Buxton Contemporary by The University of Melbourne Museums & Collections publications

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BUXTON CONTEMP ORARY

BUXTON CONTEMPORARY

RICKY SWALLOW PETER TYNDALL FRANCIS UPRITCHARD RONNIE VAN HOUT DANIEL VON STURMER LOUISE WEAVER JUSTENE WILLIAMS PAUL YORE CONSTANZE ZIKOS

BUXTON CONTEMP ORARY

Foreword — Allan Myers AC

Foreword — Michael Buxton

Buxton Contemporary University of Melbourne

Title Buxton Contemporary

Director Ryan Johnston

Authors Luisa Bosci, Charlotte Day, Max Delany, Samantha Comte, Mark Feary, Anna Schwartz, Andrew Stephens

Curator Melissa Keys Program and Services Coordinator Ashlee Baldwin Subediting and proofing Hilary Ericksen and Clare Williamson. Additional proofing Olga Bennett, Jeremy Eaton and Eleanor Simcoe Photography copyright James Geer unless stated otherwise Published on the occasion of the launch of Buxton Contemporary, University of Melbourne, March 2018 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquires should be directed to the publisher. © Copyright 2018 Buxton Contemporary, University of Melbourne The views expressed in this publication are those of the contributing authors and not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

ISBN 978-0-6482584-1-4 Subjects Buxton Contemporary Art Museum, Building a Contemporary Art Collection, Private Art Collections, Contemporary Art, Australasian Art, 20th century Art, 21st century Art Design Studio Round, Melbourne Typeset in GT Walsheim, Favorit, Favorit Mono Printing Press Print Stocks: Pacesetter Satin Digital 170gsm, Knight Digital Smooth White 120gsm, SilkHD Matt 128gsm, Superfine Eggshell Ultra White 148gsm Edition: 1000

The publisher respectfully acknowledges the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation, their ancestors and Elders, on whose land this book was produced, and who form part of the longest continuing culture in the world. Buxton Contemporary Corner Southbank Boulevard and Dodds Street Southbank Victoria 3006 Australia www.buxtoncontemporary.com Contributors —L uisa Bosci is director of the Michael Buxton Collection —S amantha Comte is curator at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne —C harlotte Day is director of Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Melbourne —M ax Delany is director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne — Mark Feary is director of Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne — Anna Schwartz is director of Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne — Andrew Stephens is an independent visual arts writer, based in Melbourne

A history of the Michael Buxton Collection — Andrew Stephens

32 34 36 38 40 42

Curator reflections — Anna Schwartz — Max Delany — Charlotte Day — Samantha Comte — Luisa Bosci — Mark Feary

The Michael Buxton Collection

The remarkable gift of Michael and Janet Buxton to the University of Melbourne is one of the most significant acts of arts philanthropy ever presented to an Australian university. Comprising the magnificent Michael Buxton Collection, which features works of 59 of Australasia’s most significant contemporary artists, as well as funds towards the construction and endowment of Buxton Contemporary and its operation over a twenty-year term, the gift also represents one of the largest donations for the university’s Believe campaign. More importantly, however, the generosity of Michael and Janet Buxton provides a major new cultural institution that will offer the people of and visitors to Melbourne unprecedented access to our finest contemporary art and artists. Designed by commissioned architects Fender Katsalidis, the new Buxton Contemporary museum building is situated at the university’s Southbank campus at the heart of Melbourne’s arts precinct, and alongside the Victorian College of the Arts. It will provide unique insights and opportunities for our next generations of artists and track the life-cycle of artists from study to the development of their artistic practices. The impact of the gift will be profound; it will both activate and enhance the expanding Southbank precinct, at the heart of Melbourne’s cultural life. This Buxton Contemporary museum will be a gateway to the new civic space being created by the City of Melbourne along Southbank Boulevard, with the university’s Southbank campus playing a central role within it.

