Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

As an Australian champion sculler and rowing coach at the school, he was ideal to demonstrate that 'sporty' types could also be artists. He was followed in succession by Greg Roberts and Liz Bates, both of whom have since been poached by the Gallery, the former to become Manager of Public Programs and the latter an Education Officer. I understand the poaching took place amicably. It certainly shows a similarity, if not, indeed, an identity of purpose between the Gallery and the school. It was on the base of this teaching of the arts at Churchie that Mrs Rosie White conceived the idea of the exhibition for emerging artists and much credit must go to her for that. To her, too, must go the credit for finding a sponsor-the National Australia Bank-and they deserve thanks for their generosity in particular for providing the prizemoney for the winners of the various awards. It is worth noting that Michael Eather, last year's winner, has been one of the curators of the highly successful 'Balance 1990' exhibition now on show at the Queensland Art Gallery; and that the guest artists of last year and this year, Trevor Nickolls and Jenuarrie, are both represented in the Gallery. Another close connection with the Gallery is the chief judge this year-the Gallery's Curator of Contemporary Australian Art, Michel Sourgnes; and it is from him that I have received the list I am just about to read out ... I congratulate all the winners for their success and now have much pleasure in declaring the exhibition officially open. 3 Speech to launch Tro,,ical Visions: Contemporary Queensland Artists by John Millington, 2 November 1987 In the course of a long and not entirely uneventful life, I have done most things-but a book launching has not been one of them. But there has to be a first time for everything and I am glad that it is happening in this great Gallery of ours. A Gallery, in my view, is not just a place where paintings are hanging on the wall. It is also a place where people who are interested in the arts in all its forms can meet on a basis of relaxed equality. Launching a book is one of those occasions. Since this is presumably a gathering of the literate and the widely read, I imagine that most of you will be familiar with that monumental series of novels by Anthony Powell called A Dance to the Music of Time, named after Poussin's equally monumental painting. If not, you have missed something. It is a kind of Anglo-Saxon response to Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. One of Powell's more memorable characters is 'Books' Bagshaw, whom we meet in the tenth novel 'waiting for a train, strolling furtively up and down the platform, his movements suggesting a hope to avoid recognition, while a not absolutely respectable undertaking is accomplished'. The author gives us two versions a little bit further on of how he acquired his rather unusual sobriquet. One is simply that a large bookcase fell on him as he was reaching for a volume on one of the upper shelves. The other, which I personally prefer, is that he got it when preparing to take advantage of the wife of a well-known drama critic in the latter's book-lined study, the critic naturally being on duty at the theatre, in this case reviewing The Apple Cart. As Bagshaw approached the couch on which the wife was reclining, it is reported that he murmured to himself, 'I always think 106