ace bourkea collector`s journey

Transcription

Ace Bourke A Collector’s Journey
Ace Bourke:
A Collector’s Journey
HAZELHURST REGIONAL GALLERY AND ARTS CENTRE
11 AUGUST – 23 SEPTEMBER 2012
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ACE BOURKE: A COLLECTOR’S JOURNEY
introduction
A Collector’s journey
Ace Bourke
I
have not thought of myself as a ‘collector’,
but a few years ago I had a large garage
sale of ‘my stuff’ that filled two floors of
a gallery. I was horrified at how much
material came out of my spare rooms,
cupboards and even from under the beds –
paintings, drawings, prints, carvings, shells, baskets
and textiles. It was actually a liberating experience
and I have only had the occasional pang of loss
when I have seen an object in a friend’s house.
We are really just temporary custodians.
The sale did not include my favourite and best
pieces that are now presented in Ace Bourke:
A Collector’s Journey, and the exhibition illustrates
many of the different aspects and approaches to
collecting which many people will identify with.
I will leave to the psychologists questions such as
when does ‘collecting’ become ‘hoarding’ and
when does ‘passion’ become ‘obsession’? As I
prepared for this exhibition I could clearly see
how our possessions are a map or a diary of the
narratives of our lives.
Nearly every family has collections, especially
of photographs. These are the documentation,
the history of our families. As a country of
immigrants, photographs are probably even more
important – memories of people and places left
behind, and the documentation of new lives.
Early colonial paintings for the wealthier certainly
have elements of flattery, aggrandisement, and
reinvention, for both a local audience, and for
relations back home. In the event of a fire, it is said
most people grab the photographic album,
although perhaps these days it is the laptop!
Other collections in families may include
childhood hobbies like stamp collecting and
coins, sports trophies, record or CD collections,
holiday souvenirs, inherited items from families –
or partners, and art and craft objects. Books are
another area of collection that reflect our interests
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such as sport, cooking and recipe books, or
childhood classics one cannot part with. In fact,
I quite irrationally want to replace any of the books
I have lost, like May Gibbs and her gumnut babies,
and I can still remember the evocative illustrations
of artists such as Arthur Rackman. While ebooks
may revolutionise publishing, I think books will
just increase in value as precious artefacts.
We also assemble what gives these collections
context: books; newspaper articles; photographs;
invitations; art reviews; and I have exhibited a
selection of my examples in display cases.
I inherited my appreciation of art from my
mother. My parents however did not collect art
seriously, although several of their friends did.
My mother could draw well, had a good colour
sense and a ‘good eye’, but I think I was especially
influenced by her very symmetrical and balanced
hanging of paintings, prints and mirrors in
our house.
I did not however inherit her middle-class
sensibility, such as tasteful botanical prints in
the dining room. My guests are greeted in my
living room by huge woven masks from Papua
New Guinea that were created and used to
ward off evil spirits.
I went to school in Sydney, and while I did not
step foot in the Art Department (and cannot
draw or paint), I began visiting galleries. The
first art purchased was an Aubrey Beardsley
print which I hung on Florence Broadhurst
bright orange wallpaper! I am also ashamed of
the Robert Dickerson charcoal portrait I bought
which I thought was edgy at the time, but in
hindsight, was very clichéd. I did buy a charming
Donald Friend drawing which I sold when I first
went overseas. Now, reflecting on my collection,
I have actually collected very little contemporary
Australian art. Interestingly, while I just love the
art of Ian Fairweather, Tony Tuckson or a current
Cover detail and frontispiece:
Billy Thomas
(Wangkajunga)
Warla – Kangaroo and Spear
Dreaming, 2001, natural earth
pigments and synthetic binder
on canvas, 70 x 45cm
© Billy Thomas/Licensed by
Viscopy, 2012
Ace Bourke at home,
Photographed by Stephen
Oxenbury, 2012
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artist like Ildiko Kovacs for example, financially
their paintings have always been out of my range
and I have sub-consciously just accepted this with
equanimity.
I have been given many artworks by generous
artists and friends. While I am most appreciative
and have grown very fond of them over the years,
people come to my house and presume they are
seeing my chosen favourites. However, sizes and
the available wall space often dictate where
artworks are hung. There are other factors to
consider too; such as sunlight, and while some
works need to be viewed from a distance, others
need to be seen up close.
As an art curator with a long career and wide
interests, it was inevitable that I accumulated much
material over the years. There is an ethical question
about dealers buying art, but I almost never bought
from exhibitions ahead of the public. Some just
remained unsold, seemingly with ‘my name on it’.
I was a curator of Aboriginal art at a crucial
time when it emerged into the broader art world,
nationally and internationally, and I witnessed
several very important collections being assembled
by wealthy patrons and art institutions. What I
bought seemed very insignificant in comparison.
While most galleries are owned by wealthy
people, staff have historically been poorly paid, so
without a family fortune behind me, my collecting
ambitions were limited from the start. Fortunately,
I have not had a mortgage, or a family to support.
In the 1990s at the Hogarth Galleries,
Paddington, I did sell many paintings by the
famous Aboriginal artists Emily Kngwarreye and
Rover Thomas, and while they were beyond my
budget even at the time, they would have been
an excellent investment. Many of those paintings
are now worth several hundred thousand dollars.
My advice to collectors has always been to look,
research, talk to experts, and aim to buy a few very
significant pieces, but ironically I have not taken
my own advice.
I travelled each year to remote Aboriginal art
centres and bought many paintings to sell to clients.