Luke Flanagan and Michelle Eattell of Project Services, as well as the director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Kelly Gellatly, and her team, together with the Ian Potter Museum Board, for advocacy and support of this unique project. I would also like to acknowledge Luisa Bosci, the director of the Michael Buxton Collection and thank Professor Su Baker, Pro-Vice Chancellor Engagement and co-chair of the Buxton Contemporary Committee, for steering the museum through its final stages, as form becomes content. Of course, the most significant and heartfelt thanks extend to Michael Buxton and his family – notably his wife, Janet – for this outstanding act of generosity. Michael’s commitment to education, and the possibilities that his collection offers with respect to teaching, learning and research, led him to the University of Melbourne, and we are honoured to be the recipient of such a gift. We are delighted to launch Buxton Contemporary at the University of Melbourne and look forward to the rich contribution it will offer to intellectual, social and cultural life in Australia.

Foreword — Allan Myers AC Chancellor, University of Melbourne

Public engagement has always been at the heart of the University of Melbourne’s relationship with wider society. It connects our teaching, students and research work with communities – locally, nationally and globally – and delivers significant cultural impact through our thought leadership, research and education programs. Buxton Contemporary will play a major role in these endeavours into the future, and we are delighted at the inauguration of this wonderful new cultural asset. Many people have contributed to the development and realisation of Buxton Contemporary. On behalf of the University of Melbourne, special thanks to Ian Marshman, who chaired the Buxton Project Control Group, ensuring the delivery of a wonderful and world-class building. I would especially like to acknowledge the work undertaken by Foreword

Allan Myers AC

Foreword — Michael Buxton Co-chair, Buxton Contemporary Twenty-three years ago, I had a dream – a dream to develop a major, forward-thinking private collection that would demonstrate excellence in the development of contemporary Australian art. It was my dream to someday house that collection in a custom-built museum. Today, that dream has been realised.

I look forward to Buxton Contemporary showcasing our country’s world-class arts industry.

When I began the Michael Buxton Collection, one of its goals was to support living Australian artists; to date, the collection encompasses 354 works by 59 of Australasia’s finest artists. Their passion, intelligence and creativity help enrich our lives, making us more knowledgeable and, indeed, our lives more beautiful. Friendship has been an unexpected gift to come out of this collection, and not just with collection artists but also with gallerists, curators and fellow collectors; it is a privilege to call so many personal friends.

To have that museum located at the University of Melbourne’s Southbank campus, alongside the Victorian College of the Arts and amid such a major arts precinct, is better than any dream I could have had. I would like to acknowledge the University of Melbourne, and particularly Glyn Davis and Su Baker, for understanding the significance of this collection and its use as a valuable tool for education. It is a partnership I look forward to continuing over the next twenty years.

The collection has provided a brilliant source of education for my family and me, an in-depth understanding of contemporary practice that I don’t think could have been achieved had we chosen to collect art in a different way. It is now my dream that the collection will continue to serve as an educational tool, not only for students at the University of Melbourne but for all people who would like to understand and collect challenging contemporary art. I hope you receive as much enjoyment, fun and education as I have from being involved in contemporary art.

As the collection has evolved, so too has its board, and it has been with great pleasure that I have watched many of the collection’s curators go on to become directors at major institutions in the state of Victoria: Charlotte Day at Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Max Delany at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and Mark Feary at Gertrude Contemporary. I would like to acknowledge all board members, past and present. Your knowledge and enthusiasm during many debates, discussions and deliberations have shaped the collection and ensured that it is, arguably, the finest collection of our generation’s visual artists. To my wife, Janet, your passion for the arts and support over these years has been invaluable. To Therese Ryan and Luisa Bosci, thank you for your tireless efforts in bringing this museum to fruition; it simply wouldn’t have happened without you. Foreword

Michael Buxton

As a young man, Michael Buxton was fortunate to see some exceptional private art collections. Among these works were some Jeffrey Smart paintings. He was enthralled, his instincts guiding him to this sort of art: important work that would stand the test of time. He discovered he had a deep curiosity about the visual arts, its processes and its makers – a true yearning for it all. ‘It is something that is inside you. You love it.’ (1)

That love endures. By 1975 he had acquired his own Jeffrey Smart painting, his first significant purchase for his personal collection, and it was some time before he could afford another such outlay. Sunday morning 2, 1975, still looks fresh, there on a wall of his Melbourne home, where it resides as part of the Janet and Michael Buxton Family Collection, which he continues to expand. Alongside this collection, a completely separate and more publicly significant gathering of works has been accumulating: the extraordinary and dedicated long-term project that is the Michael Buxton Collection, the high point of which is Buxton Contemporary, a museum for this art.

