Sep 29, 2026 · 21 min · 10 segments
In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral…
Jeremy EatonGuest
Lisa SladeHost
But you're right, he also has established his own signature and his own way of thinking and working.
Tell us a little bit about how you think he influenced the way that Australian art was seen and appreciated.
And that really was about clarifying for an Australian audience what surrealism is.
And I think is a major touchstone in his project, which was about forefronting modernism, bringing that to an Australian public.
And he was doing this at a time that was kind of especially repressive with the Menzies government in power.
And, you know, at the time, Gleeson was the president of the Contemporary Arts Society, which was...
Modernism par excellence, you know, it was connected to Angry Penguins and also art in Australia.
And Menzies had started the Australian Academy of Art, which was the kind of reaction in conservatism.
And, you know, Menzies even had that impact on NGA's collecting practices for a time too.
Like James Mollison has said that Menzies at one point had to approve every artwork acquired by, But I think Gleeson, you know, introduces surrealism, wants to bring modernism to Australia.
And he's also kind of quite cosmopolitan and he wants Australian modernism to be a part of what he saw as a global network but is really European.
But you're right, he also has established his own signature and his own way of thinking and working.
Tell us a little bit about how you think he influenced the way that Australian art was seen and appreciated.
And that really was about clarifying for an Australian audience what surrealism is.
And I think is a major touchstone in his project, which was about forefronting modernism, bringing that to an Australian public.
And he was doing this at a time that was kind of especially repressive with the Menzies government in power.
And, you know, at the time, Gleeson was the president of the Contemporary Arts Society, which was...
Modernism par excellence, you know, it was connected to Angry Penguins and also art in Australia.
And Menzies had started the Australian Academy of Art, which was the kind of reaction in conservatism.
And, you know, Menzies even had that impact on NGA's collecting practices for a time too.
Like James Mollison has said that Menzies at one point had to approve every artwork acquired by, But I think Gleeson, you know, introduces surrealism, wants to bring modernism to Australia.
And he's also kind of quite cosmopolitan and he wants Australian modernism to be a part of what he saw as a global network but is really European.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.