Robert Leonard

Contemporary Art Writer And Curator

Four Paragraphs

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Years ago, I received some sage advice from an older curator: every letter needs four paragraphs. Paragraph 1: Flatter yourself. Paragraph 2: Flatter the person you’re writing to. Paragraph 3: Flatter yourself and the person you’re writing to—link your fortunes. Paragraph 4: Ask for what you want. My mentor explained that letter writers routinely omit one of these paragraphs (perhaps mistakenly taking it for granted), bewildering their reader. They fawn over them, but themselves seem unworthy. Or they sing their own praises exclusively. Or they fail to connect. Or they forget to even ask for what they want, missing their own point. It struck me that this four-paragraph approach was good not only for writing letters but for relating to others in general—being empathetic while hanging onto your self, and considering the stake they may have in what you want (or not).
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[IMAGE: Peter Tyndall]
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Late Great

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American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner is with us no more. Here’s a magnificent wall-text work he did for my show Grey Water at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, in 2007. On the floor is a work by Bill Culbert, also departed. So pleased to have worked with them both.
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Who Am I?

I am a contemporary-art curator and writer, and Director of the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. I have held curatorial posts at Wellington’s National Art Gallery, New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery, and, most recently, City Gallery Wellington, and directed Auckland’s Artspace. My shows include Headlands: Thinking through New Zealand Art for Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art (1992); Action Replay: Post-Object Art for Artspace, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, and Auckland Art Gallery (1998); and Mixed-Up Childhood for Auckland Art Gallery (2005). My City Gallery shows include Yvonne Todd: Creamy Psychology (2014), Julian Dashper & Friends (2015), Francis Upritchard: Jealous Saboteurs (2016), Colin McCahon: On Going Out with the Tide (2017), John Stezaker: Lost World (2017), This Is New Zealand (2018), Iconography of Revolt (2018), Semiconductor: The Technological Sublime (2019), Oracles (2020), Zac Langdon-Pole: Containing Multitudes (2020), and Judy Millar: Action Movie (2021). I curated New Zealand representation for Brisbane’s Asia-Pacific Triennial in 1999, the Sao Paulo Biennale in 2002, and the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2015. I am co-publisher of the imprint Bouncy Castle.

Contact

BouncyCastleLeonard@gmail.com
+61 452252414

This Website

I made this website to offer easy access to my writings. Texts have been edited and tweaked. Where I’ve found mistakes, I’ve corrected them.

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