Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

When the Myer gift to the Gallery was announced at the First Asia-Pacific Triennial exhibition last September, I said it was in the Myer tradition of outstanding generosity to cultural and other causes. That tradition now spans three generations. Michael's grandfather, Sidney, arrived in Australia in 1897. As soon as he felt he had become sufficiently successful to be able to do so, he began his acts of philanthropy. In 1926 he gave 2S 000 Myer shares to the University of Melbourne to found the Sidney Myer Chair of Commerce. On Christmas Day 1930, he gave a huge dinner at the Exhibition Building for I O 000 unemployed and, in the following year, at the depth of the Depression, used his own money to provide them with work by re-constructing the Yarra Boulevard. By his Will he placed one-tenth of his Estate in trust for the charitable and philanthropic needs of, as he put it, 'the community in which I made my fortune'. This became the Sidney Myer Fund of which his elder son, Kenneth, became a Trustee. In I 959, Ken and his brother Bails in turn established the Myer Foundation, the basis for which Ken expressed simply and beautifully with the words, 'From those to whom much has been given, much is expected'. Both brothers lived up to those expectations and became, amongst other things, generous patrons of the arts. Some of the best items in the Japanese collection in the Art Gallery of New South Wales came from Ken, and the ninety-three paintings comprising the Baillieu Myer Collection of the 1980s at the Museum of Modern Art at Heide in Victoria came from Bails. For thirteen years Ken was Chairman of the Arts Centre Trust which built the Cultural Centre in Melbourne, and for ten years was a member of the Interim Council which established the National Gallery in Canberra. Bails was Deputy President of the National Gallery of Victoria, a Councillor of the Victorian College of the Arts and of the Australian Conservation Foundation. Both brothers were in turn President of the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine at the University of Melbourne. For these achievements and many more which would take too long to enumerate, both brothers were made Companions of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest honour. They both set a shining example which could well be followed by many more Australians. And now Michael Myer is treading in their footsteps by establishing the Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art as an appropriate tribute to the spirit and memory of two remarkable people who, throughout their lives, made a vast contribution to Australia. Their love of art, in particular Asian art, was well known, and they had a deep commitment to the development of an awareness and appreciation of Asian cultures in this country. This exhibition contains work from eight Asian countries-Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and China. On behalf of the Trustees and, indeed, of the people of Queensland, I thank Michael and Annie Myer and the Myer Foundation for this great gesture. The presence of Mr Hiraoka this evening will serve to remind us all of the very important part his daughter, Yasuko, played in Ken's life. She was to Ken not only a wife but a friend and companion, and a supporter of all his endeavours. She encouraged him to explore and penetrate the cultural and intellectual vastness ofJapan, and it is fitting that this collection should be dedicated to 39