The Spirit Of Progress

Style was everything in the design-conscious decades that delivered Marlene Dietrich, Bakelite radios and the iconic Empire State Building. In the National Gallery of Victoria's Winter Masterpiece exhibition, the dawn of modernism can be traced in objects and images that marry the mundane and the majestic.

Here's A Secret About Contemporary Art: You Don't Actually Have To Like It

Visiting a gallery on a long weekend afternoon is a pleasant experience. Gallery bookshops are great for browsing and you can enjoy a coffee on a terrace with a city view. For many people the only problem is the art. As a friend recently complained to me he just didn't "get" most of it - too obscure, difficult or just plain ugly. So I told him the truth. Art isn't always made with an audience in mind and some of it is wilfully obscure. And not all art is made for everyone. You don't expect to ...