Wreckage and Reclamation: Politics and Art in Brisbane 1987-1997

"The greatest thing that could happen to this State - and the Nation - is when we can get rid of the media. Then we could live in peace and tranquility, and no one would know anything."

Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, former Queensland Premier, the Spectator, London, 12 December 1987.

"This, December 2, 1989, is the end of the Bjelke-Petersen era."

Wayne Goss, election victory speech, 2 December, 1989.

The one-liner, 'it could only happen in Queensland', is now but a well-worn and a meaningless cliché. The conduct that it supposedly represents has now become established as a trans-state phenomenon. Queensland has long-struggled to shake off its reputation as a haven for vulgar hedonism, being intellectually thin, culturally remote with an inglorious history of political corruption, often underpinned by the obligatory acquiescence of its public institutions.

This lecture is a personal profile of the political and public policy conduct of the time and will place the Gallery in this context. It will reveal how an art museum critically revaluated its past and shaped its possible future, most of which was eventually realised. It will suggest that there are contemporary lessons to be learnt in the wake of political turmoil, atonement with the arts as inseparable in defining who we are and what we might become.

Speaker biography

Doug Hall was born, raised and educated in Victoria and is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, and was director of two regional galleries before moving to Brisbane in 1987. He was the Commissioner for the Australian exhibitions at the Venice Biennale in 2009 and 2011. In 2014 he was appointed Associate Professor and Honorary Principal Fellow at the Australian Institute of Art History at the University of Melbourne.

Under his directorship the Queensland Art Gallery expanded its international focus and developed a strong engagement with Asia, especially through his initiative, the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. He conceived the idea for the $140 million Gallery of Modern Art and oversaw its development. It opened on 1 December 2006.

In 1999 he was awarded the University of Queensland's degree of Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa for his contribution to the visual arts in Queensland. In 2001 he was awarded a member of the Order of Australia, and in 2006 was made a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the Republic of France.