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The Michael Buxton Collection has been underway since 1995, and subjected to rigorous guidelines to ensure work is investigated and critically assessed before being purchased. As is well known, the aim has been to collect significant artists in depth and over time, and one of the results has been to show the evolution of each artist’s oeuvre. Another result has been to illustrate broader connections – thematic or stylistic, for example – between the collection’s various artists, spanning three or more generations since the 1980s. The weave of this collection is thus intricate and rich, in no small way a consequence of the enterprise being steered by a board, with advice from a high-calibre curatorial panel comprising a changing guard of arts professionals, among the most respected in the industry. The collection’s origins are cemented in a fundamental and admirable ambition to share, communicate and stimulate. While the collection of 354 works A history of the Michael Buxton Collection

by 59 artists may have been driven by Michael Buxton’s often-noted energetic capacities – for loving art, learning about it and collecting it – the more expansive hope that has been carefully nurtured over a long period has been to bring the collection into the public realm for our enjoyment. Avidly and consistently surveying contemporary art in Australia, and more recently New Zealand, the Buxtons have striven to extend beyond personal taste when acquiring work for the Michael Buxton Collection. For the family’s private collection – a more impulsive and less formulated pursuit – Michael and Janet Buxton have been more indulgent, roving beyond Australian shores in exploring their mutual passion for art. Yet, in the collecting practices for both groups of work there are some constant and appealing currents, such as vitality, clarity and intellectual curiosity, qualities that also characterise the Buxtons as individuals. When Michael Buxton started concerted collecting with a public museum in mind, the rules guiding the strategy were based on ensuring the collection would, into the future, remain historically important. The rules specified that work would be by living Australian artists only. The curators would identify twelve artists to be considered over a three-year period, with a focus on six artists per annum. As well, the works acquired would be of demonstrable excellence and of significance to the development of contemporary Australian art, with an emphasis on the 1980s to the present day and representing innovations in practice across all media. The works would be bought from galleries representing the artists or from the artists themselves, eschewing the secondary market. With the exception of the work of some New Zealand artists joining the collection, these directives have endured, and their wisdom is borne out in what Buxton Contemporary presents to the world. For more than two decades, the objective of establishing a permanent public home for the collection has been a goal somewhere in the distance. Now, it is a reality. Michael Buxton has described the museum as something he has always dreamed of – but better. — Board members have reported that their regular formal meetings to discuss the collection have, over the years, often opened with Michael making his entrance trawling in a box or bags of art books, journals Andrew Stephens

A history of the Michael Buxton Collection — Andrew Stephens

Being repeatedly moved, intrigued and stimulated by art for most of his adult life has been the fuel for Michael's unflagging commitment to the project. Those exposures have not only influenced his psyche but also affected the way he moves through the world: visiting galleries, speaking with gallerists, forming friendships with artists, visiting artists’ studios and seeking counsel from curatorial teams. His extensive experience of contemporary art has taken him into a sphere of younger artists, whose creative energy has encompassed him. This invigorates his imagination in his work and relationships, and enhances his travel experiences to such places as the Venice Biennale, the Art Basel and Art Basel Hong Kong art fairs, and the Sydney Biennale, and his adventures in Sicily, where the Buxtons live for several months each year. They have developed many great friendships in many parts of the art world.

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contemporary museums and contemporary art shows. Ideas were beginning to form. Seeing the collection John Buckley had curated for the Smorgon family was significant for him; he decided he wanted to continue on from where that collection had finished. The Loti and Victor Smorgon Collection of Contemporary Australian Art had sought to acquire work by emerging artists from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. Its criteria for acquisition had been focused, according to Buckley, on ‘undeniable quality’ and on representing artists ‘truly and well’. (3) This influence on Michael Buxton was bolstered in 1991, when he commenced a study of fine arts at the Melbourne School of Art; a four-year course he didn't complete but it gave him further inspiration for a collection. He did not want to ‘just collect’ painting and sculpture: ‘This was a deliberate idea of building a museum collection, and there is quite a difference’.

