Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

These achievements speak for themselves. But Sir Zelman is not only a man with a distinguished career, he is a distinguished man, and that is not always the same thing. He is also, as one might expect, an accomplished speaker, and a master of the apt quotation. I well remember a speech he made in Sydney in 1981 to the Australian and Japanese Business Cooperation Committee, of which I was then a member. Of the relationship between the two countries, he used the perceptive words of that most quotable of all English writers, Dr Samuel Johnson-'Friendship must be kept in constant repair'. The choice by Sir Zelman of Dr Johnson on that occasion has encouraged me to choose him again on this. Sir Zelman is one of those rare men to whom Dr Johnson's description of another distinguished writer, Oliver Goldsmith, can properly be applied. On that occasion Dr Johnson said it in Latin -'Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit'. 'He has touched nothing that he has not adorned'. I think those words really sum up Sir Zelman's contribution to civilisation in all its many aspects, and I will say no more. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to call upon Sir Zelman to address us and to present certificates of honorary membership. 10 Speech at a dinner to launch the Gallery Shop at David Jones, Sydney, 13 January 1992 NOTE: THIS PROJECT WAS AN EXAMPLE OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY OF THE GALLERY IN THE PERIOD. Now that this splendid and memorable dinner is at last sadly drawing to a close, it is my pleasant duty to thank those who have been responsible for it: the Chairman of the Australian National Gallery, Lionel Bowen, represented tonight by his Deputy Chairman, Les Hollings, and the Director, Betty Churcher. I thank them most warmly and most sincerely. It was so nice, if I may say, to receive an invitation in the live hand of the Director rather than in the dead hand of some electronic typewriter. In that invitation, the dinner was described as 'celebratory'. Tonight is indeed a cause for celebration, because it has brought together a somewhat unusual triumvirate----the Australian National Gallery, the Queensland Art Gallery, and David Jones. Public galleries do not often get together in this way; usually, they are at each other's throats. Public galleries do not often support offshore merchandising. They are all too prone to keep such activities 'in house', where they can be accorded that odour of sanctity which, in the past, galleries have felt essential for the maintenance of the traditional mystique attached to their ivory towers. Thank goodness attitudes have changed, and the Australian National Gallery, especially, is to be congratulated for its readiness, over many years, to put its wares on the sales counter. We in Queensland came into this field much later in the piece. Indeed, before Iwas appointed Chairman, and Doug Hall was appointed Director, commercial activities of any kind were frowned upon. We have done our best to change this, and 'Toulouse– Lautrec' has given us our firs~ really big chance to join the merchant venturers, if I may so call them. 127