Perhaps this satisfied an urge to buy personally,
although like most gifts I give other people, the
paintings were usually something I would rather
like myself.
In my mind I have been an almost accidental
collector, but there are two areas where I have
consciously collected with a passion. After starting
to work in the field of Aboriginal art in the early
1980s, I especially loved the big Aboriginal bark
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introduction
rea
(Gamilaroi)
from Look Who’s Calling the
Kettle Black series, 1992,
mixed media, 20 x 25cm
Clinton Nain
(Meriam Mer / Ku-ku)
Two Natives Dancing, 1998,
laser print (diptych),
45 x 64cm
Don Lantjin
(Port Keats)
Untitled, c.1985,
ochres on bark,
108 x 49cm
Carving
(Papua New Guinea),
c.1980, wood, dimensions
variable
Roy Kennedy (Wiradjuri),
Simple Life, 2002, etching,
edition 9/10, 15 x 15cm
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introduction
paintings from northern Australia. The emergence
of the Papunya desert paintings in the early 1970s
led to a greater interest in all Aboriginal art.
With a growing and appreciative market, the bark
painters began painting on a much larger scale.
I collected primarily, but not exclusively, totemic
animal images, and it is these bark paintings which
form the centrepiece of A Collector’s Journey.
More recently, after staging several exhibitions
involving colonial material for the first time,
I became fascinated by colonial prints. As a
descendant of a First Fleeter, Second Lieutenant
Philip Gidley King, and other subsequent colonial
families, I tried to confine myself to works that
actually had some family relationship or link. While
I do not like the idea of marvellous books published
in the late 18th and early 19th century being broken
up for sale, I became extremely enthusiastic about
some of their illustrations and fortunately these
individual plates are in a price range I can afford.
I became particularly interested in the convict
artist Joseph Lycett who published his Views in
Australia or New South Wales, & Van Diemen’s
Land in England in 1824. I can confess to waiting
anxiously at dealers’ doors early in the morning
for sales, or nervously attending auctions, a little
alarmed at my competitiveness. I certainly can
identify with that feeling “I just have to have that”,
or “I can’t live without that” which can strike
unexpectedly. For me this is often accompanied
by feeling faintly nauseous from a combination of
guilt at wanting to possess so badly and at my
own extravagance.
Like most people I love travelling to different
countries and cultures and this can be a source of
collecting, often as a souvenir of the experience.
I do not lie in the sun by the pool or on the
beach, and I would prefer to ‘do’ something. For
example, when I began travelling to India, given my
background in Aboriginal art, it was natural that I
began to look for Indian tribal art which was quite
hard to locate in the 1980s, but very inexpensive.
W. Blake
from a sketch by Governor King
A Family of New South Wales
1792, engraving,
25 x 20.3cm
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Michael Riley
(Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi)
Nanny Wright and dog, 1990,
from the series A common
place: Portraits of Moree
Murries, 1990, gelatin silver
photograph, 55.0 x 39.0cm
© Michael Riley Foundation,
courtesy Stills Gallery, Sydney
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FAMILY
In 1998 I was invited to propose an exhibition
for the Museum of Sydney. It was anticipated I
would curate an exhibition around artist friends
and Sydney-siders such as Martin Sharp, Peter
Tully and William Yang. The Museum of Sydney
was understandably much more interested in
retrieving the untold histories of convicts, women
and Aboriginal people, as opposed to the ‘Master
Narrative’. However, as my ancestors had lived on
the site when it was First Government House,
I felt I had to respond to this. My mother was
descended from Governor Philip Gidley King
(1800-1806) and my father from Governor Bourke
(1831 -1837). Flesh & Blood: A Story of Sydney
1788-1998 gave me the opportunity for the first
time to examine my family history. People usually
become more interested in their own family
histories when they are older, although many people
of all ages are now enthusiastically researching on
the internet, and various television programs are
devoted to researching family genealogies. In my
experience, women are usually the custodians of
family material, while it is the men who are the
often obsessive family historians. I knew there was
marvellous material in the Mitchell Library to
draw on to tell my Sydney story, and many items
still in the possession of various family members.
The exhibition was presented in association with
the State Library of NSW as it was the most loans
they had ever lent to another institution.
One conceptual framework for Flesh & Blood
was my mother’s grouping at home of a mixture
of paintings of our colonial ancestors, prints and
more recent family photographs, all together on a
wall. Unfortunately none of the artworks are by
artists such as Conrad Martens that other family
members had inherited.
Flesh & Blood was a turning point in my life
as it introduced me to colonial material and
curating for museums. I was extremely fortunate
to meet Elizabeth Ellis, then Curator of Pictures at
the Mitchell Library, and every Monday afternoon
for several months I would meet with her and she
would show me family items she particularly liked
or regarded as important, as we worked our way
through different branches of the family. Sydney
was an incestuously small colonial society, and
these families had ensured the documentation of
their lives was deposited into the Mitchell Library.
This is my favourite way of learning – with
an absolute expert, who is patient and generous
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family
enough to share their invaluable knowledge.
Elizabeth Ellis’ ultimate compliment was when
she said that in Flesh & Blood she looked at
these items “afresh”.
One ancestor was D.S. Mitchell who assembled
one of the largest collections in the world of a
particular subject - Australasia and the Pacific
region, and his donation of over 40,000 items of
books, maps, documents, and paintings became
the basis of the Mitchell Library, completed just
after his death.
For Flesh & Blood I assembled a huge collection
of paintings, early photographs, journals, personal
items, family bibles and other memorabilia, that
all told a story of Sydney, and I hoped would
encourage people to think about their own stories,
and illustrate how individuals and communities
contribute to developing cities.
