Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

to achieve as much as they did. As Chairman, Dick was witty, polished, cultivated, charming, persuasive and insightful. The gigantic achievements during his reign, of a comparatively small Gallery, in a comparatively lowly populated State, in a comparatively small country, owe a lot to those qualities. When funding was sought from Japanese companies, the case could be put by a man who understood, and who could observe, the subtleties of Japanese culture, and even put the case in Japanese-a feat no less impressive to the Japanese, because the case was put in the accent of a samurai, rather than the more high caste accent of a daimyo. When thanks for exhibitions of Indonesian art needed to be given, the tribute could be expressed in Bahasa Indonesia. When the works of the French grandmasters had to be introduced, Dick could make the necessary introductions in French. The occasional Italian or Russian phrase was heard to pass his lips when the cause of art required it. Even this did not exhaust Dick's command of languages. It must have caused him great chagrin that he never had to negotiate arrangements for an exhibition with a delegation of art curators from ancient Rome. You see, while Dick is a great Australian, and a patriotic Australian, he is a citizen of the world. He brought the art of that world to Queensland and took the art of Queensland-to the world~ The-past, on the other hand, Dick sees as another country. I don't know whether his fascination with that other country inspires his love of art, or whether his love of art inspires his passion for history. Either way, Dick has managed to transcend intellectual boundaries that are uncrossable to most of us. Dick fought against the Japanese army during the Second World War. He observed the atrocities it committed during that war. He was for years a prisoner of war, and was forced to work on the Burma Railway. Yet he is able to say: 'We should put the past behind us ... If we did this we would see a Japan in which there is much to admire ... Let us look upon Japan not as a past enemy but rather as a present and future friend'. 3 It takes not only a mind of great compassion, but one of enormous flexibility, to achieve that synthesis. As you read these speeches, please remember some of these facts about their author. These speeches are not just a history of a dynamic decade in the life of a fine young gallery. They are not just witty juxtapositions of literary quotations that demonstrate how the power of the pen can be marshalled to reinforce the impact of the brush. And take it from one who has experienced it, what Dick himself describes as flattery of those he introduces, or thanks, in these speeches, is never quite what it seems. With Dick, the consummate diplomat who was never really ever only a diplomat, everything has multiple layers of meaning. I remember once sitting through one of Dick's introductions thinking this is done with so much finesse that it does not hurt at all. I was being given my riding instructions in front of hundreds of people. I was to go to Budget Review Committee and bid for multi-million dollars for a new wing for the Art Gallery.• Dick was telling me and the assembled multitude that if I did this, thus emulating the extending of the Louvre by the then President of France, I would become known as the Mitterand of the South Pacific. I replied that Dick had brought such opulence to the Gallery, that he himself was known as the Louis Quatorze of Queensland. However, what I was really thinking of was a Japanese tale. A Shogun once boasted to his captive rival that his sword was so sharp that the executed prisoner would not feel the execution. The executioner raised his 8