Michael Buxton does not recall any significant art experiences from childhood or youth. When he attended Xavier College for secondaryschool education, art studies were not even on the horizon until his final year, at which time art was offered as an extra-curricular elective. His professional history began in 1963 with property management and sales in the family business, J.R. Buxton and Co., whose Melbourne roots in real estate extended back to the 1860s. Michael had wanted to study architecture but began at the J.R. Buxton office in South Melbourne and loved it, while simultaneously studying real estate at RMIT. He went on in the business until 1976, when, with Max Beck, he formed the property development company Becton, which was immensely successful. In 1994, he sold his interest in Becton and established MAB Corporation, in 1995, with his younger brother Andrew, where both men remain, as executive director and managing director respectively. During those work-focused decades, he collected art ‘in an eclectic way’, with names such as Jeffrey Smart, Arthur Boyd and John Perceval on the list.(2) As Michael Buxton travelled the world more frequently, all he wanted was to look at

Art consultant Simon Hayman, who became a board member in 2007, observes that Michael Buxton is clearly a cut above the regular sort of art collector, for whom a focus of buying art is that it will increase in value and be good for resale. Rather than investment, Michael Buxton focused on bringing a great collection together, applying his business acumen: ‘He knows how to keep things on track. The constant introduction of new artists has really helped keep this collection relevant.’ (4)

All enterprises pursuing success and longevity require strong structures and well-designed engines as their foundation; passion on its own might have a special allure, but it rarely functions as a sustainable fuel. As Michael Buxton began to consider how to make his ambition for a museum-quality collection concrete, he realised he needed professional assistance to create a sound framework around his enthusiasm. He then sought counsel from some of the best people in the art world, including the highly esteemed Schwartz, who had been at the helm of her

A history of the Michael Buxton Collection

Andrew Stephens

Gallerist Anna Schwartz sees Michael Buxton’s encompassing views as having partly come from managing very successful large-scale real estate, with big figures and ambitions, and superimposing the scale of his thinking on collecting art.(5)

and magazines. The publications would be peppered with adhesive notes and bookmarks. He’d hand the publications around. ‘What do you think of this?’ he would ask. ‘Or this?’

In Schwartz’s experience, this would also mean developing a relationship with the artists, something she believed must be earnt (although any artist would be interested in a person whose objective was to collect their work in depth). He took her counsel but wanted other curators to advise him, including John Buckley, inaugural director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). In the first instance, Schwartz, Buckley and four others were asked to each provide a list of the best contemporary artists in the country. Two foolscap pages were filled. From this, further lists were developed, refined and cross-referenced until just six names remained: Howard Arkley, Mike Parr, Peter Booth, Peter Tyndall, Bill Henson and Tony Clark. Works by them were initially acquired in 1996–97. By the time of the first purchases, Schwartz and Buckley were officially on board. Schwartz would have preferred to do it alone – ‘as everybody who knows me would realise’ – but she accepted on the condition that she and Buckley would each have the right of veto without argument if they didn’t want something in the collection. They worked together with Michael Buxton on formally developing the collection: a board was established, the first official meeting was held in May 1996, a budget was set and the rules-of-acquisition were formulated. Schwartz, who remained an advisor until 2007, was immediately impressed with Michael Buxton’s eye for talent – even in a very early encounter with an artist’s work – and with his homing signal for significant work. ‘He chose very well from the exhibitions and put together a fantastically good collection of works from these artists. I was actually surprised and pleased that Michael really took advice. And he took risks.’ While he was prepared to take guidance from curators as to what they believed was important, it didn’t stop him questioning them vigorously, A history of the Michael Buxton Collection

especially when they presented something he didn’t respond to positively at first viewing. Yet, he saw having ‘the guts to follow the curatorial advice’ as one of the greatest benefits of having this team. The curatorial process brought a discipline that allowed them, along with a budget and board, to ‘really do this as a museum collection’. Some of the works advocated by Schwartz and Buckley in those early days were certainly challenging – such as large installation-based works that could not be easily displayed or stored. Schwartz helped him step back to see the larger view of an artist’s body of work, rather than focus on individual works; she always liked to think of it as if they were placing works in the collection for fifty or 100 years in the future. As Janet Buxton observed of this process: When you do something in the organised, curated way it becomes not just something that you ‘like’ but it is what is important. It has to connect with you in some way – otherwise you wouldn’t want it. But you see its significance in a different way. (6)

