February 2020 | issue 35 Foundation news Director’s message Dr Michael Brand, Director
The groundbreaking ceremony In yet another show of tremendous in November for our new building support for this venerable institution, was, without doubt, one of the I’m delighted to let you know about the establishment of the Neville Holmes most exciting moments of my time Grace Exhibition Fund. here to date as director. This endowment fund has been created from the proceeds It was a truly significant occasion at which we paid tribute to of Neville Grace’s extraordinary bequest of over $14 million. everyone who has helped us realise our dream to create a His bequest allows the Gallery to use the gift to fund its highest glorious new cultural space for Sydney, designed by our priority at the time the money is received. This is the ideal gift architects SANAA. for an art museum. A profile piece about Neville Grace will be featured in the next Foundation News, following an in-depth As Kirstin Mattson, head of campaign, writes in her Sydney interview in March with his partner who now lives in London. Modern Project update, the celebration started with a We will also look to make a public announcement about the moving Welcome to Country curated by artist and chair of gift around this time. the Gallery’s Indigenous Advisory Group, Tony Albert, who has since been announced as the first Indigenous Australian As the Gallery’s Foundation has supported major acquisitions to join our Board of Trustees. The remarkable generosity of since it was established in 1983, I can see that the Neville To have an income stream from an which closes on 8 March. The exhibition is delighting many our donors has made this once-in-a-generation expansion Holmes Grace Exhibition Fund will have a similarly important visitors who are enjoying being immersed in a realm of lurking a reality, collaborating with the NSW Government in an role in coming years, and I cannot overstate my gratitude for endowment fund for major acquisitions ghosts and monsters! unprecedented philanthropic partnership. Now back from this enduring gift. The Gallery’s varied and extensive exhibition and important exhibitions will provide It was terrific that so many of our Foundation supporters were a break over Christmas, it’s exciting indeed to watch the program is key to ensuring our art museum’s relevance to new wonderful ongoing support in areas construction developments on the site from my office and existing audiences and keeping our Gallery at the forefront able to join us in December for the gala fundraising dinner. window. I’ll be keeping a close eye! of Australia’s cultural scene. crucial to the Gallery, supporting staff Kiera Grant, our new Foundation chair, welcomed guests, creativity and allowing us to engage many of whom embraced the Japan supernatural theme! with our audiences in even more I am delighted to announce that the event raised approximately inspiring ways. $200 000 which has been used to establish the Old Masters Acquisition Fund. It’s surprising that with a few honourable exceptions, our collection of old master paintings started to This year, I’m delighted to be curating my first exhibition at the accumulate only in the early 1990s. It was then of course that Gallery, Some mysterious process: 50 years of collecting an astonishingly generous series of gifts by the late James international art, which will open in April. Many of the most Fairfax AC changed the focus and potential of the Gallery’s iconic works in the exhibition will be familiar to you and have European collection completely. been most generously funded by the Foundation. An important part of the process of selecting works for the exhibition has While the Fairfax gifts introduced splendid examples of 18th been to think about how we provide audiences better access century Italian and French art, at around the same time, the to the masterpieces in our collection, and also to think about Foundation made a series of distinguished acquisitions which our future collecting. Art museum collecting really can appear explored yet another new aspect of old master collecting. The as mysterious as the very practice of art making. works by Dell’Abate (Foundation purchase 1991), Beccafumi (Foundation purchase 1992), Bronzino (Foundation purchase The most recent Foundation acquisition, Takashi Murakami’s 1996) and Procaccini (Foundation purchase 2005), together gigantic work of 502 silkscreens with an equally fulsome title, with the splendid pen and ink drawing by Boscoli (purchased Japan Supernatural: Vertiginous after staring at the empty by the Foundation and the Italian community of Sydney 2004) world too intensely, I found myself trapped in the realm of were all representative of Italian art of the 16th and 17th lurking ghosts and monsters, will not be included in my centuries in various guises. Old master paintings no longer enter upcoming exhibition, but it is one of the centrepieces of the collection as isolated oddities sitting on the sidelines and Melanie Eastburn’s wonderful exhibition Japan supernatural this new fund will be instrumental in increasing our holdings.
cover: E Phillips Fox Landscape, between Anita & Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM, Andrew Stone, Carole Lamerton & John Courtney, above: Guests enjoying the Gallery’s The official party take part in the Modern Project Capital Campaign of New South Wales; David Gonski AC, Madden, Gadigal Elder and member of the the Counties of Morbihan and Finistère 1889 Cameron AM & Cathy Cameron, Krystyna Alf Moufarrige AO, Elizabeth Ramsden, interactive touch wall at the opening groundbreaking ceremony for the Sydney Committee; Ryue Nishizawa, Architect, President, Board of Trustees; Maud Page, Gallery’s Indigenous Advisory Group; Simon (detail) oil on canvas. Purchased 2019 with Campbell-Pretty & the late Harold Campbell- Susan Rothwell, Denis Savill, Penelope of Japan supernatural Modern Project. From left to right: Ben SANAA; Kazuyo Sejima, Architect, SANAA; Deputy Director and Director of Collections; Draper, Chief Executive, Infrastructure NSW funds provided by the Australian Masterpieces Pretty, Rowena Danziger AM & Ken Coles AM, Seidler AM, Denyse Spice, Georgie Taylor, Quilty, Artist Member, Board of Trustees; Dr Michael Brand, Director; The Hon. Isaac Wakil AO, Chair, Susan & Isaac Wakil and Jamie Crookes, Managing Director, Fund, including the following major donors: Kiera Grant, The Greatorex Fund, Alexandra Max & Nola Tegel, Ruth Vincent, and the Gretel Packer, Vice President, Board of Don Harwin, MLC, Minister for the Arts; Foundation; Sally Webster, Head, Sydney Richard Crookes Constructions. Photo: In memory of Barbara Gole, Antoinette Albert, Joel & Philip Mason, Alison Kesson and Robyn Australian Collection Benefactors Fund, 2019 Trustees; Mark Nelson, Chair, Sydney The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian, MP, Premier Modern Project; Uncle Charles (Chicka) Getty Images
2 3 Foundation Gala Dinner 2019 Japan supernatural Dress: a touch of ghoul
Remove shine
opposite, clockwise from top left: clockwise from top left: Clinton Ng & Annette Larkin Julian & Stephanie Grose Edward Waring & Susan Hipgrave Joan Ross & Fiona Lowry Robyn Martin-Weber, Ray Wilson, Isidoro Anne Fulwood & Ann Johnson Felman, Alenka Tindale Dr Michael Brand & Tina Gomes Brand Ken & Annabel Baxter Bernard Ryan, Michael Rowe, Scott Lille Madden, Jodi Pettersen, Thea Perkins Jackson, Jonathan Watkinson & Saha Jones
Photos: Liz Cartwright X
