Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

In contrast, 1989 will be the year when the Gallery concentrates on the presentation of its own collections in a way that does full justice, not only to the works of art themselves, but also to the architectural brilliance of our building. The first fruits of that concentration is the exhibition you are about to view, which comprises the international and contemporary Australian sections of the Collection. In my own mind I have been calling this 'the upstairs downstairs exhibition', because the storage areas in this Gallery were very sensibly placed, with a view to remoteness from flooding and other depredations, on the top floor and not in the cellar as is so often the case. Much of what was upstairs has been brought downstairs, in some cases for the first time in years, others for the first time ever, and it is all being displayed in a totally new way. I hope that this exhibition will reveal as much about your Collection as the television series 'Upstairs Downstairs' does about English social mores and that you will get as much pleasure from it. In any event, you will be seeing the culmination of many months of preparation by a dedicated and innovative team, and that really means the entire staff of the Gallery, under the direction of Doug Hall. I congratulate all the members of that team for their efforts and I am only sorry that Doug Hall is in London and cannot be here himself to share in the accolades which, I know, will be accorded them. But there is a dark side to even the brightest cloud, and we must face the fact that, by choosing to devote this year to the re-hanging of the Collection, we have forsaken the opportunity of generating further income from visiting exhibitions. And so, if we are to develop our acquisitions program as we have planned, we must rely on individual and corporate generosity. Some time ago I referred to the escalation in the price of paintings. I remember saying that a bowl of sunflowers painted by the right hand was likely to set one back about $60 million. That seemed a staggering price at the time, but today the going rate for a bed of irises by the same hand is about $80 million and the significant thing about it is, of course, that this even more staggering price was paid by an Australian.' The message is self evident. Private support is essential to the well being of any Gallery today and the money for that support is here in Australia. I am glad to be able to report that the Government of Queensland has recendy relaxed the conditions under which the Gallery Foundation has been operating to allow private contributions to be applied immediately to a specific purpose-either the purchase of a work of art or the sponsorship of an exhibition-rather than to be lodged and retained in a capital fund, of which only the income could be used. This change will permit individual recognition to be given to a donor, in addition to the normal benefits stemming from membership of the Foundation. Moreover, the Government will now match contributions dollar for dollar instead of one dollar for two, as was the case in the past. For both these changes we are extremely grateful. Of all our corporate sponsors, ARCO Coal is pre-eminent both in frequency and in level of involvement in Gallery projects. This generous support goes back to 1983 when the Company (as Anaconda Australia Inc.) sponsored 'LJ. Harvey and His School'. In 1986 the C~mpany sponsored 'The Australian Landscape' exhibition; last year ( 1988), the Idemitsu ceramics from Japan; and now, this year (1989), 'Your Collection Revealed'. In all this, Mr Jack Anderson has personally played a very important role and our warm thanks go to him and to the Company. 63