Included in A Collector’s Journey is my personal
collection of works such as a lithograph of Richard
Bourke I found at the South Dowling Street
markets, a postcard and print of his statue which
stands outside the Mitchell Library, a portrait of
his wife Elizabeth Bourke by Richard Read Jnr.
given to my parents by a friend, a print of the King
family, and early photographs of family houses.
Our family stories, memories and lives are
embedded in these objects.
Hardy Wilson
Subiaco, Rydalmere, NSW
1923, Collotype print
33.7 x 25cm
Artist unknown
Sir Richard Bourke
date unknown, lithograph
41 x 35cm
King Family, 1799, print,
29.5 x 38cm. Based on original
painting by Robert Dighton
William McLeod
Governor Phillip Gidley King
c. 1886, engraving, 14.5 x 11cm
Joseph Lycett
View of Hobart Town, 1824,
hand coloured aquatint, 18 x 28cm
From Joseph Lycett’s Views in
Australia or New South Wales,
& Van Diemen’s Land. Published
London July 1st 1824 by J. Souter
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colonial art
COLONIAL ART
At the time of Flesh & Blood I met Keith
Vincent Smith who had written the biographies of
Bungaree and Bennelong and he became my next
mentor. Why research painstakingly yourself in
particular fields when you have these extraordinary
experts who have started many years before you?
Like most members of the public I had no idea that
a few people like Keith Vincent Smith knew so
much about the original inhabitants of Sydney.
I did not realise he could identify many of the
portraits of Indigenous people in the colonial
material, that most of us thought were ‘anonymous’
subjects, and that he was even assembling their
family genealogies. I thought this information
should be much more widely known, and we
proposed an exhibition at the Mitchell Library.
Keith Vincent Smith and I co-curated EORA
Mapping Aboriginal Sydney 1770-1850 in 2006,
based entirely on his research.
These were the Aboriginal people families
like mine had dispossessed. It was also my
private tribute and thank-you to D.S. Mitchell.
Mitchell realised the importance of collecting
primary sources, which is enabling many
Aboriginal histories – and much else, to continue
to be retrieved.
At the time of the exhibition I purchased
the engravings of Cour rou-bari-gal (which I
particularly loved) and Y-erran-gou-la-ga (more
because it paired well), based on paintings by
Nicholas-Martin Petit. But I really coveted the
engraving of Gnoung-a-gnoung-a, mour-re-mourga, which was the signature image of the EORA
exhibition. Finally I located one, but annoyingly it
is from a later edition (c. 1824) of Francois Peron’s
book, Voyage de decouvertes aux terres Australes,
Paris, and the image is slightly smaller. The Roman
numerals on the plate numbers indicate the c.1808
edition. This is a good example of a collector’s
dilemma: wait and try and get one from the same
edition that matched, or buy this one when I had
the opportunity?
I have of course been tempted to extend my
collection of early prints to other subjects and
regions. When I was in Istanbul in 2003 I bought
some exquisite prints, although I have so far
resisted buying colonial material in India. I looked
admiringly at prints of the plants and birds of
Australia, and I could justify buying the c.1864
lithographs of exceptional botanical artists Harriet
and Helena Scott as they are my distant relations.
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Above:
Barthelemy Roger
after Nicolas-Martin Petit
Nouvelle-Hollande,
Y-erran-gou-la-ga
1808-1811, hand coloured
engraving, 32 x 25cm. From
Francois Peron, Voyage
decouvertes aux terres
Australes, Paris 1808/1811
Opposite:
Barthelemy Roger
after Nicolas-Martin Petit
Nouvelle-Hollande,
Cour-rou-bari-gal
1808-1811, hand coloured
engraving, 32 x 25cm. From
Francois Peron, Voyage
decouvertes aux terres
Australes, Paris 1808/1811
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I did become a little obsessed with the work
of convict artist Joseph Lycett, an addiction I
could just afford. Only 100 of his book Views in
Australia or New South Wales were published in
1824. I have included a facsimile of the book (which
I think was printed in the 1970s) in the exhibition.
Initially I desperately wanted his North View of
Sidney, as an early view of Sydney. As I grew up
in Newcastle I then wanted this image. I love his
work, even if it can be described as ‘picturesque’.
I especially like his skies, but not his stick figures.
I think the View of the Heads is just beautiful.
I found two versions of this image, and as they
are hand-coloured, they had faintly different
shades of green which made my choice agonising!
Despite the great interest in Europe for Australia
and the Pacific region, his publication was not a
commercial success, and Lycett sadly reoffended
and then killed himself.
In 2008 I was able to combine my love of
colonial material and contemporary Aboriginal
art in the exhibition Lines in the Sand: Botany
Bay stories from 1770 at Hazelhurst Regional
Gallery & Arts Centre. Artists such as Daniel Boyd
and Jonathan Jones articulated and expressed so
well and interestingly an Aboriginal perspective on
the events of 1770 and 1788.This exhibition grew
out of my Master of Arts thesis at the University of
Wollongong which examined the autobiographical
nature of my curatorship, and the interweaving of
Indigenous and non-Indigenous narratives.