4 5 Sydney Modern Project update 2019 Australian Masterpieces Kirstin Mattson, Head of Campaign Fund Acquisition Denise Mimmocchi, Senior curator, Australian art
Fresh from the excitement of The Art Gallery of New South groundbreaking, we’re moving Wales is delighted to announce the ahead with the next stages of acquisition of Emmanuel Phillips the campaign including the Fox’s major Impressionist painting revitalisation of our existing Landscape, between the Counties building and art acquisitions for of Morbihan and Finistère 1889. the expanded Gallery. Like others of his Australian-born colleagues, Fox, a student of the National Gallery School, Melbourne, had his sights Marking the start of construction of the Gallery’s new building set on Paris to further his training. He arrived there in 1887, was the culmination of a long journey made possible by so immersing himself in the art of the city and setting a gruelling many people to whom we are deeply grateful. training schedule at various Parisian ateliers between 1887 Seidler AM, Denyse Spice, Georgie Taylor, Max & Nola Tegel, and 1889. He followed the pattern set by the artistic Ruth Vincent, and the Australian Collection Benefactors Fund. The groundbreaking celebration started populous of Paris who retreated to the French coastline to The Foundation will play a lead role paint in the summer months. with a memorable next-generation in the Gallery’s forthcoming art Landscape, between the Counties of In 1889, Fox spent the summer months in Brittany and Welcome to Country under the guidance acquisition campaign. Morbihan and Finistère is currently of Gadigal elder Charles Madden and produced some of his most arresting paintings, works that represent the culmination of his artistic experiences in France. undergoing conservation, a project curated by artist and chair of the Several generous pledges have already been made to the His dazzling Impressionist work Landscape, between the which includes the production of a new Counties of Morbihan and Finistère is amongst them. Gallery’s Indigenous Advisory Group, campaign, which will be officially launched this year. frame modelled on original examples Tony Albert, who we are now also A key feature of our transformation is the revitalisation of our Like other artists painting in this region, Fox was interested used by the artist in his lifetime. delighted to have as a Trustee. much-loved existing building to reinstate some of its wonderful in depicting local peasant life, but it is the luminosity of this original architectural features, enhance the visitor and member water-bound landscape that becomes the real subject of this We look forward to displaying this superb painting in the experience, and introduce new sustainability initiatives. painting. The overwhelming feeling that ‘the atmosphere It was a highlight of the event and underlines the Gallery’s vibrates with sunlight’, as noted by a reviewer of his work in 19th century Australian galleries in 2020. commitment to displaying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander The Gallery will have more information to share about these 1892 when it was first exhibited in Melbourne, still holds true art with the prominence it deserves. new phases of the campaign in the coming months, however, when viewing the painting today. this will be my last message as Head of Campaign as I will The first gallery that visitors will encounter in the new building retire in March. I am grateful to the many Foundation The brilliant expanse of an opalescent palette and the will display Indigenous Australian art and culture. This space supporters who gave generously to the expansion project as criss-crossing of speckled brushwork creates a shimmering is supported by a generous group of Campaign donors, the well as the devoted Foundation staff who played an integral surface of palpitating colour and makes for one of Fox’s Yiribana Founders, with the Lowy family as lead donor, joined role in the campaign’s success. I look forward to coming back great Impressionist masterpieces. by David Baffsky AO and Helen Baffsky, Anita Belgiorno- to the Gallery in 2022 to celebrate the opening with you all. Nettis AM and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM, The Gonski We are indebted to the generosity of major donors who Foundation, Gary and Kerry-Anne Johnston, John Symond To learn more about the next stages of the campaign, provided for the acquisition of this work through the AM, and Lang Walker AO and Sue Walker. or to discuss a campaign gift at any level, please contact Australian Masterpieces Fund. They include: In memory of 9225 1711 or [email protected]. Pledges may Barbara Gole, Antoinette Albert, Anita & Luca Belgiorno- Now we are excited to be moving ahead with the next stages be paid over several years, and you can visit the Sydney Nettis AM, Andrew Cameron AM & Cathy Cameron, Krystyna of the campaign to seek funding for art acquisitions, the art Modern Project website to make a one-time donation. Campbell-Pretty & the late Harold Campbell-Pretty, Rowena garden and the revitalisation of the existing building. Danziger AM & Ken Coles AM, Kiera Grant, The Greatorex The presentation of art across both buildings is being thoughtfully Fund, Alexandra Joel & Philip Mason, Alison Kesson & Robyn considered, including plans for strategic acquisitions of Stone, Carole Lamerton & John Courtney, Alf Moufarrige AO, contemporary and historical works for the expanded Gallery. Elizabeth Ramsden, Susan Rothwell, Denis Savill, Penelope
The goundbreaking celebration’s next- Alfie Herschell, Eva Boltin-Gilchrist, Arnhem E Phillips Fox Landscape, between the Anita & Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM, Andrew Stone, Carole Lamerton & John Courtney, Alf generation Welcome to Country. From left: Perkins McGrath, Gadigal Elder Charles Counties of Morbihan and Finistère 1889, Cameron AM & Cathy Cameron, Krystyna Moufarrige AO, Elizabeth Ramsden, Susan Chair of the Gallery’s Indigenous advisory Madden and Kai Madden. oil on canvas. Purchased 2019 with funds Campbell-Pretty & the late Harold Campbell- Rothwell, Denis Savill, Penelope Seidler group Tony Albert with Enid Yamini Boyd, provided by the Australian Masterpieces Pretty, Rowena Danziger AM & Ken Coles AM, AM, Denyse Spice, Georgie Taylor, Max & Balbay Boyd, Betty Herschell, Fund, including the following major donors: In Kiera Grant, The Greatorex Fund, Alexandra Nola Tegel, Ruth Vincent, and the Australian memory of Barbara Gole, Antoinette Albert, Joel & Philip Mason, Alison Kesson and Robyn Collection Benefactors Fund, 2019
6 7 Bequest Club lunch 2019 Foundation private viewing Japan supernatural
opposite, clockwise from top left: clockwise from top left: Michelle Dunn & Graeme Lowry Jones Janet & Michael Neustein Sylvia Beresford, Ken Bloxsom, Alenka Tindale, Lucy Greig, Elizabeth Hazel & Alenka Tindale Penelope Seidler, Josh Black Karin Hentschel & Francine de Valence Sandra Beesley Carole Lamerton & Patricia Roberts Clytie & James Williams Heather Whitely Robinson, John Pearson Clinton Ng, Jim Kitay, Beverley Schurr, & Kiera Grant Lisa-Marie Murphy, Vicki Grima Ken Bloxsom & Marilyn Endlein Elinor Wrobel & Andrea Wrobel Xx Candice Bruce, Mark Ferguson & Mary McCarter Photos: Liz Cartwright
Photos: Liz Cartwright
8 9 Profile: David Greatorex AO and Deirdre Greatorex Anabel Dean
Ask David Greatorex about Trustees. One of them was on the board of the Reserve Bank and another was a top funds manager. They had all the benefaction at the Art Gallery of necessary smarts. Edmund knew exactly what he was doing.’
