Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

3 The role of a State Gallery (II) Acquisitions 1988-95 Acquisition policy during the period 1987-95 saw a great emphasis on the art of the twentieth century. Richard Austin had indicated in his inaugural speech that the Gallery should be a keeping place for art of the present as well as of the past, and Director Doug Hall had committed himself when appointed to making the Gallery an outstanding institution in terms of contemporary art collecting. Collecting of photographs and in new media areas was developed under their leadership, as was policy for Asian art and Aboriginal art. The Gallery also made some very important purchases of key Australian and international works (such as Im Wald by Georg Baselitz), not all of which were the subject of speeches by the Chairman. I Speech at the unveiling of Bathers 1906 by Rupert Bunny, 15 March 1988 You have been invited here this morning to witness the unveiling of the Gallery's most spectacular and most expensive purchase, the painting Bathers by Rupe~ Bunny. This ceremony was to have been performed by the Premier, the Hon. Mike Ahern, and we know that he was looking forward to it, wearing his Minister-for-the-Arts soft hat. So were we. The Gallery is fortunate-and so, indeed, are the people of Queensland-to have a Premier who is also Minister for the Arts and who, moreover, has already expressed in public his intention not only to raise the status of the arts, but also to foster and encourage creativity in Queensland. Unfortunately, Parliament is sitting this morning and so neither the Premier nor any other Minister can be here to do the job. That is the bad news. ·The even worse news is that I have now got to do it myself. Those who came here to listen to the Premier rather than to look at the painting will be disappointed. For that we apologise. The good news, however, is that there will be only two speakers instead of three. The other speaker is the Director, Mr Doug Hall. After the unveiling he is going to say a few learned and well-chosen words about the painting itself and its place in the Collection. Learned and well-chosen words do not always amount to the same thing but, in Doug's case, I feel confident that they will. At this stage I simply want to say a few words about acquisitions in general and about this acquisition in particular. I shall be careful not to poach on the Director's 49