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colonial art
Right:
Joseph Lycett
View of the Heads, 1824,
hand coloured aquatint,
18 x 28cm. From Joseph
Lycett’s Views in Australia
or New South Wales, & Van
Diemen’s Land. Published
London July 1st 1824 by
J. Souter
Below:
Joseph Lycett
Newcastle, 1824, hand
coloured aquatint,
18 x 28cm. From Joseph
Lycett’s Views in Australia
or New South Wales, & Van
Diemen’s Land. Published
London July 1st 1824 by
J. Souter
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friends
FRIENDS
My return from London to Australia in 1974
coincided with the excitement of Gough Whitlam
and the Labor Party finally in power. I had just
come from the US and seen how popular indoor
plants were becoming (we take this for granted
now), and with no experience I opened an indoor
plant shop called Venus Fly Trap in the Strand
Arcade in the city. Jenny Kee had earlier returned
from London and had a shop in the arcade called
Flamingo Park, and her fashion parades (with
Linda Jackson) added to the excitement and fun
of the times. With their love of Australia, and
inspired by the bush, Jenny and Linda made
Australiana fashionable again.
Throughout my life my timing has been rather
out of sync: sometimes a little behind; sometimes
a little ahead. I had arrived in London in 1969
which was the tail-end of Swinging London, and
I returned to Sydney after Martin Sharp and others
(including Peter Wright, Albie Thoms, Jon Lewis,
Peter Kingston, Bruce Goold, and Dick Weight)
had opened – and closed, the Yellow House in Potts
Point in the early 1970s. This was a creative artistic
endeavour that inspired and changed lives. These
artists were primarily producing pop and figurative
work while abstract expressionism still seemed to
dominate most galleries. Most of my friends were
artists, or deeply interested in art, and this was
the milieu I enjoyed. Despite having no formal art
training or deep knowledge of art history, I decided
to try and promote some of them, and possibly
make a career in the art world.
I opened Ace’s Art Shop in Edgecliff, Sydney, and
I was particularly indebted to Mandy and the late
Peter Wright who lived in the apartment upstairs,
and who encouraged, guided and educated me.
My first sale was to a dope dealer. Although
it was difficult financially, I loved it immediately
and exhibited artists such as Jeannie Baker, Peter
Tully and Peter Kingston. I had visitors I did not
recognise such as the then Director of the National
Gallery of Australia, and some newsworthy sales
to actors Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Peter
O’Toole and Sammy Davis Jnr.
I think I am a junkie for the ‘new’ in that I am
often attracted to art that is fresh and original,
and I want to exhibit it and promote it. Overall
I do not think my judgement has been wrong in
many instances. I was never a good salesman, but I
always believed if the work was good it would find
a market or an owner.
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Ian Bent’s Untitled painting of a ceramic rabbit
and sheep is a good example of how paintings have
come into my life. It was in the stock-room at the
Hogarth Galleries and was hung in the Annual
Sale. He paints superbly and I love the quite surreal
quality in much of Ian’s work, and his skies and
clouds especially. When he was young he lived
with the artist Jeffrey Smart in Italy and I think Ian
influenced Jeffrey as much as vice-versa. I liked this
particular painting but preferred others I had seen.
I heard my co-director encouraging a friend
of hers to buy the painting, and suddenly I could
not bear the thought of losing it and insisted –
rather forcefully – on buying it myself. It has moved
with me to several different houses over the years
and because it is large, it always has to go on a
major wall. For this reason visitors presume that it
is one of my most favourite paintings. It polarises
people who either love it or hate it, but to me it is
now just part of my life. Oddly, I found another
painting by Ian in a Paddington garage sale!
Jenny Kee
Black Opal, 1981, silk
handkerchief, 20 x 20cm
Ian Bent
Untitled, 1989, oil on
canvas, 127 x 147.5cm
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Ace’s Art Shop was just a shop and it was soon
obvious I needed more space to stage bigger
exhibitions. Martin Sharp linked me to the
Hogarth Galleries in Paddington where the owner
Clive Evatt and I shared an interest in many of the
same artists. Half the gallery complex was the first
commercial gallery of Aboriginal art in Australia,
and I had been finding myself irresistibly drawn
there, realising that the Aborigines and their art
was THE extraordinary Australian story.
I staged some exciting shows by various artists
at the Hogarth Galleries, including the first major
exhibitions by Peter Tully and David McDiarmid.
Historically these are now regarded as the first ‘gay’
exhibitions, although at the time we regarded them
as just very original and amusing. All the openings
were fun. The late 1970s into the 1980s was an
exciting time in Sydney (I do not think it was just
because we were young) and much of that aspect
of our lives was documented by William Yang in
photographs and in his books like Sydney Diary
1974-1984.
I realise now, many of the works in A Collector’s
Journey are generous gifts of the artists and friends
I worked with. It is obvious I did not seriously
collect contemporary Australian art, and that I
like funkier, pop, and more unusual works.
Several of the very talented artists never really got
the reputations they deserved like the late Peter
Wright and Ian Bent, while some like Anthony
Chan and Richard Liney even stopped making art
for a considerable time. Art careers require regular
exhibitions that build reputations, good gallery
support and promotion, and the ability to bring
your audience with you. These days some artists
seem more like corporate players.
After the Hogarth Galleries (the first time),
I became Director of the Crafts Council of
Australia Gallery at The Rocks. This has been my
only institutional job. It was an interesting time
when craft had very influential advocates, and the
line between art and craft was blurred and debated.
I was an unashamed snob, which I thought was
needed at the time, and I exhibited artists such as
ceramist Stephen Benwell, Jeannie Baker and
Peter Tully.