New South Wales and there’s a ‘The Cézanne’ was described by artist Margaret Olley at the time of acquisition, in 2008, as ‘the most important painting memory that burns too bright in the Gallery’. to ignore. ‘So you see,’ David continues, ‘really I just got sucked along and I’ve been told what to do ever since that time.’ He nods He’s back in 1978. Early days in the reign of Edmund Capon, at Deirdre. ‘That one over there: she’s the one with the real then the new director of the Gallery, whose first significant knowledge.’ acquisition upon his arrival in Sydney was ‘a very expensive and exquisite’ yellow ochre Tang dynasty equestrian tomb Deirdre retired last year after 30 remarkable years of service figure (c700CE). as a volunteer guide. Her tours are legendary. ‘I’d like to say that I just entertained,’ she admits. ‘I wanted Gallery visitors to Edmund Capon came from the Victoria and Albert Museum, enjoy their hour, so I had a lot of compelling stories about the London, armed with a list of the names of companies with personal happenings of artworks. The gossip, I found, was British affiliations and, at that time, David Greatorex was at very important and it sold every tour. They were the big stories, the helm of a London-based insurance company in Sydney. not ones to pull down the work, but to inspire the imagination ‘When he came to see me, even before I knew that he was and they went down well. People were fascinated.’ violinist for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Deirdre herself going to hit me for some money, I’d figured out a number,’ is a classically trained flautist who played for many years with David and Deirdre Greatorex joined The Foundation’s brigade David recalls, laughing. ‘Edmund’s figure was exactly ten the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, the Queensland of loyal private benefactors in 1988. Under the considered times to the dollar what I had in mind.’ Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. and purposeful direction of current director, Dr Michael Brand, they have lent substantial financial support through their ‘It was a downright pleasure,’ she says. ‘The people that The brazen determination of the new cultural grant-making Greatorex Fund to the Australian and you’ve known in this profession might not always be close director in galvanising corporate support the photographic collection, to conservation and to the friends but they’re a rich acquaintance that you’ve had in indispensable Foundation Newsletter. times past and I’ve just been very fortunate with everything for Gallery acquisitions didn’t stop with I’ve done because I’ve enjoyed doing it.’ the Tang dynasty. By the end of Capon’s ‘I’m of that mind and we’ve had a bit of good luck financially,’ David concludes. Both she, and David, consider the Gallery as something tenure over 33 years – there were more akin to one of the last bastions in a world that appears to The Greatorex connection with the Gallery is fuelled by a than 20 500 acquisitions made possible have lost its bearings. profound mutual interest in culture that goes back to through the generosity of benefactors, childhood. For Deirdre, art has always been life as the daughter ‘The world has become so materialistic,’ David says. members and sponsors. of John Farnsworth Hall, a renowned Australian conductor and ‘Everyone talks about experiences now. People don’t so much say ‘I own a better watch than you do; they say: ‘What about Cézanne?’ Deirdre Greatorex prompts her ‘I’ve been to Mongolia’. We very much appreciate the husband, settled in a lounge chair on the opposite side of the concept of sound mind in sound body, of Latin and Greek, living room. As a long-term volunteer guide, Deirdre knows of philosophy and history and beauty and music.’ that Paul Cézanne’s work, Bords de la Marne, is a pivotal ‘And humour,’ Deirdre adds. painting in the history of art. ‘Yes, and humour,’ David responds. ‘These qualities seem ‘Oh yes,’ David counters. ‘Edmund said: ‘This was what I want to be being lost in many places but not in that building that for our collection.’ And I said: ‘What are we talking about in the we can see through this window over Macquarie Street and way of money?’ Edmund told me in US dollars. I went white. across The Botanic Gardens. It’s all there in the endless Background to I’ve been Chairman of a bank (State Bank of New South moments of intrigue found in works held in that gallery.’ be removed be the Wales) and I know a bit about financial things, but I thought: shadow around the ‘My God, you don’t buy paintings in a foreign currency!’ I ‘And that’s a message as old as a tomb figure from the base to remain asked Edmund to remind me who was on the Board of Tang dynasty.
Deirdre Greatorex leading an Australian Trustees 1902; Henry James Johnstone Deirdre Greatorex and David Greatorex AO Tang dynasty Horse and rider c700 highlights tour as a Volunteer Guide in A billabong of the Goulburn, Victoria 1884, at the 2018 Archibald Benefactors’ Lunch. earthenware with sancai (three colour), 2017. Background: WC Piguenit The flood oil on canvas, purchased 1885. Background: Maringka Baker Minyma glaze, Art Gallery of New South Wales. in the Darling 1890 1895, oil on canvas, kutjara tjukurpa 2018. Photo: Liz Cartwright Purchased with funds provided by the Art Purchased 1895; WC Piguenit Kosciusko Gallery Society of New South Wales 1979. 1903, oil on canvas, commissioned by the
10 11 Foundation support groups Curator and coordinator reports
Aboriginal Collection Benefactors (ACB)
In July ACB patrons were treated to a private viewing of From where I stand, an exhibition of works by Aboriginal photographers drawn from the Gallery’s collection, which refer to the history of the photography of Aboriginal people. The works pose a number of questions about Australia and the lack of power held by Aboriginal people within institutional structures. The exhibition included Michael Cook’s Majority Asian art Elsewhere, the thoughtful In one drop of water exhibition Rule 2014 which was displayed for the first time since being continues in the Lower Asian gallery having recently been acquired with ACB funds. refreshed with the addition of several works, including a Following intensive preparation, it is wonderful to see the spectacular ink painting of a dragon by the celebrated Edo exhibition Japan supernatural open, and Takashi Murakami’s We also met the Gallery’s new archivist of Aboriginal and period artist Soga Sh haku (1730–81). The dragon was painting Japan Supernatural: Vertiginous After Staring at the ō Torres Strait Islander art, Eve Chaloupka. Her first exhibition purchased with funds donated by Warwick and Ann Johnson Empty World Too Intensely, I found Myself Trapped in the from the Gallery’s archive Unfinished business | ARTISTS meet these artists and their close-knit communities and to and the Asian Collection Benefactors’ Fund in 2007. Realm of Lurking Ghosts and Monsters entrancing visitors. LAND RIGHTS TREATY shed light on an extraordinary grass see how important their land, art and culture is to keeping roots, artist-led movement that took place in Sydney in the Walking with gods closed in early January after taking visitors their communities strong. This Foundation acquisition is an exceptional addition to the early 1980s. A group of over 500 Indigenous and non- through 2000 years of figurative sculpture from the Asian collection and marks a new stage in the artist’s work. Taking Indigenous artists, dancers, musicians, performers, poets and Other highlights included a flight over the beehive-like domes collection. The exhibition, which featured many objects inspiration from the ukiyo-e woodblock prints of Japanese writers came together to stage a series of exhibitions and of the Bunge Bungles, seeing the Horizontal Falls, swimming acquired with the support of individual donors and Foundation history, the painting is Murakami’s first to be populated by events to support land rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait in the Zebedee Springs and watching a glorious sunset over patrons, was widely enjoyed by visitors. One visitor said: phenomenal beings and famed warriors of Japanese folklore. Islander people. the desert. ‘This exhibition is one of the most spectacular I have seen Surrounded by works of art on loan from the British Museum, anywhere in my travels here or overseas.’ With funds raised from the tour we were fortunate to be able A great highlight of the year was the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston as to acquire a work for the Gallery’s collection by Christine We began the year in 2019 with the exhibitions Glorious: well as Australian institutions and private collections ACB trip in August to the Kimberley to Yukenbarri Nakamarra, Winpurpurla 2018, which we saw at earthly pleasures and heavenly realms and Fearless: worldwide, works from the collection of the Art Gallery of Balgo. Yukenbarri was born in 1977 to artists Helicopter contemporary South Asian art, followed by Heaven and Earth meet communities and artists at New South Wales hold their own. Aboriginal-owned and run art centres. Tjungurrayi and the late Lucy Yukenbarri. Yukenbarri in Chinese art: treasures from the National Palace Museum, predominantly paints her mother’s Country, south of Balgo. Many came to us as gifts and donations over the decades, Taipei, and Chinese Bible: revolution and art in China, before Our group of 16 patrons flew first to Broome where we visited This country is named Winpurpurla after the tjurnnu including through the Asian Collection Benefactors’ fund. moving on to Walking with gods, In one drop of water and the famous Short Street Gallery. A short flight later we arrived (soakwater) which is depicted as the central circle in this Hiroharu Itaya’s c1860 Night procession of the one hundred Japan supernatural. Asian art staff look forward to an equally work. Winpurpurla is an inta, or ‘living water’ place so it at Kooljaman at Cape Leveque on the tip of the Dampier demons (Hyakki yagyō), a painted handscroll acquired in vibrant year in 2020. always has good water. Women often travel to Winpurpurla to peninsula where we saw breathtaking scenery including the 1995, unrolls to reveal six metres of revelling yōkai, a broad red pindan cliffs, and learnt about the seasons, bush collect a variety of seeds, including lukarrari which is ground term describing wild and mysterious creatures from Melanie Eastburn medicines and local bush tucker. With a very early start, we to make damper, and kumpupatja (bush tomato). The definite shapeshifters and monsters to everyday objects that have Senior curator, Asian art hiked in the heat for 4km to see extraordinary Gwion Gwion lines in the painting represent the tali (sandhills) that dominate sprung to life. Characters from the scroll have been rock art before arriving at the Mitchell Falls which we saw this country. researched and animated on a touch wall opposite the work, from a helicopter! a new method of bringing the details and pleasure of an Atelier Cara Pinchbeck individual work of art to life, and one which will continue to With the El Questro resort as our next base, we visited Balgo Senior curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait be enjoyed beyond the exhibition. (Warlayiriti Artists Aboriginal Corporation) where we were Islander art Atelier has been busy expanding our cohort and directing funds towards exciting acquisitions and projects at the Gallery. thrilled to meet many artists including Helicopter Tjungurrayi, The recently acquired paintings Hell courtesan (Jigoku-dayū) by who is still painting every day and has a number of works in Lisa-Marie Murphy Kawanabe Ky sai (1831–89), acquired through the Foundation ō In 2019, Atelier provided $40 000 towards the Gallery’s the Gallery’s collection. Other highlights included a smoking Philanthropy and development manager with funds from the Jean Millner bequest and Mary Tancred partnership with the Asylum Seekers Centre for the ongoing ceremony at Warmun Arts where Gallery collection artists (ACB coordinator) bequest, and Kuzunoha: farewell to the baby by Utagawa ‘Welcome’ program for people and families who are currently including Rusty Peters, Patrick Mung Mung and Mabel Juli Kunimune II (Kunimasa II, 1792–1857) which was purchased seeking asylum in Australia. This program aims to enrich and graciously welcomed our group and talked about their works, with the support of Foundation Fellow Tony Schlosser, have grow participants’ connection to Australia and Australian their stories and their country. We all felt it was a privilege to proved much loved by visitors to Japan supernatural.
Nancy Nodea, Mary Thomas, Rona Wade, Hiroharu Itaya Night procession of the one Rosie Horton, Jane Tinmarie-Yalunga and hundred demons (Hyakki yagyô) c1860 Shirley Purdue at the 2019 ACB tour to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Kimberley. Photo: Clare Ainsworth Herschell Asian Collection Benefactors’ Fund 1995
12 13 culture through direct, face-to-face engagement with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 (Moonlight Sonata). With Australian prints, drawings and Australian art led by trained artist educators, Indigenous Atelier’s support, this work will now be on display as part of the educators, Gallery staff and language specialists. Held across exhibition Under the stars curated by Cara Pinchbeck, senior watercolours (PDW) the Asylum Seekers Centre and Gallery, the program works curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, and Jackie with Gallery’s collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dunn, special exhibitions curator, which opens on 21 March. The second half of 2019 brought an exciting group of art and wider collection holdings to offer accessible acquisitions to the collection, made possible through the opportunities and positive experiences for people of all ages, Tony Albert, one of our beloved Atelier Official Patrons, has generosity of our benefactors. Particularly pleasing was the genders and diverse cultural backgrounds. Our generous been announced as a Trustee. Tony will be stepping down as opportunity to add to the collection of work by artists patrons have raised almost $20 000 in further funding which an Atelier Official Patron to dedicate his full energy to this new previously unrepresented at the Gallery, including Tom Polo, will be directed to another important education or community role, however he will still continue to be part of the Atelier Luke Sciberras and Joan Ross. We were equally grateful to program by our Learning & Participation department on the family as a supporter. Tony’s kindness, generosity and natural add to the Australian works on paper collections with the completion of this cycle. sense of leadership have not been unnoticed, and we thank assistance of other Foundation funds. him for his commitment in championing Atelier. At the beginning of 2020, Atelier directed $40 000 towards The Australian PDW Benefactors group funded several works the acquisition of Square tube series D (sheet steel) Last year, Tony assisted in raising $12 000 to fund an for the collection. Among these were two mid-1970s collages 1967/2019 by German artist Charlotte Posenenske. Indigenous project designed by artist Jonathan Jones and by Carl Plate (1909–77). As a painter and advocate for Comprising 13 galvanised sheet steel modules, the sculpture curator Cara Pinchbeck. This project enables Aboriginal artists modern art, Plate was an important Sydney artist in the post- We were excited to receive the painting Man, wife and can be reconfigured into a number of variations using a based in New South Wales to develop new works using war period and his extraordinary sustained oeuvre of works mother-in-law in street 1937 by the Russian émigré painter minimum of four elements, including the ability to reprise a materials collected from the Sydney Modern site. We are eager on paper – gouaches, collages, drawings and prints – are Danila Vassilieff, an artist who inspired a new generation of configuration of three sculptures installed by the artist at to help celebrate the story-arc of an ambitious new precinct for among his best work. Frankfurt airport in 1967. This acquisition adds a major work the Gallery now that ground has officially broken on Sydney wartime Melbourne artists with his belief in painting the by a highly influential female artist to our collection of Modern. We look forward to the 2020 exhibition program and realities of urban street life. Man, wife and mother-in-law in Between 1938 to 1976, he produced some 300 collages. minimalist sculpture and will be featured in Michael Brand’s passionately supporting the Gallery throughout the year. street is a portrait of Vassilieff’s landlord and family set against These experimental and intuitive works were founded in his upcoming exhibition Some mysterious process: 50 years of a dynamic graffitied backdrop. It is an excellent example of interest in nature, landscape and organic forms. The addition collecting international art which opens on 18 April. Saha Jones Vassilieff’s unique form of visual urban poetry and comes as a of these two late collages by Plate reveal him at the height Next-generation development manager generous gift from Adrienne Allen. of his experimental powers and are an important addition to Atelier has also contributed $20 000 towards the staging of our collection. This acquisition was made possible through Our donations have also included Ralph Balson’s Non- Earth-Moon-Earth (Moonlight Sonata reflected from the surface funds generously donated by Ruth Vincent via the Australian objective painting 1956, a very fine example of the artist’s of the moon) 2007 by Scottish artist Katie Paterson, gifted to PDW Benefactors. the collection by Geoff Ainsworth AM and Vicki Olsson. Despite Australian art 1950s abstracts of vital and pulsating colour brushwork, being in the collection since 2011, the work until now has not offered to the Gallery by Philip Constable. The PDW Fund also enabled the purchase of three works on An excellent and diverse range of gifts received in the latter paper by Luke Sciberras, supplemented by a further gift from been fully realised as it requires a Yamaha Disklavier grand Two major gifts of late twentieth century paintings include: part of 2019 has expanded the scope of our holdings in the the artist. It’s a modest but impressive selection of gouaches, piano through which to play a re-imagined score of Vicki Varvaressos’ Six foot Caucasian with beard 1976 – from