Underpinning most of these contributions are the indirect public monies comprising the tax-deductible dollars diverted through the Cultural Gifts Program. Of the 827 Art Gallery of New South Wales acquisitions in 2018, just 161 were outright purchases, and 666 were gifts or bequests. The NGA acquired 1351 works of art in 2018/19 valued at $11.1 million, and just under half - $5.3 million – were gifts. At the NGV, all but three of the acquisitions in the Australian art and photography categories were transferred through Cultural Gifts.
All the major galleries’ collections are bolstered by generous donations by artists or their families. Hayden Fowler gifted the NGA his significant installation, Australia, and Helen Smith and Arryn Snowball both donated artworks. At the AGNSW, artist Ben Quilty, who’s also a board member, donated one of his paintings, The Last Supper 2017. Artist donations also made a mark at the NGV; Col Jordan donated Daedalus – Series 5 (Redux), 1968; Kevin Lincoln gifted Night Garden V; and Ross Coulter donated his photographic series, Audience. Rosslynd’s Piggott installation, Extract: in 3 parts, and Uneasy seasons, by Fiona Hall, both donated by the artists, bolstered the NGV’s collection of contemporary art by women.
Estates and artists’ heirs also made significant contributions; through the Kemp Trust, the NGV received Roger Kemp’s Untitled, 1945-48, and Reconstructed forms, 1948-52; important works by Inge and Grahame King were donated by Joanna Tanaka-King and Angela Hey; the late Robert Jacks’ wife, Julienne, donated a sculpture and painting by her husband; and Lyn Williams gifted Fred Williams’ Knoll in the You Yangs, 1965. At the NGA, three artworks by the late William Delafield Cook were donated by his widow, Sally, and River, a major work by the late John Davis, was donated by Penelope Davis and Martin Davis. At the AGNSW, artists’ families and their bequests helped expand the collection in other ways; Jocelyn Plate donated a Paul Klee drawing, The three Orientals, 1914, in Carl Plate’s honour, while the Gil and Shay Docking Drawing Fund, and the Dobell Biennial Acquisition Fund financed the acquisition of a Locust Jones drawing, The end of the beginning, New Year’s Eve to April Fools.
Gallerists and art dealers proved to be generous donors, particularly in the Indigenous Australian art sector. At the NGV, Irene Sutton and Tim Klingender donated important artworks, and Beverly Knight with her husband Anthony gave thirty significant works of art by artists including Timothy Cook and Kitty Kantilla. The late gallerist, Lauraine Diggins, also donated a collection of Utopia batiks to the NGA. The NGV also acquired a collection of works by Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, Gäna (Self), Timothy Cook’s Kulama, and Cassie Leatham’s Mon Nange-Ngal (Healing mat).
One peculiarity in the NGV’s reporting is that it has all Indigenous Australian acquisitions grouped together as ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art’ in a subset of the ‘Australian Art’ category. This results in a rather peculiar list - for example, Destiny Deacon’s Smile is grouped with an early 20th century Tasmanian maireener shell necklace. In contrast, non-Indigenous Australian art is defined by curatorial department – multimedia, painting, and sculpture, for example. At the NGA, by comparison, acquisitions are grouped together as ‘Australian’ or ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art’, with subheadings in each for different media.
The generosity of individual philanthropists continues to grow the national estate. David Angel donated significant works of art by Indigenous Australian artists to the NGV, while Sue Kesteven gave a large collection of important work from Arnhem land to the NGA. Also at the NGA, the Gordon Darling Australia Pacific Print Fund continued to expand the nation’s most important print collection, with the acquisition of graphic work by John Wolseley, Brent Harris, Franz Kempf, Alison Alder, and Trevor Nickolls.
The NGV’s collection of work by female artists was given a boost by the generosity of Andrée Harkness who donated a vast collection of artworks by underrepresented women, including A.M.E. Bale, Jean Bellette, Amalie Colquhoun, Sybil Craig, Frances Derham, Bessie Gibson, Violet McInnes, Adelaide Perry, Jo Sweatman, and Dora Wilson. At the AGNSW, Geoff Ainsworth donated Tracey Emin’s appliqué blanket, I do not expect. But the NGA leads the field in righting the gender balance in their collection. Significant acquisitions of work by major female artists were made, including Angelica Mesiti’s Assembly, fresh from the Venice Biennale. Another important Biennale commission, Simryn Gill’s Eyes and storm, entered the collection as a donation of the artist. Danie Mellor’s nine-panel photographic work, Landstory was acquired, as was Patricia Piccinini’s provocative Skywhale.
To expand its international collection, NGA acquired Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama’s, THE SPIRITS OF THE PUMPKINS DESCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS, a key installation by one of the world’s most influential artists. The NGA has also shown itself willing to take on the unique curatorial challenges posed by many contemporary artworks. Francesco, a new acquisition by international superstar, Urs Fischer, is a shape-shifting wax model that will, by the end of the year, be reduced to a pile of rubble. A recent YouTube clip showed the head of the statue toppling onto the gallery floor.
The NGA is also growing its contemporary collection, adding important work by Indigenous Australian artists, Danie Mellor, Ricky Maynard, and Christian Thompson. Significant acquisitions of new media and post-conceptual art by Indigenous artists were also made by the NGV, including Hannah Brontë’s video, Umma’s Tongue – molten at 6000°, Steven Rhall’s Air dancer as black body, and Dean Cross’ The Yowie.
Although the NGV remains committed to expanding its historical European holdings – Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun’s A junior officer of the French Royal Infantry, c. 1773-75, and Nicolas de Largillière’s Portrait of a lady, 1705, were donated by Krystyna Campbell-Pretty – it’s also building its international contemporary collection. Transitivity, by the Indonesian art collective, TROMARAMA, was acquired, as was Saturday, a film by French artist, Camille Henrot. Xu Zhen’s monumental sculpture, Eternity Buddha in Nirvana, commissioned for the 2017 NGV Triennial, was acquired through the Loti and Victor Smorgon Fund; the gallery is looking to the 2020 Triennial as an opportunity to commission more work by senior and mid-career international artists.