An American, Douglas Fuchs, was awarded a
Crafts Council of Australia Fellowship in 1981 and
through his workshops and his exhibition Floating
Forest - a monumental magical fibre forest, he
influenced many people, including myself. With
a background in basketry, his sculptural totem
pieces were woven out of natural materials and
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friends
Opposite page, clockwise
from top left:
Jukupa
Luk Luk Gen! Look Again!,
1991, exhibition poster,
60 x 42cm
David McDiarmid
Peter Tully ‘Jewellery’
exhibition poster, c.1982,
poster, 76 x 51cm
Urban Tribalwear, Peter
Tully, c. 1983, exhibition
poster
Tiwi Designs, 1983,
exhibition poster, 59 x 42cm
Martin Sharp
‘Visions’ Paris Theatre, 1978,
poster, 113 x 87cm
© Martin Sharp/Licensed by
Viscopy, 2012
Living in the Pacific, 1983,
exhibition poster,
47.5 x 42.5cm
Peter Wright
Ace’s Art Shop, 1976,
screenprint, edition 37/50,
54 x 37cm
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utilised palm fronds, and made us look at the natural
world in a new way. Fortunately Floating Forest was
purchased by the Powerhouse Museum, and was
recently re-staged at a regional gallery in Ararat.
Douglas and I were both attracted to Aboriginal
and Pacific art and (with Jenny Kee) we discovered
the New Guinea Arts and Crafts Gallery in Sydney
supplied by missionaries working in Papua New
Guinea. I loved the dramatic woven masks, boldly
decorated shields, many carvings, the colours of the
woven billums, and the simplicity of the ceramics.
It was such a vibrant and unique culture on
Australia’s doorstep. Fortunately many of these items
were cheap, and I was able to buy some marvellous
pieces. From this point on a ‘Pacific look’ has
dominated at home for me, but I suspect I have been
‘shabby chic’ or ‘distressed’ even before the words
were coined.
Ironically while I became much more interested in
craft that was simple, natural and more grass roots,
Douglas Fuchs became very interested in the work
of Peter Tully and his utilisation and weaving of
plastic materials! Sadly both Peter and Douglas
died a few years later.
In 1983, after an unsuccessful attempted
partnership with a commercial gallery, I had to go
in another direction. I thought I should stage an
exhibition that tried to raise consciousness of the fact
that we lived in the Pacific. In fact all the works were
available in Sydney although it was assumed I had
been travelling and collecting in the Pacific. Apart
from Papuan New Guinea art, I included tapa cloth,
woven Maori baskets (called ketes), huge sculptural
baskets made out of thick lawyer vines from
Queensland and even traditional woven basketry
from Japan. The Living in the Pacific exhibition
which was staged in The Rocks was successful,
even though we still have an uneasy and a not
especially helpful attitude to our Pacific neighbours
decades later.
Importantly, it was the first time I had actively
sourced Aboriginal art, and this led to me being
asked to run a government-funded Aboriginal art
gallery in The Rocks.
Even in the early 1980s I was faintly uncomfortable
as a non-Indigenous person running an Indigenous
art gallery, even for a primarily non-Indigenous
clientele. What changed was the emergence of a very
exciting and successful generation of urban-based
Aboriginal artists, writers and curators.
The Hogarth Galleries became entirely devoted to
Aboriginal art, and I returned there as a co-director
with Helen Hansen during the 1990s.
20
friends
Anthony Chan
Lan-choo !@x!!, 1975, acrylic
on paper, 36 x 35.5cm
Bird Pot
(Aibom, Sepik River,
Papua New Guinea), c.1980,
clay, dimensions variable
Daniel Wallace
Mavis the Kangaroo, 2009,
river rocks, milk paint on
plywood, 61 x 51cm
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aboriginal art
ABORIGINAL ART
I was extremely lucky to witness the unfolding
of the Papunya desert art movement which began
in the early 1970s and has been described by Time
magazine’s art critic Robert Hughes as one of the
world’s major art movements of the latter 20th
century. These artists spear-headed a wider interest
in Aboriginal art, and Aboriginal art became the
government’s cultural face to the world. Several
international collectors actually began collecting
seriously, ahead of most of our major
art institutions.
As I have said I was fortunate to travel each year
on behalf of the Hogarth Galleries to many remote
Aboriginal communities, in the north, northwest and Central and Western deserts during the
1990s. Dazzling as so many of the desert paintings
continue to be, I actually did not feel I had to own
them, and I only have a few minor examples.
I was the first to exhibit Rover Thomas on
the east coast, after spotting (and buying very
cheaply) a painting by him out the back of a gallery
in Darwin in 1986. Rover Thomas and Emily
Kngwarreye, who I also exhibited, deservedly
22
Right:
Rover Thomas
(Kukatja/Wangkajunga)
Two Hills,Two Breasts,
1986, ochres on board,
39 x 49cm © the estate
of Rover Thomas and the
Warmun Art Centre
Below:
Eubena Nampitjin
(Kukaja)
Country, c.1997,
serigraph, edition 11/25
© Eubena Nampitjin /
Licensed by Viscopy, 2012
23
became the biggest names in Aboriginal art.
Their communities and families benefited
enormously from their success. My sister and I
were lucky enough to visit Utopia in 1995 where
we witnessed, and I videoed, Emily painting her
huge masterpiece Big Yam Dreaming, which is in
the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.
I was however, particularly interested in the
emergence of an extraordinary urban generation
of Aboriginal artists that emerged in the 1980s.
Koorie Art’84 was the first exhibition of ‘urban
Aboriginal art’, as it was described at the time.
This extraordinary movement has not as yet been
particularly well-documented. Many of the artists
were the first to benefit from access to art schools,
including Tracey Moffatt and Gordon Bennett,
who are probably the best known Australian
artists internationally.