Australian department. drawings and a print that reflects key moments in Sciberras’ composer Nigel Butterley and Tom Kennedy – and Virginia recent practice and includes plein air drawings made at Belle Cuppaidge’s gift of her painting Blue Talor 1975. The beautiful Art Deco sculpture Nereida 1929-30 by Rayner Hoff Île in France, the Kimberley coast and Wilcannia. They share – gifted by the artist’s grandson Stephen Henstock – is one of Varvaressos is significant amongst the generation of feminist a luminous intensity of colour, light and form that evokes them. The Gallery is a central repository of Hoff’s sculpture, but artists who rose to prominence in the 1970s. With her three vastly different landscapes and are a very welcome Nerieda is a work of a different kind, an affectionate portrait signature expressionist style in Six foot Caucasian with beard, addition to the Australian collection. of Hoff’s daughter. There is a touching familial sense instilled the artist satirically turns the traditional voyeuristic female gaze in this small work where the streamlined emphasis of the The Gil and Shay Docking Drawing Fund and the onto the nude male subject. features signals the life-affirming essence of a young woman. Contemporary Collection Benefactors Fund (CCB) enabled Cuppaidge’s Blue Talor is a beautifully expansive colour-field the purchase of Tom Polo’s suite of 40 portrait drawings The Michael Cain and Ian Adrian made another welcome gift of work that is deeply evocative of the Australian light, a feature most elaborate disguise 2016; 2019. Many of you will sculpture. Following the opening of the exhibition Dora Ohlfsen of the artist’s homeland that continued to influence her practice remember this work when it was displayed at the Gallery as and the façade commission, Cain and Adrian donated two during her expatriate years in New York City from 1969. part of The National 2019: new Australian art. This work works by the artist: the bronze plaque Gara delle pattuglie, presents a cast of imaginary characters in 40 ‘portraits’ that Roma, 1913 and the accomplished statuette Woman on bear Denise Mimmocchi appear to shift between figuration and abstraction. It is a skin 1920. Ohlfsen’s sculptures are incredibly difficult to source Senior curator, Australian art work about masks, and the personas and disguises we and both gifts contribute to building a greater picture of the adopt in everyday life. breadth of works created by this fascinating artist.
Charlotte Posenenske Vierkantrohre Serie Vicki Varvaressos Six foot caucasian with D, Installation at Frankfurt airport 1967. beard 1976, synthetic polymer paint and Photo: Burkhard Brunn collaged paper on canvas, 171.9 x 245.7 x 4.5 cm stretcher. Gift of Nigel Butterley and Tom Kennedy 2019 © Vicki Varvaressos
14 15 X After a successful fundraising campaign in June 2019, Conservation Benefactors have supported the preparation and treatment of five major paintings and frames by Arthur Streeton for the upcoming 2020 exhibition, Streeton. These works are Gloucester Buckets, Lilium Auratum, The creek, Chepstow Castle and The Melon. In addition, CB have supported the treatment of Frank Mahony’s painting and frame Rounding up a Straggler that is going on loan to the National Library of The Docking Fund and CCB also facilitated the purchase of Conservation Australia for the 2020 exhibition Picturesque Atlas of Robert MacPherson’s monumental drawing installation 260 Australasia curated by Gallery curator Natalie Wilson. Frog poems: Overlanders, run hunters, and storm chasers. In In 2019, the Conservation Benefactors supported several key memory of D.R.R.M.P. 1986-2016. This extraordinary drawing The support of Conservation Benefactors for research, projects in paintings, frames, objects and time-based art installation comprises sketchbook pages of drawing, text and analysis and the treatment of artworks is integral to our ability conservation, as well as the purchase earlier this year of the collage under the authorship of ‘Robert Pene’, a fictional ten- to care for the Gallery’s collections. We are very grateful to all new Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR). This year-old child attending St Joseph’s College, Nambour, in our supporters for their continued support and collaboration equipment is currently being used by Melanie Barrett in 1947. This character is not quite an alter ego for MacPherson across so many projects over so many years. Objects Conservation on a CB funded project to analyse and but rather a vehicle by which the artist is able to create this manage the care of plastic artworks in the collection. This quasi-naif catalogue of a particular masculine type – the Carolyn Murphy work is part of an Australian Research Council Linkage project hardy, weather-beaten Australian drover – in the obsessive Head of Conservation with the University of Melbourne ‘A national framework for manner of an adolescent. managing malignant plastics in museum collections.’ The CCB Fund also enabled the acquisition of a suite of five The CCB enabled the acquisition of works on paper by Support for time-based art conservation, jointly funded by digital prints by Sydney artist Joan Ross, the Headless birds Sydney artist Joan Ross including Warra Warra Wai 2019, Contemporary Collection CB with the Women’s Art Group (WAGs), has resulted in the series and Warra Warra Wai 2019, which are the first works which relates to an artwork commissioned by the Gallery for current project ‘Preparing for obsolescence – the conservation Benefactors (CCB) by Ross to enter the collection. The Gil and Shay Docking the hoarding surrounding the Sydney Modern building site, of rare legacy equipment and obsolete technologies for time- Drawing Fund and the CCB Fund facilitated the purchase of planned for late 2019, and a suite of digital prints that quote based and kinetic artworks in the Gallery collection.’ This work Thanks to the support of the Contemporary Collection Robert MacPherson’s monumental drawing installation 260 images of Australian birds made at the time of early European is now underway with Jake van Dugteren employed one day Benefactors Fund (CCB), the Gallery welcomed a diverse Frog poems: Overlanders, run hunters, and storm chasers. settlement in Australia, hand-coloured in Ross’ signature per week to work with Asti Sherring on the assessment and range of works to the contemporary Australian art collection In memory of D.R.R.M.P. 1986–2016 and 40 mixed media hi-viz yellow. Ross also generously donated two HD video management of artworks that include obsolete technology. in the latter half of 2019. portrait drawings by Tom Polo, The most elaborate disguise animation works: Colonial grab 2015 and I give you a 2016; 2019, which was on display in the standout exhibition mountain 2018. We are delighted to have these, the first We have been fortunate to acquire several series from key The National 2019: new Australian art last year. You can read works by Ross to enter the collection. Australian artists working today. This includes Karem kai kai, more about Ross, MacPherson and Polo’s works in Anne a suite of 26 oil pastel drawings by Australian-born Eric Ryan’s PDW report on p15. Finally, the works on paper acquisitions for 2019 are rounded Bridgeman and the Haus Yuriyal (Men of the Yuri) from the out by a suite of four large-scale ink drawings by Peter highlands of Papua New Guinea. Drawn over a period of two Mungkuri, a senior Yankunytjatjara man from the Indulkana months in early 2019, the drawings reimagine traditional The National 2019 presented many community on the A angu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) ṉ Simbu shield designs and reference the groups’ enthusiasm Lands of north western South Australia. This acquisition was ambitious new commissions by for sport, popular culture and politics, as well as inherent generously supported by the Aboriginal Collection spiritual beliefs. When viewed as a group, the works convey Australian artists and we are delighted Benefactors. These exquisite drawings capture the different notions of life and death, protection and danger, sorcery and to have also acquired works by exhibited species of trees found on his country and are depicted healing, and tribal warfare and brotherly love. through a refined palette of black and white inks. artists Mira Gojak and Rushdi Anwar. Newell Harry’s untitled 2007–11 series takes the form of eight Anne Ryan Padanus mats woven with nonsensical word plays. Created In Mira Gojak’s Pausing place, uncounted 2019, bundles of Curator, Australian prints, drawings & watercolours in Vanuatu by local weavers, Padanus mats are traditionally sky-blue yarn are tightly wrapped around a steel rod. Bulbous used for trade and as ceremonial gifts. The mats woven with and bloated, yet somehow weightless, the total length of yarn text phrases in Harry’s work reflects his interest in how value is wrapped around the metal form corresponds to a succession culturally determined as, when moved to a Western context, of looped distances from the ground to the top of the the mats lose their original monetary value, and how language stratosphere, the point at which the blue bleeds out; a is similarly subject to slippages as it moves between contexts. compressed expanse of sky.
