAIMING THE MAINSTREAM: CONTEMPORARY HUMANIST IDEALS”
Presented 2003
Counihan Gallery In Brunswick
233 Sydney Road, Brunswick (Melbourne)
Australia
email: mguglielmo@moreland.vic.gov.au
EXHIBITION TOUR: Planning for a tour of this exhibition to North America and Europe is currently in progress. For information please contact archive@humanistart.com
These ideas do not come from the ether and they do not come from the muse (who lends her name to other collections in the world known as museums). Rather these ideas come from a range of historical sources and can be traced back in part to many writers, philosophers and artists over the centuries. Among those artists who have helped us better understand the power of art in a human/humane context:- Jacques Callot, Francisco Goya, Honore Daumier, William Hogarth, Kathe Kollwitz, Frans Masereel, Louis Monza, Diego Rivera, Noel Counihan, Pablo Picasso through his Guernica series, Moses and Raphael Soyer, Alice Neel, John Muafangejo and many, many, others. We are indebted to them.
The ARCHIVE OF HUMANIST ART is honored to be associated with projects linked to the Department of Art, Western Carolina University, USA, the Guernica Museum (Gernika Museoa), Guernica , Spain, Moreland City Council, Australia, Artists for Human Rights South Africa and The Counihan Gallery In Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia.
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Quadrant Finance Pty. Ltd.
Counihan Gallery In Brunswick
Moreland City Council
The archive exists on the basis of the initial donation by artist William Kelly of approximately two hundred works created by artists from around the world which he collected over a period of twenty years, and on the generosity of a number of artists, individuals and organizations who share the common aims of the collection.
This website has been designed by Samuel Tindall.
The Archive is innovative in its aims and provides a reminder through the visual arts of fundamental human concerns to do with social justice, human rights, reconciliation, community, love, and the spirit. The Archive is better able to carry out its objectives with assistance provided through sponsor organisations and financial contributions from like-minded individuals. As such we appreciate the kindness of friends in this regard and "the kindness of strangers" alike. The form and process below can be used as a means of forwarding any financial support to the Archive. And, should you wish to benefit also by receiving an Archive of Humanist Art Screen Saver this will be processed for you.
SCREEN SAVER:
The Archive of Humanist Art has developed an "AHA Screen Saver" for computer screens. It reproduces a number of the works reproduced on this website in a continuous sequence. Designed at Big Time Media (Melbourne) by Sam Tindall, the AHA Screen Saver is an innovative way to display meaningful images that reference our artistic, social and humanist aims. As the Archive relies on the generosity of like minded people and institutions to help support its activities it is using the occasion of the design of the screen saver as an opportunity to gain a unique screensaver and help support the Archive. To gain access to the appropriate site to download the AHA Screen Saver or simply to make a financial contribution
- please fill out the pledge form below and your request and details will be noted
- forward a contribution by cheque, international money order, in US or equivalent in local currency to the Archive postal address address given below.
- Your screen saver will be downloaded to you within two weeks of receipt of payment.
(Should anyone not be able to afford the minimum suggested contribution which helps to foster the activities of the Archive, just inform us and we will provide the screen saver for whatever amount of contributioin can be afforded.)
THE ARCHIVE OF HUMANIST ART
c/o PO BOX 368
PRAHRAN (MELBOURNE)
AUSTRALIA 3181
This site has been optimised in its design to be compatible with "Bobby Approved" Level A regulations for access for people with visual impairment.
©2001 The Archive of Humanist Art