At this time several excellent non-Indigenous
photographers – like the late Penny Tweedie,
Wes Stacey, Juno Gemes, Jon Rhodes, Jon Lewis,
Sandy Edwards and others, were taking exceptional
photographs of Aboriginal people, with their
blessing. In 1986 I wanted to stage an exhibition of
their photographs and after seeing Tracey Moffatt’s
now classic photograph of David Gulpilil on Bondi
Beach The Movie Star, I wrote to her and asked
her to participate as well. She said it should only
be Aboriginal photographers and I enthusiastically
agreed, and that was when I met Michael Riley,
Mervyn Bishop, Brenda Croft and others.
Gael Newton, Curator of Photography at
the National Gallery of Australia wrote that
the NADOC’86 Exhibition of Aboriginal and
Islander photographers was “strategic and savvy,
successfully positioning the work in the art gallery
scene......Each exhibitor subtly undermined the
deadweight legacy of ethnographic documents and
negative media stereotypes”.1
Tracey Moffatt and Michael Riley became my
close friends, and following their illustrious careers
has been fascinating, although Michael Riley very
sadly died in 2004. As you can see in A Collector’s
Journey, both were very generous with their gifts
to me. Aboriginal people seem to have a deeper
appreciation and understanding of the importance
of family, and Michael and Tracey, along with
curator and writer Hetti Perkins, were the first
friends that drew out of me my colonial family
history. They encouraged me to tell my story, even
though my ancestors represented the people that
had dispossessed Aboriginal people.
24
aboriginal art
Michael Riley
Adam, 1990, from the series
Portraits by a window, 1990,
gelatin silver photograph,
30 x 24cm © Michael Riley
Foundation, courtesy
Stills Gallery, Sydney
Michael Riley
(Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi
Hetti, 1990, from the series
Portraits by a window, 1990,
gelatin silver photograph,
30 x 24m © Michael Riley
Foundation, courtesy
Michael Riley
Kristina, 1986, gelatin silver
photograph, from the series
Portraits by a window, 1990 ,
29.7cm x 59.6cm © Michael
Riley Foundation, courtesy
25
aboriginal art
In 1987 I was asked to curate an exhibition for
the Portsmouth Arts Festival. Art & Aboriginality
was the first time urban-based Aboriginal art
was combined with work from more remote and
traditional areas, and shown internationally.
Tracey Moffatt was invited as a participating artist.
The First Fleet re-enactment was about to sail from
Portsmouth to Australia for the 1988 Bicentennial
celebrations, led by my cousin Jonathan King
(our ancestor Second Lieutenant Philip Gidley
King was on the First Fleet). Tracey was escorted
away by the police for protesting at the Fleet
flying an Aboriginal flag, and was subsequently
jailed overnight.
Michael Riley, Tracey Moffatt, Fiona Foley,
Avril Quail, Brenda Croft, Bronwyn Bancroft,
Jeffrey Samuels and others opened Boomalli
Aboriginal Artists Co-operative in Sydney in 1987.
This was to enable them to represent themselves
more effectively, and to support other artists.
The best artists were, by now, also represented
by mainstream commercial galleries. Strangely,
while other extremely good urban-based
Aboriginal artists keep emerging, a second
extraordinary generation on the scale of the first
never materialised.
While there have been quite a few art dealers
who have made significant contributions, I do
think the Hogarth Galleries and one or two other
galleries greatly assisted integrating Aboriginal art
into the mainstream art world. Frankly, it was also
the only Australian art the world was interested in,
although some non-Indigenous people and artists
found this hard to accept.
Tracey Moffatt
Something More # 7,
1989, series of 9 images,
cibachrome, 98 × 127cm,
edition of 30. Courtesy the
artist and Roslyn Oxley9
Gallery, Sydney
Tracey Moffatt
Doll Birth 1972, 1994, series
of 9 images, off set print,
80 × 60cm, edition of 50.
Courtesy the artist and
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
26
Opposite page:
Tracey Moffatt
Some Lads # 1, 1986, series
of 5 images, photograph
20 x 24cm, edition of 30.
Courtesy the artist and
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
27
bark painting
BARK PAINTINGS
I found myself mysteriously drawn to bark
paintings, although it was not love at first sight.
They were an acquired taste. People tend to think
that bark paintings from northern Australia,
are more ‘authentic’ than desert paintings that
have been transposed onto boards and canvas.
Although paintings were made on the inside of bark
shelters, on rock art sites over many generations,
as body designs and on log coffins, bark painting
is itself an innovation. They were a portable way
of responding to the demands for examples of
their culture by early explorers, missionaries and
anthropologists. The earliest bark painting is in
the Macleay Museum, Sydney University and was
collected in Port Essington in 1878.
With the growing interest and market for
Aboriginal art from the 1970s, the bark painters
seemed to enjoy painting on a larger scale. I did
consciously begin to collect bark paintings and
I could afford them. I began with totemic animals
from Western Arnhem Land, but of course I
could not resist others by artists from other clans.
The artists worked very hard on their crosshatching, the fine in-fill called raark, which is
very time consuming. Sometimes family members
assist, which has been extremely educative for
younger generations. The artists strive to create
a shimmering optical effect which animates the
painting with the spiritual power of the subject.
The desert paintings on canvas are more
colourful, are a familiar shape and easier to
assimilate into people’s lives and houses. Barks
are a little more foreign and have never been as
popular. There is an unwarranted concern about
conservation. Like all art work however, they have
to be hung in an appropriate position. Orchid juice
was a traditional fixative for the ochres onto the
bark, but for decades now, synthetic and effective
fixatives have been used.
