ARTIST ON THE ATTACK

The Melbourne Art Fair got underway this week amid well-publicized criticism by Chilean painter Juan Davila that the Australian art world is “ruthlessly mercantile” and expresses a “bankrupt cultural scenario.” “His comments were intended to highlight the ‘serfdom’ to which artists were reduced in the art market because their dealers took 40 to 50 percent of the sale of a painting.” The Age (Melbourne)