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Two major public art events confirmed that he was on the right path: a 1996 exhibition of Bill Henson’s works in a cavernous disused power station at Spencer Street, as part of the Melbourne Festival (directed by Leo Schofield); and the 1999 Melbourne International Biennial, Signs of Life, under the artistic direction of the luminary Juliana Engberg, later director of ACCA. Michael Buxton made acquisitions at the former event and was heavily involved in the latter. He remembers both as ramping up his excitement about what he was doing; he found himself in the thick of the Australian art world, seeing exciting new work, but he was someone with a specific ambition, different to those around him. It was in between those two events, in 1997, that Michael and Janet met and discovered their mutual love of the arts; even if they went to galleries separately, they would inevitably agree on the same stand-out pieces. It brought a new facet to the collecting process: Our love of meeting artists and spending some social time with them and listening to their ideas furthered our interest in collecting. We are privileged to have had these interactions with artists and it enables us to keep up with modern discourse. — Andrew Stephens

eponymous gallery in Flinders Lane, Melbourne, since 1986. In 1995, Michael called Schwartz, whom he didn't know at the time, and explained he was a collector and asked to come and speak to her. ‘I wasn’t going to say no to that. He said he wanted to collect contemporary art seriously ... He said a lot of people had been wanting to curate the collection for him and he was getting a lot of different advice.’ Could she advise him? Schwartz visited Michael and his then-wife, the late Mary Buxton, at their home. She saw the work they collected and told him that a conscious element of learning would have to be embedded in the acquisition process – getting to know each artist’s practice in depth.

Bosci first became involved with the collection in 2006, when Michael Buxton asked her to do a six-week stint re-cataloguing the artworks he had collected. His stepdaughter through his marriage to Mary, Luisa had grown up around the family’s private art collection, which included a particular John Perceval painting she adored, Veronica and the conspirators, 1967. She was so ignited by her experience of being around the board and curators that the six weeks stretched into months, and then into years, so she returned to university to undertake postgraduate studies in art history and curatorship. In 2013, she became a curator of the Michael Buxton Collection, and then the director, steering it through the process of finding a public home and helping establish the move to Buxton Contemporary at the University of Melbourne’s Southbank campus. She sees the collection as very much a representation of Michael Buxton’s personality: courage with the pieces he has acquired, also his love of painting and of ‘colour, passion, vibrancy’.(7) She has also observed an intelligence in the way he concertedly seeks professional advice, acknowledges that he can’t know everything, is committed to meticulous research and is always willing and open to learning new things: When he started the collection, he said: ‘Right, who in Melbourne is at the top of the industry, knows what they are up to, and is going to be helpful to me in achieving what I want?’ That is how it started. You look at the curator list and nearly everyone is running a major institution now, which is phenomenal. When they started it was early days for them in their careers – A history of the Michael Buxton Collection

and you never know what trajectory anyone is going to go on. He has chosen well. Usually curators will do thorough research and present artists’ work for consideration, ensuring they have ticked many of the boxes for an artist’s inclusion. Because of the stringent acquisition policy, it is difficult to add work of new artists to the collection. The board, which has included Buxton family representatives, always gives a considered response, and will say no if uncomfortable with a work. Yet curators will on occasion bring back a rejected artwork for further consideration, or rekindle discussion of an artist, and the response might change as understanding deepens or an artist develops.

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One of Michael Buxton’s most illuminating experiences was when the curatorial team bought a Ricky Swallow sculpture and, due to various circumstances, his first viewing was when it arrived; it came as a shock, compared with previous works of Swallow that he and Janet had seen. It was not until the work was shown in A Person Looks at a Work of Art …, the Buxton Collection survey at Heide in 2001–02, and, during a visit, he listened in to the comments of young viewers which altered his opinion of the work. The young people thought it was magnificent and explained the significance of the piece, and Michael went on to collect Ricky Swallow in depth: ‘This made us realise you must have faith in your curators’. The board, too, has been high calibre, an entity among whose ranks have been Doug Hall AM, John Fast, Sam Moshinsky OAM, Ada Moshinsky QC, Simon Hayman, Charlotte Day and Vernon Wood. It has also included family members: Janet Buxton, Danielle Fergus, Luisa Bosci and Ford Larman. Hayman entered the stage when he and Michael Buxton met on a golf course in the early 2000s and instantly discovered their mutual interest in art. Hayman was fascinated by the formal process through which curators would make their proposals, adhering to the collection guidelines but arguing a case: Michael knew the landscape anyway, he is someone who is out doing the galleries on a midweek afternoon or weekend. He wanted to sit down and throw it all open for discussion. He has this hunger for really digging deep into the artist’s practice. I was brought in as a bit of a sounding board, another set of eyes. I was out there doing all the galleries and building Andrew Stephens