David Milaybuma
(Gunwinggu)
Namangwari the saltwater
crocodile, 1982, ochres on
bark, 132 x 47cm. © the artist
2012 licensed by Aboriginal
Artists Agency Ltd
28
Crusoe Kuningbal
(Gunwinggu)
Ngalyod, 1982,
ochres on bark, 76 x 37cm
Mick Gubargu
(Gunwinggu)
Mimi Spirits, c.1985,
29
bark painting
I think bark paintings are one of the few remaining
areas of Aboriginal art to still be undervalued,
despite the bark painters from north-east Arnhem
Land producing some of the best Aboriginal art in
recent years. They are proving to be very innovative
within a traditional framework, and have been
achieving high prices.
The 1990s witnessed the influence of auction
houses. They virtually eliminated stock-room
dealing by galleries, income which had often
underpinned more adventurous exhibition
programs. With the success of Aboriginal art
and the inordinate number of good artists,
the market has suffered from over-production.
It has consequently divided into the valuable fine
art at the top end, and accomplished but decorative
and repetitious work. Auction houses have
undoubtedly expanded the audience, but have
rather flooded the market.
No one has really succeeded in marketing
Aboriginal art internationally, and despite a few
major museum exhibitions, I do not think it has
been promoted as effectively and strategically as it
deserves to be.
Above:
Lily Karedada
(Wanambul)
Wandjina, c.1984,
© Lily Karedada /Licensed by
Viscopy, 2012
Joe Djimbangu
(Gupapuynga)
Wagilag Sisters, c.1985,
30
Left:
Wakuthi Marawili
(Madarrpa)
Fire Dreaming with Dugong,
c.1982, ochres on bark ,
134 x 43cm
31
travel
TRAVEL
Like most people I love travelling. As I said before,
I like to ‘do’ something. For example, once I began
to go to India in the early 1980s I just loved it and
returned year after year. Because of my background
in Aboriginal art I was especially interested in
Indian tribal art.
I visited the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, Madhya
Pradesh, which was one of the first museums to
collect tribal art, as well as contemporary Indian
art. I was fortunate to meet the artist Jangarh Singh
Shyam from the Gond tribe working on some prints
there, and he went on to become one of India’s best
known tribal artists. I began to collect his work.
It was at Gallery Chemould in Mumbai that
I first saw Warlis paintings, a tribal group from
a nearby mountain region. In New Delhi, in the
State of Bihar Emporium, I sorted through literally
hundreds of paintings called Madhubani, the
name of the originating villages in northern Bihar.
In 1995 I visited the south of Bihar, and up in the
remote hills met artists such as Putli Gangu, and I
initiated some of the first exhibitions of Khovar art.
Another year I went on a ‘tribal’ tour in Orissa with
Jenny Kee and her then partner the late Danton
Hughes. I will never forget Jenny Kee being swept
up into a marriage procession that spontaneously
broke into a dance around her.
The experience of these trips led me to being
invited to stage an exhibition in 1987 of early
Papunya paintings from the Art Gallery of Western
Australia at the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
on behalf of the Australian Government. In 1999
I also staged an exhibition of north-east Arnhem
Land bark paintings, as part of a cultural exchange
at the Crafts Museum, New Delhi. Aboriginal
artist Djambawa Marawili and his wife worked
collaboratively with Jangarh Singh Shyam and his
family. Jangarh sadly died in 2001.
While contemporary Indian art has been
flourishing, the tribal artists have struggled to
overcome entrenched racism and social prejudice.
Like Indigenous people everywhere, they are
mostly excluded from mainstream society, and
their livelihoods, rights and futures are threatened
by the competition for resources, especially in
the diminishing forests. It was salutary for the
Indians to see the respect Australians seemed to
accord the art of our Indigenous people, with the
excellent exhibition, Eye of the Storm, sent from
the National Gallery of Australia to the National
Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi in 1996.
32
Putli Ganju, Bihar, India
Photograph by
Ace Bourke, 1995
Putli Ganju
(Bihar, India)
Cat, c.1995, vegetable dye,
clay on paper, 56 x 71cm
Jangarh Singh Shyam
(Madhyar Pradesh, India)
Lizard, 1989, acrylic on paper,
44 x 33cm
Warlis tribe
(India)
The Sadhu’s Daughter, white
rice flour paste and ochre on
calico, ochre on calico,
18 x 22cm
33
From time to time at the Hogarth Galleries
throughout the 1990s, I staged several
exhibitions of Indian tribal art, but also other
art that interested me and provided a context
or comparison for Aboriginal art, such as
contemporary Papuan New Guinea art. I was
in a curatorial team that staged Luk Luk Gen!
Look Again! in 1990, one of the first touring
exhibitions of contemporary Papuan New
Guinea art that had emerged from art workshops
in Port Moresby in the early 1970s. Akis and
Kuage, possibly the best known of these artists,
are included in A Collector’s Journey.
On one trip to India I saw a textile I liked at a
market in New Delhi. It was from Bhutan and in
the absence of any other examples it was difficult
to compare and assess the quality or value.
I could not resist buying it however, and on my
return to Sydney I saw an advertisement for an
exhibition of Bhutanese textiles. I bought several
more textiles from the dealer, and over the next
few years staged several exhibitions with her and
other people that collected or sold textiles.
On my first visit to Bali everything I looked
at in shops seemed a reproduction, but I loved
the imported basketry from Borneo and West
Timorese woven textiles (called tais). I was still
looking for more tais in shops on the way to the
airport. I also visited East Timor and spent much
of each day in the tais market in Dili, infuriating
the poor stall-holders, while I took days to get
my eye in and decide what I wanted to buy.
