Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 3 : Presscuttings, Sept 1959 - Sept 1967

1967 Australia LAURIE THOMAS !IND the cairn !acades of Australia's major ~ there are n seething tensions. t, if not all, of these ns have been, and ln · still arc, caused by the ct ol ·control which has 1lled the 11•llerlcs since bc1lnnln1s ln the Ian a1e, r ls the control cxprclscd gely unprofessional corn• ,; or boards of trustees rolcsslonal affairs. 1·c, ls hardly a sln1le y director here who has en tor a 100d part of hls rustr•ted ln the attempt ilrl up flrat-class collcc• by the heavy hand of eanlng trusteee. Is there a single of/iclal · llectlon ln Australia would · not have been without these !rustn- liatlonal Gallery or ia, , --ror- example, could had a brllllant collectlon nch Imprcsslonlst paint• or practlcally nothing lf rd had taken the advlcc director, Bernard Hall, he went overseas ln 1905. trustees did buy one ol ommcndatlons - Plssar– oulevardc Montmartre. iall had urgcrl then~ to • L buy Monet, Manet, Dcl(as, Renolr, Sls!ey, Pissarro, Van Go11h , . , . . As lt happens, patntlngs by most of these artists have slncc been acquired, but at very different prices and only after lt became fashlonablc to 1·ecognise the artists, when they were 11 safc." • A couple ol years ago, the Queensland gallery was offered a great bronze by Henry Moore on the most generous terms and with the chance ot paylng tor lt over three yean. But, although the purchase was wlthln the trustees' means over thls time, lt was turned down with hardly more· than five minutes' conslderat,on. The protcsslonal staffs of galleries arc not lnfalllblc, nor would ll be anything but wishful to think that they· would always be right ln their J udgmcntl, . Moreover, a trustee systcrr may well act as a brake on,;, over-enth\lslastlc staff. But at least the professionals, know their job and the simple fac~ ls that often the trustees don't know thclrs. • It ls sllly, and even tragic, that men with no pretensions to k11owledge or a speclallsed kind should. make decisions of that kind when the trained men in thclr midst do not even have , a vote. It ls sillier and ccrtninly more medrlcnlng when as happens cspcclally ln the smaUcr gnllerics-but not only thos~-t rustces try to slt ln the director's chair and usurp even hls adminlstratlve dutlcs, Dlfflcullles like these have been faced and to a large extent overcome ln a few places w h e r c enlightened chairmen and firm directors arc prepared to back each other up. They have, however, been exa.:crbated elsewhere and were the cause of some spontaneous outbursts o[ pow• 'ertul feelings a few weeks ago in Mlldura when the Art Galleries Assoclatlon of Aus• tralla had Its second annual general meeting. The assoclatlon, which ls made up of the professional staffs of aU the State and provincial gallcrlcs, ls attempt– Ing to raise the standards and standing of lts members and ls seeking afllllatlon with the British Museums Assoclatlon. Delegates were angered at reports of recent de,·elopmcnts In South Australia and Queensland In South Austra!~~e dlrcctorshlp ol the \llllil1.Wll Gallery, wlll be vacant follow– ing the re rcmcnt ot Mr Robcn Campbell In July. The appointment of hls successor Is not the p1·crogative of the trustees there, but of the Public Service Commissioner. A lthoui:h In practice lie mny rlo so, the Commissioner ls not bound even to consult the tl'llslccs - 01· the association - and delegates !cared that an appointment might be made whlch could result both ln injustice being done to one• 01· other of Its members and in the lowering standards. The Publlc Service Commls• sioncr has nominated an art inspector from the State Education Dcpa1·tmcnt and the assistant director of the gaUery, l\!r R. G. Appleyard, has failed in an appeal. The trustees have sold nothing and thls could be be~ausc they arc not entitled to do so, thought lt would seem Improbable that they would accept an appointment foisted upon them against their wishes without a murmur. The chairman ot the assoclntlon's meet.Ing, Mr Gor• don Thomson, Power Curator of Contemporary Art ln the Unlvcrslty of Sydney, deplored the pos!lblllty that the appointment could go to a person ot no special museum qualifications - lndeed to on, who had neither made any special study of art gallcrlcs nor worked ln one. He felt that thls kind of situation would not happen ln other professions. There ls no evidence that a wrong appointment will in fact be made. lndecrl there is nothini: to prevent n really i:oocl man cmer4lng who is not a member ol the association 01· has not had p1·cvio1!5 gallery experience. Men like Sir Daryl Lindsay, Hal Mlsslngham and Robert Cumpbell came Into galleries without experience. Many ol the younger men and women have been trnlnccl by them. It was the unhappy state of alfail's ln Brisbane whlch chiefly caused the rumpus ln Mildura. In the Queensland Art Gall~ry a series ot resl11nations over the past several years has culminated ln the resignation of the assistant director, Mlss Rob,vn Hill. It ls understood that, when the former director lelt at the cnrl of March, the president ot trustees, Slr Leon Trout, ordercrl Mlss Hill to send to Government House, on long– term loan, some ot the finest paintings ln the Australlan eollectlon. Thls would not only have denuded a small 11nllery ot some of Its most valued works by such artists as Dobell, Drysdale, Streeton, Lambert, McCubbln and others, whlch arc ln constant public demand, but would have put them In a place where the publlc who own them coulrl not see them at a l r.xcept as guests. Perhaps thls was not a wo•\cl-shatterlng matter over which to reslgn but, comlng alter n great many lrritatlons which have plai::ued that i:allcry, lt was enough to1· Mlss Hlll, Delegates said that acUon, b,. Sil· Leon amounted to an at• tempt to usurp the functlon • ot the profcsslonal staff and were ln line wlth a su1111cstion he made to his board cl11htecn months ago to sell some of the gallery's mastcrplees b;y Picasso, Degas and others in order to ralse funds, The latest Information from Queensland ls that the trusfieea have approached a man of 80 1 that ls to say • !most or rctlrlng age, to take over th • directorship, The Art Galleries Asaocla– tlon has now resolved to draw up, In conjunction with trus• tees, a document setting out the tunctlons, dutle • and ethics ot trusteeship, the relatlon1hlp ot trustees to professional person– nel and methods of appoint,. mcnt or profcsslon • l ataff, In the meanUme, It ha • beell agreed to 110 Into the que • Uon ol having le11l1l1tlon pa11ed, such as exists In other coun• tries, to prevent objects of cul• tural and hlstorlcal Importance leaving Australia, It was also a11reed to aupport a full-scale lnve1t111aUon into the state of all the arts In Australla, ln order to overcome the present piece-meal dlstrlbu– tlon of govemmfll!t subsldle •, Part of this lnve1t111atlon could well be concemed with the whole question of the control by officialdom ot matters which habitually ehlde the ottlclal lmqinatiae.