MonoMonday challenge - Metal; or

Scandal and intrigue in the Art World.

This is Black Totem II which stands outside Newcastle Art Gallery by Brett Whiteley. It was posthumously completed by Wendy Whiteley, the Artist’s wife and is made of steel and fibreglass, stands eleven metres tall and weighs five tonnes. The crowning jewel of the sculpture is an iconic bird’s nest and fibreglass egg.

The Gallery’s Assistant director Tristan Sharp has explained the sculpture as follows “As a young boy, Whiteley was fascinated with bird's eggs and nests, often collecting them and persuading others to collect them for him as well. The egg is a recurring element in his work and is traditionally a symbol of fertility. In Black Totem II Whiteley celebrates the cycle of life, of rebirth and regeneration and the irrepressible instinct to grow and move forward by exaggerating size and scale to create this colossal totem,” Now you all can see that of course from the sculpture can’t you.

The sculpture was previously located at Walsh Bay in Sydney but is now a permanent addition to the Newcastle Art Gallery collection.

For those who can be bothered to read on, now for the intrigue:

This was originally heralded as a gift from the Brett Whitely foundation through Wendy Whiteley to the people of Newcastle in honour of their daughter Arkie and it was transported to it’s current location in late 2013. It later turned out that it was partly acquired by a “contribution” from the Newcastle Art Gallery Foundation to the Brett Whiteley Foundation of $350,000. Well what is so bad about that you ask. Well, Wendy Whiteley came out publically about “her” generous donation to the people of Newcastle with no mention of a reciprocal “contribution” to the Whiteley Foundation, in any man’s terms a payment, not to mention the tax benefit the Whiteley Foundation would receive as the sculpture is said to be worth around (put little finger on corner of mouth) $1,000,000. In truth therefore, the payment by the Foundation was greatly less than the true value of the sculpture and with the tax break, everyone is a winner.

The problem was that the Council’s Art Gallery staff signed off on forms regarding it’s acquisition as a gift which meant that the Whiteley Foundation got the full tax benefit. It is true that Newcastle Council did not pay a cent, however, the Council signed off on the tax forms and is now in the doggy doos and “working closely” with the Tax Office to sort out the mess. I bet the Whiteley Foundation is not too happy with this turn of events. The Council has fired the Gallery Director and it’s Future City Director, both of whom were closely associated with the deal and the signing of the fraudulent papers. Their supporters are up in arms because they were both charismatic people who did a lot of good for the gallery. There has been huge discussion and coverage of this here but apparently this is the norm for the Art World. As always in situations like this, the lawyers have done very well.