In A Collector’s Journey there are some
African pieces bought more recently that reminds
me of my visits to Africa in the early 1970s.
A friend John Rendall and I had unexpectedly
bought a lion from Harrods department store
and lived with him in London. Fortunately
there was the opportunity to take Christian to
Kenya and have him rehabilitated into a natural
life by George Adamson, of Born Free fame.
Our reunion with Christian a year later became
an internet sensation. I have included in the
exhibition my personal collection of photographs
of Christian, and other memorabilia. In Africa
I loved the cheap and brightly coloured saronglike kangas (made in China), the beaded Masai
necklaces, and fine carvings which like Papuan
New Guinean art, are now very rare and
valuable.
34
travel
Kuba wrap
(Zaire, Africa)
c.1950
Woman’s Kira
(Eastern Bhutan)
mid-late 20th century, silk
supplementary weft on cotton,
chemical and natural colours,
Opposite page:
Lena Pwerle
(Ahalpere)
Untitled silk batik length,
c. 2000, silk
35
travel
Looking back, my African adventure changed
my life. I made a lifelong commitment to the
conservation of wildlife and the environment.
It also introduced me to a people and their
culture and art which fascinated me, and on my
return to Australia led me to discover the cultural
richness our own Indigenous people.
I was also influenced by the books on Africa
by American artist and photographer Peter
Beard. I loved his innovative mix and collaging
of his own arresting photographs of the people
and animals of Africa with archival colonial
material and photographs; the old and new,
and the ugliness and beauty of humanity. My
experiences and influences in Africa, visiting
some of the great art galleries and museums of
Europe and America, and the influence of my
friends, have all been contributing factors that
ultimately set me on my life’s direction, much of
it told and illustrated in A Collector’s Journey.
Endnotes
1. Newton, G., ‘The elders: Indigenous
photography in Australia’ in Croft, Brenda. L,
Michael Riley: sights unseen, National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra, 2006. p48.
John Rendall, Ace Bourke,
Christian the lion, London
Photograph by Derek Cattani,
1970
A Lion Called Christian
by Anthony Bourke and
John Rendall, Collins, 1971,
1st edition,
Opposite page:
Masai TRIBE
(Kenya, Africa)
Beaded necklace, c.1990
36
37
EXHIBITION credits
Ace Bourke: A Collector’s Journey
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre
11 August – 23 September 2012
Ace Bourke: A Collector’s Journey
ISBN: 978-1-921437-33-5
Catalogue
Curator and Writer: Ace Bourke
Exhibition Coordinator: Liz Nowell
Photography: Stephen Oxenbury (front cover, inside front, inside back, pages 2, 5, 6, 7, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
37, 38) and Silversalt Photography (pages 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
Design: DNA Creative
Paper: Doggett’s Maine Silk
Printer: SOS Printing
Edition: 500
Hazelhurst Staff
Centre Manager/Gallery Director: Belinda Hanrahan
Exhibition Coordinator/Curator: Liz Nowell
Arts Centre Coordinator: Grahame Kime
Education & Public Programs Coordinator: Kate Milner
Marketing Coordinator: Andrea Merlak
Administration: Caryn Schwartz
Administration Assistants: Ben Messih, Lisa McIntyre, Cameron Ward
Casual Gallery Technicians: Gilbert Grace, Paul Williams, Sam Villalobos, Brendan Penzer
Casual Education Officers: Stephanie Bray, Sandra Passerman
Acknowledgements:
The exhibition is dedicated to Patricia Macarthur Bourke.
Ace Bourke would like to thank everyone that worked on the exhibition and catalogue. He would especially like to thank Stephen Oxenbury
for the photography, Jenny Kee, Lindy and Patricia Bourke, Jonathan Jones, Derek Cattani, Antique Print Room, Adrian Newstead, Stephen
Lawson, Sally Gray, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Georgia Wallace-Crabbe, Louise Ferrier, Albie Thoms, Red Rock Art, Alathea Vavasour
and Harry M Miller Management. Thank you to all the participating artists for enriching our lives.
Every attempt has been made to locate holders of copyright and reproduction rights of all images reproduced in this publication.
The publisher would be grateful to hear from any reader with further information.
It is customary for some Indigenous communities not to mention names or reproduce images associated with the recently deceased.
Members of these communities are respectfully advised that a number of people mentioned in writing or depicted in images in the following
pages have passed away.
All texts and reproductions © the authors and artists or as stated.
© Copyright 2012
Published by Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre
782 Kingsway, Gymea NSW 2227 Australia
T: 02 8536 5700 E: [email protected]
http://www.hazelhurst.com.au
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author:Bourke, Ace.
Title:Ace Bourke : a collector’s journey / Ace Bourke.
ISBN:9781921437335 (pbk.)
Subjects:
Bourke, Ace.
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre (Gymea,N.S.W.)
Exhibitions. Art--Private collections--Exhibitions.
Other Authors/Contributors: Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre (Gymea, N.S.W.).
Dewey Number: 708.994
H.J Wedge
(Wiradjuri)
Walk a bout, 1991, linocut,
20 x 20cm, edition 1/10. Image
copyright the artist, courtesy
of Boomalli Aboriginal Artist
Cooperative
38
Principal Partners
HAZELHURST REGIONAL GALLERY AND ARTS CENTRE
ISBN: 978-1-921437-33-5

ace bourkea collector`s journey

Transcription

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