Australia's First University Press
Melbourne University Publishing

Artists Behaving Badly

In conversation with Ashleigh Wilson and John Saxby

There’s a long history of artists behaving badly, from Picasso and Caravaggio to Donald Friend and Miles Davis. Dennis Nona has recently made headlines, as has Chuck Close, but then there’s Kevin Spacey, Michael Jackson, VS Naipaul, Alfred Hitchcock and Ezra Pound.

To be creative, it’s often suggested, is to be prone to eccentricity, transgression, madness, addiction and excess. But we can no longer excuse artists from the standards of conduct that apply to us all. Join Ashleigh Wilson, arts editor of The Australian and author of Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing (2016) and On artists (2019) and John Saxby, editor of Look magazine, as they discuss this notion and what becomes of the work that remains if we denounce the artist.

Books sales and a signing will be available after the event.

See https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/calendar/artists-behaving-badly/

  • When Sat 15 June at 2:00PM
  • Where Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
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