Curatorship is something Michael Buxton has always respected, and in the early days of the collection he quickly realised it inhabits a sort of frontier, where its practitioners act as mediators. On one side is the often private or difficult visual languages and conceptual foundations used by an artist; on the other is the viewer, coming to the work with multiple perspectives, needs and desires. Much of the public interface – placement, context, relationships to other artworks, lighting etc. – falls within the purview of the curator working with the artist. The curatorial team for the Michael Buxton Collection, originally spearheaded by Anna Schwartz and John Buckley, has changed periodically over the years, but the names will be familiar to anyone associated with the visual arts: Max Delany (1999–2009), Charlotte Day (2006–13), Samantha Comte (2006–15), Mark Feary and Luisa Bosci (both 2013–ongoing).

Part of the board’s role is to question and to put pressure on curators and to make sure they are doing a thorough job and finding exemplars for the collection. The Michael Buxton Collection acquisition process is about selecting work that is politically and culturally important for the time and for the artist’s career, but also durable – as much the pinnacle of that artist’s work as possible. The evidence of that tight and careful strategy is in the collection itself.

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Almost every significant public art museum or cultural collection keeps the vast majority of its items cotton-balled in storage at any one time. The small percentage that makes it onto the walls and floors is part of an intricately planned roster that rotates artwork display periods with enforced downtime, the schedule often stretching years in advance. Partly, this is to do with conservation issues, limiting works’ exposure to light and other environmental factors; partly it is an issue of exhibition schedules, space and time management, as well as the appetites of viewers. The museum exhibit is but the tip of an iceberg, the submerged portion being in storage. In a similar vein to the big institutions with offsite art warehouses, the Michael Buxton Collection has required a storage facility since its beginning. In the early days, this place was named the ‘art factory’, a museum-standard holding site that has changed locations in the interim. From there, work has regularly gone out on loan, twice for big exhibitions: in 2001–02 at Heide and in 2015 at Bendigo Art Gallery, for the Hiding in Plain Sight show. The art factory was the site for one of the Buxtons’ first significant interactions with an artist. Tony Clark, one of those on the initial list of six artists, had made it known that he had nowhere to work, so the Buxtons invited him to use vacant space at the art factory. A history of the Michael Buxton Collection

The experience gave them new insights into his work and his methods. It had become evident early in the collecting process that it was not enough to simply acquire work; Michael Buxton was eager to talk with the artists, to hear their thoughts and learn about their processes. Board minutes show that Peter Tyndall had an interview-style video recorded very early on in the collection’s history. The minutes also show that when Nicholas Mangan was filmed at Sutton Gallery in 2006, discussing Mutant message, the board agreed that in the future all artists would be filmed discussing their artworks purchased for the collection. To accommodate particular works, curators would prepare specific questions for artists beforehand. Meeting artists has been a big thing for the Buxtons, and an important part of the educational journey: When we first started the collection, with the six artists we had, we had a Christmas party and invited all the artists. We had a fantastic night: it was our first introduction to these people and then we started doing proper studio visits. That is one of the best things you can do – go and visit their studios and talk to them and understand what they are doing. Because it is quite complicated; their thinking process is very different. Early encounters with Mike Parr, whose oeuvre encompasses painting, performance, sculpture, video, photography and printmaking, were especially illuminating. According to Anna Schwartz: ‘That artist alone was an instant education. Michael embraced it wholeheartedly.’ The Buxtons quickly fell for Parr’s work and have had a lot to do with him over the intervening decades, discussing his work and entering his world of complex ideas and expressions, including rare insights into his 2016 Sydney Biennale cremation of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of his prints at Carriageworks. The Buxtons have extended their interactions with artists into deeper friendships. Through dinners at the home of Peter Booth, he was among the first of these friendships: We talked with Peter about his paintings, and he reflected how they often represented his dreams about difficulties in the past. Also, how they were about his growing up in Sheffield in a coalmining area, and his family relationships. This gave us a great sense of connection to Peter’s work and [an] understanding of it.

