Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Late breaking news


Two days after the screening we can belatedly report that four months after the event TV3's 60 Minutes finally screened their show on Australian art tot Aelita Andre on Monday. Maybe they thought no one would remember that the story had already been in NZ newspapers way back. We assume TV3 screened it because they’d already invested in an Australian trip for ace reporter Amanda Millar before her attempts to trick New Zealand art dealers fell over. Gamely TV3 tried to set the story up as an art-world–fooled tale. “Mark Rothko paintings get $120 million for a series of stripes.” But the only art professional they managed to get on screen was The Age art critic who was disappointingly (for Amanda) enthusiastic about the work saying it was not too bad for a kid in nappies. Her response? “Aelita’s paintings have divided the art world.” No surprise that none of this division found its way into the programme.
Image: Amanda Millar (left), arts reporter, interviews a two year old painter