Top: Joan Ross Warra Warra Wai 2019, Above: Melanie Barrett conducting FTIR plastic thread; artificial rock: high density Rushdi Anwar Irhal (expel), hope and the hand-painted pigment print on three sheets, analysis on Louise Weaver’s Moonlight foam, dimensions variable, 126.2004.a-b, sorrow of displacement 2019 – ongoing, 98.0 x 324.0 cm. Contemporary Collection becomes you (Tipsy Bolero) 2002–03, Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2004, burnt wooden chairs, black oxide pigment, Benefactors 2019 © Joan Ross antelope: hand crocheted lambswool over © Louise Weaver charcoal and ash, dimensions variable. high-density foam, black sequined discs Art Gallery of New South Wales. over surface, silk embroidery thread and Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2019
16 17 In Rushdi Anwar’s installation Irhal (expel), hope and the sorrow of displacement 2019, dozens of charred domestic chairs are piled perilously high. Barely holding themselves up, the chairs form a tragic tribute to dispossession, displacement and denied domesticity and speak to Anwar’s own experience of exile as a Kurdish refugee. Irhal (expel) was announced as the major CCB acquisition for the 2019 Eat Your Art Out held at gallerists Sarah Cottier and Ashley Barber’s stunning Centennial Park home in October. We are thrilled to have fully-funded the acquisition of Anwar’s work with funds raised from the Eat Your Art Out, as well as proceeds from CCB’s fantastically fluorescent Japan supernatural-themed Summer Party in November and a number of generous subsequent contributions by CCB patrons.
2019 saw a number of changes in the CCB Committee as we farewelled Sally Dan-Cuthbert and James Hill and welcomed Friends of New Zealand Art stations, shopping malls and stairwells. Scattered throughout co-created by Colombian-born Sydney artist Claudia Cathy Cameron and Jenny Green. We are delighted that these structures is a peculiar assortment of everyday objects Nicholson and six young people from families seeking asylum Isobel Parker Philip, recently appointed as senior curator of (FoNZA) that tell us, fleetingly, of a daily routine in which a series of in Australia. This artwork demonstrates how our partnership contemporary Australian art, will be joining Wayne Tunnicliffe, moments have collapsed into one. with the Asylum Seekers Centre is ever evolving, and we look head of Australian art, to form the CCB curatorial team. Amid the whirlwind that was Sydney Contemporary 2019, forward to continuing to develop our engagement with people seeking asylum in Australia into the future. After nine years, Fiona Barbouttis has stepped down as CCB we were delighted to host a breakfast for Friends of New Lisa Catt coordinator to focus on the Gallery’s Australian and Prints, Zealand Art (FoNZA) and many other New Zealand peers. Assistant curator, international art Our guests included artist Robin White, who has recently Thanks to the generous support of Gandel Philanthropy, drawings and watercolours benefactor programs. I have now Carole Lamerton, Kiera Grant and Robyn Martin-Weber, taken up the CCB mantle full-time and am looking forward been commissioned by the Gallery to make a new work, as part of the Matisse alive exhibition in 2020. twilight at the Gallery was transformed in January with the to an exciting year of contemporary art events. By now you Night parade of one hundred goblins. Co-presented by the would have received the 2020 CCB calendar with highlights Learning and Participation The morning featured a tour of the exhibition Here we are. Gallery, Sydney Festival and Clockfire Theatre Company, the such as a viewing and tour of Some mysterious process: Focusing upon figuration and portraiture, the exhibition Through the generous support of the Davies Family Foundation, parade brought Japan supernatural to life with a fantastical, 50 years of collecting international art with director Michael explored human relationships in all their intricacy, pathos and we furthered our commitment to family programming by otherworldly procession featuring live drumming by multi- Brand and Under the stars with Cara Pinchbeck, senior power, and featured two FoNZA-supported acquisitions. launching the inaugural Fo Fum Fiesta in October. instrumentalist Masae Ikegawa (YuNiOn) and a specially curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and Jackie commissioned soundtrack by Tokyo-based musician Eiko Dunn, special exhibitions curator, a visit to Carriageworks to The video work What I am looking at 2011 by Marie Shannon, This two-week festival engaged around 10 000 children and Ishibashi. The performance took place amongst Kentaro experience The Clothing Store Studios and the VIP Preview is a striking meditation on ‘endings’ that captures, with accompanying adults in immersive experiences that featured Yoshida’s magical wall paintings, which were commissioned of Sydney Contemporary, and a very special Eat Your Art Out unwavering neutrality, the complex emotions associated with artist-led workshops, drawing activities, live music, storytelling, for the Entrance Court with the support of Mandy Shaul. at the private residence of Dr Gene Sherman AM and Brian love and loss. Kushana Bush’s painting Here we are 2016, performance, artist-curated children’s films and tours led by Sherman AM. from which the exhibition derives its name, is a brocade of children for children. SketchBoxes developed by artist Marikit We would like to thank Foundation Fellow Tracey Griff for her figures and patterns that appear as a portrait of human Santiago, a notable highlight of the festival, were made possible ongoing support of Art and Dementia, the Gallery’s signature Thank you to CCB’s generous partners: MUD Australia, collision and coexistence. as a resource through the valued support of Kate Andersen. creative ageing arts engagement program for individuals living Splitrock Natural Spring Water and SNAP Printing Botany. with dementia and their care partners. The Art and Dementia All the works in Here we are were new acquisitions created program model, which focuses on a selection of artworks, Ana Becerra by some of the most compelling women artists at work We continued to grow our partnership personal meaning making, facilitated group discussion, tactile Philanthropy coordinator and CCB coordinator today. It’s worth mentioning that, thanks again to the support with the Asylum Seekers Centre with and sensory experiences, and a focus on social interaction of FoNZA, an ambitious piece by another incredible woman through open-ended artmaking, continues to provide a best- artist was recently added to our collection: In transit (choose the support of our Atelier patrons. practice approach to arts and health programming. a network) 2019 by New Zealand artist Yona Lee. A recent highlight is the second iteration of The Belonging We are deeply grateful to Julie Drew for her continued support Made from structures used throughout city centres to usher Project currently on display at the Gallery. Drawing on of the Djamu Indigenous Art program. A recent highlight was and organise large hordes of moving bodies, In transit workshops at the Asylum Seekers Centre and Fairfield Public the second iteration of the Djamu Regional program, which (choose a network) is a vast network of stainless-steel School, the project evolved into a dynamic video artwork engaged students, teachers, and community members in handrails that ordinarily track across bus stops, airports, train
Yona Lee In transit (choose a network) Claudia Nicholson with Miss L, Miss J, Miss 2019, stainless steel, objects, dimensions M, Miss H, Miss V and Miss T By your side variable. Purchased with funds provided by 2019 (still) the Friends of New Zealand Art 2019.