Andrew Stephens

my own collection on a far humbler scale. You had to be in there very early in an artist’s career to pick up important work. Michael had identified with me. I also shared a similar taste value with him.

Over the years, the Buxtons have had many social events at their home, at which they have invited collection artists and curators to lead discussions about works and associated ideas, and to which non-collectors have also been invited. They especially recall curator Mark Feary leading a talk about collecting and Callum Morton examining the relationship between his sculptural work, architecture and society. People at these events, they say, ‘have always commented that they understood the depth and complexity of contemporary art when described first-hand. They always want to know more.’ The friendships with artists have emerged from Michael Buxton’s love of understanding their practice. Once, he called an artist whose work was to be collected, as he wanted to visit the foundry where the piece was being cast. A call from the artist to Luisa Bosci ensued: Was there anxiety about the quality of the work? Bosci was amused and explained that this was certainly not the case – Michael simply had a passion for investigating how art comes to be. ‘He is intrigued. I think at the end of the day he would have liked to have been an artist. But he ended up acquiring and learning from others.’ — Private art collections might easily be perceived as supplementary to larger, more thoroughly detailed state-run institutional collections. This perception, though, has changed dramatically in recent years, as more private collections have moved into the public sphere. A history of the Michael Buxton Collection

It has been estimated that there are more than 300 significant private contemporary art collections in the world.(8) Some collectors’ names are inextricable from the collections they have shared and, often, the architecture spawned to house them: Medici, Frick, Getty, Saatchi, Walsh, Guggenheim and Broad are among the most famous. The influence of private art museums in the global art landscape is considerable, with some research indicating that the quality of artworks displayed and the shows curated rival, or even surpass, institutional exhibitions, with visitor numbers often equalling those of public museums.(9) Some commentators have wondered whether private collectors’ personal tastes might increasingly influence the kind of art that is commissioned, exhibited and ultimately written into history.(10) When German art collectors Christian and Karen Boros opened their Berlin museum in 2012 to show off some of their prizes they went to the heart of this conversation, noting their view that state museums are crucial for historical purposes, as opposed to ‘private collections, with their mistakes, their subjective tastes’.(11) Observers in the art world, however, deeply admire the strategy the Michael Buxton Collection has followed in order to ameliorate such concerns. People such as Simon Hayman, for example, have great respect for the way in which the collection has been amassed; he has been especially impressed by the way the long-term goal of a museum has been the prime moving force along with Michael’s energy, especially at board and curatorial meetings. A strong reinforcement has been the way in which the move towards a museum has straddled different models of art collecting and patronage. Along the way, there has been extraordinary support for artists, both in purchasing their work directly and through enriching artists’ freedom by providing resources for residencies and other opportunities. Anna Schwartz’s observation is that the Buxton approach offers an excellent model for art collecting in Australia: ‘There’s often been a bit of a kind of “souveniring” approach by collectors, whether public or private; of wanting one of everything, and so collections can look a little homogeneous’. In collecting in depth and across time, the Michael Buxton Collection provides a different insight into the artists’ works and their genesis: ‘The attempt was to give a chronology within an artist’s practice, and a diversity … to make a connection between a viewer and the whole of the artist’s work’. From inception to the emergence of Buxton Contemporary at Andrew Stephens

(G)

Simon Hayman describes Michael Buxton’s interactions with artists and gallerists as genuine and heartfelt, rather than part of an investment or acquisition: Buxton involves himself, and it is very personal as some of the artists are his dear friends. Many of them have done private commissions for the Buxtons: Ricky Swallow, for example, completed a suite of watercolour works for the cabin of the Buxton boat Black Pearl, which, the Buxtons were delighted to find, were Treasure Island-themed. A visit to the home of Helen Johnson was also especially significant: ‘The more we got to know her, the more important collecting her work was, to the stage I’d like to buy anything she does’.

