About

Photo by Linda Elly

This blog started in 2008. (It was years before using the Naarm as an alternative to the colonial city name of Melbourne, built on occupied Indigenous land.) At the time, I thought there weren’t enough critical voices writing about Melbourne’s visual arts. There were too many artists and not enough art critics.

Writing a blog was a motivation and a way of getting access to different places, meeting interesting people, and doing different things. This helped me find a way to break into other art writing for magazines and write two books, The Picasso Ransom and Sculptures of Melbourne.  

Initially, this blog was just Melbourne Art & Culture Critic, but I was persuaded to add the ‘Black Mark’ part in 2011 to refresh the look. ‘Black Mark’ was what my biker neighbours called me when I was in a Velvet Underground cover band. I was wearing more black than the bikers, but it is not unusual for people living in Melbourne to wear all black.

I used to introduce myself and explain my background more on this page, but it is unnecessary after all these years of writing the blog.

Cheers,

Mark S. Holsworth BA (Hons) MA

What my critics say:

“The author is obviously an uncivilised man.” Justin Tagliaferro

‘“Black” Mark. How apt. Black for your corrupted soul.’ Zionist keyboard warrior caldera_stevias.0l

“I pity you, Holsworth” Convicted forger Pamela Liberto

Media about Black Mark

• “Great book on Australian art crimes by Mark Holsworth” Art and Architecture
• “High crimes with paint brushes” episode of Life and Crimes with Andrew Rule
• “Melbourne Sculpture + Psyche”, Girl Gone Home
• “Casting aspersions on state of the art” Steve Dow, Andrew Taylor (8/12/12)
• Radio interview on 3RRR Smart Arts with Richard Watts.
• “Invurt Guide to Cool Oz Art Blogs”, Invurt
• Interview on The Art and the Curious with Celeste Hawkins
• Black Mark has been included in PANDORA, Australia’s Web Archive. http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/98892

Mark Holsworth, Portrait of John Coleman, 2013, oil on wood

Publications

• The Picasso Ransom (self published, 2023)
• “Sculpture’s Social Power” World Sculpture News v25 n3 Summer 2019
• “Dan Wollmering at & Gallery” World Sculpture News v23 n3 Summer 2017
• “Why the Brett Whiteley forgery convictions were quashed” The Daily Review 1 May 2017
• “10 things learnt from 10 years of blogging” ArtsHub 20/2/2017
• Sculptures of Melbourne (Melbourne Boooks, 2015)
• “Paul Yore” Vault – New Art & Culture Magazine Issue 8
• “Artist Acquitted of Obscenity, but Chill of Censorship Endures”  Hyperallergic (3/10/14)
• “Justice, with one foot forward” Justinian (18/9/2014)
• “The branding of Joel Gailer: Performprint Spectacular” Imprint Magazine (Spring, 2014)
• “From Great Men to Landmarks – RMIT and Melbourne’s Public Sculpture” Revelations – Sculpture from the RMIT Art Collection (catalogue, RMIT Gallery, May 2014)
• “A Century of Readymades” Art Monthly Australia (Nov. 2013)
• “Child p-rn – or art censorship by wannabe Tory pollies” Crikey (5/6/13)
• “Melbourne’s Selfie Mecca” Hyperallergic (30/5/13)
• “Will Coles – Concrete Chips” Trouble (March, 2013)
• “What the Hell Are We Going to Do With All This Junk?” Hyperallergic (23/11/12)
• “Beware Street Artists Bearing Thought-provoking Gifts” Hyperallergic (7/11/12)
• Art at Flinders Street Station Victorian Collections (14/11/12)
• “Small Change for Big Culture”  Trouble (Dec/Jan 2011)

Mark Holsworth, History, 2008, oil on wood

Thanks to Evangeline Cachinero for creating the Black Mark banner.