18 19 regional NSW through October and November. As part of the Photography Collection remnants of a medieval monastery in a tiny alpine town in program, Gunditjmara artist Hayley Millar Baker facilitating a Switzerland, the museum was incredible, as was the adrenalin three-day intensive program at Wilcannia Central School with Benefactors (PCB) rush fuelled by the closure of the only road out of town due to Programs producer Wesley Shaw and Indigenous educators. unplanned snowfall. After loading the bus onto a train to travel The intensive included a series of masterclasses and an In September, I had the honour of hosting the Foundation’s Art through the mountains, Jane, Pernille and I miraculously made opportunity to camp overnight at Yeoval Station. The overnight in Focus tour to Europe with Maud Page, deputy director and it onto the plane back to Sydney in time. experience was open to the community, and featured a director of collections. We were joined by several PCB patrons campfire dinner, ceramic pit firing and storytelling.. as well as supporters from our other benefactor groups. It was The funds raised by the trip will assist us with a suite of an incredible trip with a packed itinerary. purchases that will be rolled out in the coming months, Erika Schneider including works by major international photographers that will Project officer, Learning and Participation After a memorable stay in Paris, where we saw many brilliant be included in my forthcoming exhibition Shadow catchers. exhibitions and had the rare privilege of having the Louvre to Opening on 22 February, Shadow catchers is part of the ourselves, we made our way to Arles in the South of France to Gallery’s Contemporary Collection Project series. The visit the 50th edition of the Rencontres d’Arles photography exhibition considers the way photography and the moving National Art Archive and festival. While in Arles we had a tour of the LUMA Foundation, image represent reality through a playful study of the Capon Research Library designed by Frank Gehry and still under construction. The intertwined metaphoric motifs of the mirror and the shadow. hard hats and high-vis vests got us excited for Sydney Just as Alice discovers through the looking glass, not all is as Modern’s imminent build! it seems in these slippery reflections. Geoff Ainsworth AM and Johanna Featherstone, in their continued support for the position of archivist of Aboriginal Leaving France, we made our way to Amsterdam and then The exhibition will feature an intervention by artist Patrick Pound and Torres Strait Islander collections at the Art Gallery of New onto Zurich, stopping at artist studios and museums, including to augment the display of his major work The image pool, South Wales, enabled archivist Eve Chaloupka to curate the the newly opened Muzeum Susch on our final day. Set in the acquired in 2016 through PCB funds. Pound’s intervention has exhibition Unfinished business | ARTISTS LAND RIGHTS been made possible by the donations attached to the TREATY in the Research Library and Archive. Eve gave a Foundation trip to Europe. Significant recent PCB purchases will series of talks connected to the exhibition, including at a be showcased in the exhibition, many for the first time, including special event for the Aboriginal and Photography Collection our most recent PCB purchase; Untitled (Denise and Diane benefactors and for the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity, who twinning) by Melbourne-based photographer Emma Phillips. were visiting from Melbourne University. Phillips is a young photographer who is developing a unique Curator John Cruthers donated catalogues, video-recordings eye. Drawn to domestic spaces and the minutia of daily life, and slides from his personal archive to the National Art Steven Miller, head of the National Art Phillips produces photographs that read like episodic narrative Archive. Important books on photography and contemporary vignettes that can feel confessional and intimate yet also slightly Archive and Capon Research Library, international art were donated to the Research Library by unsettling. In Untitled (Denise and Diane twinning), two women, curators Gael Newton and Barbara Flynn. With support from spoke at a Sydney Modern campaign huddled together on a single armchair. Their bodies are near ‘Fearless’, a new women’s focussed membership program event in September, along with senior mirrors of each other in posture, physique and dress. Once we at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, all the audio-visual register their resemblance, we begin to see the other doubles curators Justin Paton and Wayne material within the Pat Larter archive was digitised to Gallery in the image and realise that what appears at first glance as a preservation standards, so that it can be included in the Tunnicliffe, on the evolution of the casual snapshot is in fact an incredibly complex scene. Gallery and its collection. Pat Larter exhibition at the Gallery in November of 2020. As you can see from my newly updated by-line, I’ve recently Steven Miller been appointed senior curator contemporary Australian art. He also represented the Gallery at the dedication by Head, National Art Archive and I’m thrilled to be taking up this position and work closely with Woollahra Council of a memorial plaque for Shay Docking Capon Research Library CCB. I will, however, remain closely involved with PCB and in front of her house in Paddington. Shay Docking and her we will keep you updated about any changes as they develop. husband Gil were generous benefactors of the Gallery’s works on paper collection. Isobel Parker Philip In association with the major exhibition Making art public: Senior curator, contemporary Australian art 50 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects, the Gallery’s librarians and archivists participated in several public programs, symposia and forums connected with the exhibition.
