Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

3 Speech to open the 'Smorgon Famlly Collection of Contemporary American Art', 23 February 1989 NOTE: THIS EXHIBITION, COMPRISING THE PERSONAL COLLECTION OF THE SMORGON FAMILY, WAS SHOWN FROM 24 FEBRUARY TO 29 MARCH 1989. It gives me great pleasure, on behalf of the Trustees and the Director of the Gallery, to welcome you here this morning to the opening of the 'Smorgon Family Collection of Contemporary American Art' and to some refreshments thereafter. My only regret-and I know it will be yours too--is that Victor and Loti Smorgon, who assembled the collection, are unable to be with us. They have sent their apologies. Anyone with the slightest connection with Melbourne-and many without it-will have heard of the Smorgons but, in all probability, know little or nothing abut them. They form a very remarkable family group which, despite its tremendous financial success, has always maintained a very low public profile. Only Victor, the most senior member, appears in Who's Who . .. , and his entry gives hardly anything away, except that his recreations are cooking, ceramics and art, in that order. It is this last interest in 'art' that has brought us all together this morning. He and Loti have a remarkable record of enlightened and generous patronage of public art institutions, right across the board, so to speak. The Smorgon Plaza at the Cultural Centre and the Smorgon Gallery in the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, both owe their existence to their generosity. They were the first to make a donation of one million dollars to the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, to be spent in expanding the international collection there. They are the sort of people that every gallery would like to have as friends. In all, they have made an enormous contribution towards raising the status of the arts in this country and making them more accessible to the general public, sedulous in the pursuit of excellence, innovation and inspiration. The present exhibition achieves all these aims, providing, as it does, an insight into current art trends in the United States-an insight which might otherwise have been denied us. It also, of course, possesses the distinct characteristic of all private collections, in that it represents not only"the artists whose works are included in it, but also the personal view of the collectors who brought the works together. The works comprise paintings, photographs and mixed media compositions, representative of what is called 'post modernism', the principal characteristic of this decade, produced by some of the most vital and imaginative American artists of the time, who have influenced the face of art, not only in their own country but also in Australia and Europe. They emphasise the drama and power of a big painting and the importance of positive and uncompromising imagery. I shall not attempt to describe, let alone to explain, the individual works. I believe all works of art must be allowed to speak for themselves and they will convey a different message to each viewer. More nonsense has been written about art than about any other subject, with perhaps the sole exception of wine. Art-speak, and wine-speak, in whatever order, comprise a quinella unbeatable in its incomprehensibility. It is best to keep clear of it. 61