ARTZUID PHOTO TIP – take a lady in red with you

Our favourite for 2015 – Duma, by Barcelona artist Jaume Plensa

Mevrouw T and I are big fans of Amsterdam’s biennial sculpture exhibition ArtZuid.

The setting may not be quite as spectacular as that of Sydney’s wonderful Sculpture by the Sea, but the leafy gardens of the Apollolaan and Minervalaan in the Oud Zuid (Old South) district are lovely too.

LOVE YOUR WORK, TOM – though shooting that dog was wrong

Tom Otterness’s sculptures take pride of place on the esplanade in Scheveningen, near The Hague in the Netherlands.

We’re very sorry to be missing the always wonderful Sculpture by the Sea event in Sydney this year, but the Dutch have sculpture by the North Sea too.

Googling the American sculptor Tom Otterness, after seeing his work by the beach in Scheveningen, I read that he once filmed himself shooting a dog, for an art film. It cost him some lucrative commissions. He apologised. Not good enough, say some of his critics. He killed the dog in 1977, when he was 25. Is all forgiven? Is it okay to enjoy his work now?

YOU HAVE TO LAUGH – public art in Bratislava

There’s some lovely interaction going on between these two groups of visitors, but note the Napoleonic Soldier photobombing.

City fathers, yes, city mothers too, have options when it comes to installing or authorising public art. Heroic statues of kings, emperors, politicians and generals have long been standard fare.

Bratislava has its fair share of national heroes gracing the streets. But it has also more recently installed public art with obvious appeal to locals and visitors alike, your correspondent included.

UNEARTHING A LITTLE-KNOWN AUSTRALIAN TREASURE

Robert Klippel: Number 751

Tucked away behind the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is a little gem too few people seem to find.

The tourist buses pull up and visitors pile into the gallery itself, but few stroll around the back to the Sculpture Garden, where between the lawns, the lakes, the eucalypts and casuarinas are some of the big boys (notably Henry Moore and Auguste Rodin) and a sprinkling of Australia’s finest 3D artists.

HENRY MOORE IN AMSTERDAM – Rijksmuseum

Why is everyone ignoring me?

To celebrate the reopening of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, the surrounding gardens are hosting a fabulous exhibition of Henry Moore’s sculpture.

We don’t expect to see a better collection of the work of the great British artist, not anywhere, not ever. And certainly not for free.

THE CHINESE BIKE ART PUZZLE

‘Forever’ by Ai Wei Wei

Ai Wei Wei may be China’s best known artist. I say that only because I know his work, from the Tate Modern in London and the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney.

I was very pleased to see him included in what’s become for us an unmissable biennial Amsterdam event, Art Zuid.