Eve Chaloupka, archivist, Aboriginal and Emma Phillips Untitled (Denise and Diane Torres Strait Island collections, at the twinning) 2018, 2019, printed later, gelatin opening of Unfinished business | ARTISTS silver photograph, 104 x 83 cm. Purchased LAND RIGHTS TREATY with funds provided by the Photography Collection Benefactors Group 2019 © Emma Phillips
20 21 Grants
Many of our unique projects and Gordon Darling Foundation A grant enabled the Gallery to deliver an ambitious symposium activities can only proceed with and week-long masterclass on the management and care of external grants from philanthropic time-based media art (TBA) – a vulnerable artform where reliance on original technology presents major concerns for and government sources. many institutions. the Gallery’s TBA conservator Asti Sherring and assistant curator of international art, Lisa Catt, presented This also includes family foundations and Private Ancillary a visionary program with leading presenters from the Tate (UK) Funds that direct patronage of the Gallery to specific projects and delegates from 15 organisations in Australasia, to share or general programs. The Gallery is extremely grateful for these best-practices in management and consolidate a professional sources of income that, in 2019, included: network for ongoing discussion and support. The Gallery is a recognised leader in the region and invites support for many The Balnaves Foundation high-priority TBA works at-risk in its own collection. In reverence to the death of Edmund Capon AM OBE last year, the Balnaves Foundation made a significant additional The Keir Foundation gift of $250 000 to the Edmund Capon Fellowship, with further Supporting the Gallery’s commission with Atelier donors of gifts received from Kerr Neilson and other donors. This will a performance work by First Nations artist Amrita Hepi for increase the number of exchange opportunities and broaden The National 2019: new Australian art, the Keir Foundation the Fellowship’s scope beyond Asia. Proposed by Neil enabled The Tender to be performed three times, in the Balnaves AO in 2013 to acknowledge Edmund’s 33-year Gallery’s expansive Entrance court. The powerful work was leadership of the Gallery, the Fellowship recently supported critically acclaimed, mesmerising audiences through the research trips by Melanie Eastburn (senior curator of Asian symbolic moves and gestures between three dancers, art) to Japan; and Dr Lyu Xiao (director, Research Department, supported by abstract electronic music. Beijing Fine Art Academy) to the Gallery. Contributions to the Fellowship can still be made, in Edmund’s memory. For more Naomi Milgrom Foundation Sydney Community Foundation, The Japan Foundation details, please contact Tiffany Leece on 9225 1633 or view Sydney Women’s Fund and The Maybanke Fund That which we do not remember was a striking retrospective A grant from The Japan Foundation supported Japan online tinyurl.com/ECFellowship. exhibition curated by William Kentridge of his own work. Its A grant from Sydney Community Foundation’s Sydney supernatural packing and shipping costs, catalogue sophisticated presentation at the Gallery was made possible Women’s Fund and The Maybanke Fund, as well as Atelier production and travel for invited artists. City of Sydney through the generous support of Naomi Milgrom AO, principal and Women’s Art Group donors, enabled the Gallery to A community services grant from the City of Sydney exhibition patron and lender. The exhibition included one of produce a catalogue to accompany its Here we are Australia-Japan Foundation exhibition. Celebrating the work of 22 contemporary female supported the final year of RAW: an art creation and Kentridge’s most celebrated video installations, I am not me, An agency of the Australian Government’s Department of artists from around the world, the exhibition demonstrated engagement project for local disengaged youth in partnership the horse is not mine 2008 –a work donated to the Gallery Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australia-Japan Foundation the Gallery’s formal commitment to presenting and collecting with Artspace and Save the Children. It has culminated in by Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM. contributed to the costs of the participating Japanese artists women’s art. The catalogue ensures this recognition endures artworks that will be used on the hoardings around the in Japan supernatural. Gallery during its expansion. Nelson Meers Foundation beyond the exhibition. An inspired project, and the first in Australian art museums, Australia-Korea Foundation The Crown Resorts Foundation and Gandel Philanthropy the Gallery has recruited two Indigenous specialist guides to An agency of the Australian Government’s Department of Packer Family Foundation Major support from Gandel Philanthropy as Principal Patron lead daily tours of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australia-Korea Foundation and Public Programs Patron for Japan supernatural enabled The Crown Resorts Foundation and the Packer Family collection for visitors. Facilitated by a grant from the Nelson provided a generous multi-year grant for the development the exhibition to be accompanied by vibrant and enriching Foundation’s visionary grants continue to support strategic Meers Foundation, this expands the professional presence of of a major exhibition of contemporary Korean Art project to public programming for the Gallery’s diverse audiences. projects and development at the Gallery. An additional First Nation’s people at the Gallery and will embed Aboriginal open in 2021. grant from the Western Sydney Arts Initiative extends our perspectives in its working culture. It also makes it a Art Pathways program to 2022, enabling us to provide welcoming place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ishibashi Foundation Our grants manager Ivana Jirásek will be pleased to discuss customised teacher training, to develop resources, and to people to celebrate their art and culture. An inaugural grant from the Ishibashi Foundation supported short or long-term Gallery projects currently in need of cultivate partnerships with local art centres and participating costs associated with creation of new artwork by Takashi funding from grantmakers, whether trusts, philanthropic/ Western Sydney schools that ignites long-term student Murakami and his studio team. corporate foundations or government agencies. We invite you engagement with art. to call 9225 1734 or email [email protected]
Performance of Amrita Hepi’s The Tender 2019 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales as part of The National 2019
22 23 Viewings and events March – November 2020 program
Please check the dates of each event when you receive your invitation as programs are sometimes altered at short notice.
MAR APR MAY SEP/OCT NOV Under the stars Some mysterious Archibald, Wynne and Streeton Matisse: life & spirit, Private viewing process: 50 years Sulman Prizes 2020 Private viewing masterpieces from the Mon 23 Mar, 6pm or of collecting Private viewing Tue 29 Sep, 6pm or Centre Pompidou, Paris Wed 25 Mar, 9am international art Tue 5 May, 6pm or Thu 1 Oct, 9am Private viewing Opening/private Wed 13 May, 9am Mon 23 Nov, 6pm or viewing Thu 26 Nov, 9am Sat 18 Apr, 6pm or Foundation Gala Private viewing Dinner Wed 22 Apr, 9am Sat 21 Nov, 7pm
New Patrons July 2019 – January 2020 Foundation office
Gold Benefactor Steve Alexander Nasteski* BWS Jane Wynter Paradice Family Foundation SMP North Shore Coaching College LP Head of philanthropy Frank Watters OAM* AUS Meredith Paynter* INT tel: 9225 1818 (Mon – Thu) Mandy & Oliver Shaul OAM* CCB, AUS [email protected] Benefactor The Skrzynski Family Foundation* Atelier Douglas Kagi PDW Patrons Governors ANON x 3 Fiona Barbouttis Philanthropy manager Les Fallick ACB Diane Appleby & Lou Ewins ACB tel: 9225 1684 (Wed – Thu) Ellen Koshland INT Robert Boynes & Sarit Cohen AUS [email protected] Elisabeth Cummings AUS Fellows Paloma Garcia-Campo ACB, Atelier Estate of Grace Cossington Smith* AUS Katharine Glass, Christopher, Neil & Sue Hewitt* PDW, ACB, CCB Andrew Hobbs LIB Lisa-Marie Murphy Kimsooja ACB Helen Johns & Judith O’Callaghan ACB Philanthropy and development Matisse Mitelman CCB Saha Jones Atelier manager Chris & Kathy Parkin FoNZA Jumaadi & Siobhan Campbell Asian tel: 9225 1746 (Tue – Fri) Pigonetoo Pty Ltd ACB Simeon Kronenberg ACB [email protected]
Michael Francis McCorry AUS Donors Jennifer Quist CB Ainsworth Herschell Family* Atelier Ana Becerra Vaughan Rees ACB Hayley & James Baillie* Atelier Philanthropy coordinator Caroline Stephens CS Phillip Cox AO – Cox Family* VisAsia tel: 9225 1742 Rowena Talacko & Andrew Finckh CCB Brenda L Croft & Family ACB [email protected] Brodie Bourne Taylor CB Virginia Cuppaidge AUS Liz Thorp PDW Robert & Kate Foot PDW Xu & Guo Family VisAsia John Leece AM & Anne Leece SMP Yang Zichao & Family FDN Pernille Jack Joanna Mendelssohn AUS Philanthropy support officer Justin Miller* BWS tel: 9225 1682 [email protected] * Existing members who have upgraded FoNZA Friends of New Zealand Art ACB Aboriginal Collection Benefactors FDN Foundation Asian Asian Art Acquisition Fund INT International Art Acquisition Fund Atelier Atelier (Young patrons) LIB Research Library & Archive Yuan Liu AUS Australian Collection Benefactors LP Learning & Participation VisAsia coordinator BWS Brett Whiteley Studio PCB Photography Collection Benefactors CB Conservation Benefactors POP Promotion of Philanthropy tel: 9225 1791 (Mon – Wed) CCB Contemporary Collection Benefactors SMP Sydney Modern Project [email protected] CS Curatorial Support VisAsia VisAsia EUR European pre-20th century
Saha Jones Next generation development manager tel: 9225 1570 (Tue – Fri) [email protected]
Receive information on upcoming Gallery exhibitions and events with the monthly e-newsletter Artmail. To subscribe, email [email protected] Details about other aspects of the Gallery including the collection, annual reports and venue hire are available on the website: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au Thanks to the Greatorex Fund for funding this publication artgallery.nsw.gov.au