Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

who were reduced in number from thirteen to nine. The whole exercise gave the impression that a team of management consultants had been at work. My appointment surprised me as much as, I suspect, it did many others. The reduction of the number of Trustees was, in my view, a good move. Nine makes for a well balanced Board. The others are: Rod O'Loan--business experience and tribal memory after more than twenty years Professor Ken Goodwin--civilised academic Lawrence Daws-painting Ian Callinan, QC-law Bill Palmer-banking, finance Jenny Manton--collecting and a woman's viewpoint Doug Hall-Director Eric Bigby-Government representative This might be a good moment to say something about the role of Trustees. There is an American approach-the three G's, give, get or get out. That is not ours. Nor do I believe that the Trustees should simply act as a rubber stamp for the professional staff, although obviously the higher the calibre of the latter, both in knowledge and in taste, the less likely are their views to be opposed. Equally, they should not usurp the role of the professional staff. There are occasions, however, when the Trustees and not the professionals are better able to see the wood rather than the trees, and they should put themselves in the frame of mind of attempting to do this. I do not suggest that a Trustee should question a professional on, shall we say, the authenticity of a painting or a piece of porcelain, but he should be prepared to speak out on whether the Gallery should acquire the object in question or not. There is a tendency for too many people concerned with galleries today to suffer from what I call 'The French Impressionist guilt syndrome', a determination to avoid at all costs the mistake made by most of the critics of that period when they derided paintings which later achieved universal acclaim. Those suffering from this syndrome take the view that it is safer for the reputation to accept all and reject nothing. Surprisingly enough, one man, who as late as 1939 still supported the opinion of the original French critics, was not a Trustee, but a professional-J.S. MacDonald-at that time Director of the National Gallery of Victoria. Speaking of an exhibition brought to Melbourne by the Herald and Weekly Times, 'Contemporary French and English Paintings', some of which were on offer to the Gallery, he said: There is no doubt that the great majority of the work called 'modem' is the product of degenerates and perverts, and that by the press the public has been forcibly fed with it. As owners of a great van Eyck, if we take a part of refusing to pollute our Gallery with this filth, we shall render a service to art. The Trustees over-ruled him, at least to the extent of buying two minor impressionist works for just over £2 000 altogether and, of course, the great van Eyck-the IOI