Double Nation

Ian McLean calls us to action in this meta history of national identity. Double Nation engages with other art histories, including the looming spectre of Bernard Smith’s work, in the ultimate in art historiography. It is a timely reminder of the importance of new art histories in this stolen country. * Nick Mitzevich, Director of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra *
Ian McLean's brilliantly succinct and mordant text simultaneously introduces and critiques a canon of Australian art as visually gripping as it is ideologically fraught. He narrates the role of art in a history of empire and national formation which is also a history of the theft and occupation Indigenous lands. This lively and original book chronicles the role of Aboriginal nations in the making of Australian art, a narrative still unfolding today. * Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art, Yale University *
Any history of Australian art must be, at minimum, a double history: of art made by Indigenous artists since the Dreaming, and, since the eighteenth century, of the art of the colonizers. Double Nation tells the second part of this story with vigor and critical irreverence, rehearsing but also challenging the conventional landmarks of Australian art history. A fresh narrative emerges: more complex, more reflective, doubled. * Terry Smith, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory, University of Pittsburgh, and author of 'Art to Come: Histories of Contemporary Art' (2019) *
Double Nation brilliantly outlines the arguments Australians have had over who they are and who they have been. In doing so, it allows us to think who we might be. Like all true historians, McLean shows us that our future is to be attained only by coming to terms with the past. * Rex Butler, Professor of Art History, Monash University, Melbourne *
When it comes to art history books, I don’t suppose many of you have opened one with chapter headings such as Genocide and Expatriate Natives alongside Art Wars and Melbourne Modernism. But you’ll find them here . . . In Double Nation, [McClean] has produced a superbly illustrated record rich in both detail and critical analysis . . . the book sticks to its task of surveying the course of Australian art, introducing canonical artists and key themes, identifying both achievements and failures . . . The book contains nearly 200 fascinating, full-colour illustrations painted in hugely contrasting styles — romanticism, realism, expressionism, social realism, surrealism and abstraction. It combines these visually gripping scenes with a biting and caustic text that demonstrates a nation’s future can only really be fulfilled by coming to terms with the past . . . This is a compulsive read, a lively and original book that demonstrates how art can both reflect upon and challenge past and present beliefs and behaviours, and is an art history book with a difference. It takes pride of place on my bookshelf. Many other bookshelves are no doubt, right now, finding an extra space for it. -- Sylvia Hikins * Morning Star *