Remember the 1970s? They are already the subject of an anthology of critical writings in Australian art compiled by Paul Taylor. Modestly described on the back cover of Anything Goes as “Australia’s most written-about art critic”, Taylor has assembled some 16 pieces of previously published criticism from magazines, newspapers and exhibition catalogues. In this anthology we meet most of the b ... (read more)
Leigh Astbury

Leigh Astbury is an Australian art historian and author of City Bushmen: The Heidelberg School and the rural mythology (1985).
In the late nineteenth century, the Sydney barrister and critic, William Bede Dalley is reported to have said: ‘I enjoy literature in all its manifestations. But if there is one class of books I prefer to another, I think it must be’ – with a flash of his teeth – ‘why, New Books!’
It is possible to greet with equal enthusiasm however, the republication of an ‘old book’, especially ... (read more)
Influence spotting is one of the major preoccupations of traditional art history. Important and necessary though the practice may be, I sometimes suspect that it is employed to keep art history the preserve of the specialist and to deny access to the general reader. How refreshing, then, to be confronted with a scholarly Australian art history book that explores the artists’ subject matter and i ... (read more)