for whom the building is named is neither brash nor showy: ‘He is very down to earth and I think that the building reflects him’. — One of the most fervent objectives of Michael Buxton is for his collection to be used extensively for educational purposes – a poignant reflection of his own enriching experiences with the visual arts over the past few decades. Opportunities to integrate the University of Melbourne’s formal academic programs in visual arts, critical theory and curatorial studies alongside the exhibition component of Buxton Contemporary have been built into the museum’s foundations. The students form the future of their industry, and by creating networks between the different strands of practitioners at such an early stage in their careers, one aim is to deepen the local arts ecology. The emphasis on education that Michael Buxton infused into the idea for a museum from early on inevitably extends to the broader reach of his collecting habits; he has long tried to acquire peripheral materials related to an artwork, such as preliminary drawings, sketches, moulds, casts and so on. He has sought these things not only for his own elucidation but also as a reflection of the complexity of artmaking and all the research and contemplation that underpins its production.

In 2012, a board member suggested involving the University of Melbourne. Through eighteen months of conversations – during which other universities made approaches about housing the collection – the idea to refurbish and extend a site at the Victorian College of the Arts, on the corner of Dodds Street and Southbank Boulevard, emerged as the favoured solution. Working with heritage requirements and other concerns became a central focus for the board and the director after the deed was signed in 2014, when funds were donated, along with the bulk of the Michael Buxton Collection (plus a few works from the family’s private collection). Renowned architecture firm Fender Katsalidis was commissioned to do the work. Fender Katsalidis was briefed to integrate and celebrate the intricate heritage building fabric into a series of new, uplifting gallery spaces and associated facilities designed to permanently display the collection. The focus was to create an exciting new contemporary art experience that would, at its heart, showcase Michael Buxton’s commitment to contemporary Australian art. Karl Fender considered it a masterstroke to enact this within the educational realm of the university and to then locate it in the central arts district of Melbourne: The harmonious blend of old and new architecture was an important driver of the design. The stately presence of the heritage police stables administrative building provides the initial arrival experience to visitors and this subsequently morphs into the modern new additions which include more gallery space, administrative areas, loading [areas], work spaces and storage.(12) Amid all this, and the weight of expectation, it might be a surprise to some that Buxton Contemporary, as with the collection itself, gently emits certain understated qualities. According to Luisa Bosci, the man A history of the Michael Buxton Collection

(I)

Gertrude Contemporary has been an especially rich source of interaction with and education about emerging artists for the Buxtons, who have long been involved with many art spaces, gallerists and artists. It was at Gertrude that Michael Buxton first saw the work of Mark Hilton, at a time when the artist was not well known. The artist was diligently using an old chopstick to sculpt the many tiny figures comprising the work dontworry, 2012. Michael Buxton acquired the work before it was completed, and the National Gallery of Victoria subsequently borrowed it for the ambitious Melbourne Now exhibition, held in 2013–14. Such efforts are typical of his engagement, indicating how his personal creativity has been at an overarching level, rather than at the coalface of making individual pieces of art himself. What he has made is the Michael Buxton Collection, and the future upon which its fortunes have pivoted has now arrived. It has come from many incremental Andrew Stephens

(H)

Southbank, other models have been examined, including a Buxtonowned-and-managed private museum, run along similar lines to other private collector art venues. There was much research and plans were drawn up, but none proceeded when various issues around long-term governance were investigated. The priority was to have an entity that could exist beyond the lifetime of the Buxtons, yet remain true to its founding aims and ideals.

advances, not the least of which involves the laminated lists of artists he has kept inside his wallet along the way. These lists are of artists whose work he has carefully observed, or who have been suggested by curators. The names, and the works of art associated with them, remain circulating in his busy mind. These small but fertile lists are the focus of his immense enthusiasm and his ability to dream up and execute a grand plan. Collecting in this extraordinary way: it is an art form in itself.

Notes (1) Michael Buxton, interview with the author, 30 Nov., 2017. (2) ibid. (3)

John Buckley, The Loti and Victor Smorgon Collection of Contemporary Australian Art: Selected Works, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 1988, p. 3.

(4)

Simon Hayman, interview with the author, 15 Dec., 2017.

(5)

Anna Schwartz, interview with the author, 13 Dec., 2017.

(6)

Janet Buxton, interview with the author, 30 Nov., 2017.

(7)

Luisa Bosci, interview with the author, 5 Dec., 2017.

(8)

Larry’s List/AMMA (eds), Private Art Museum Report, Modern Arts Publishing, 2016, p. 5, www.larryslist.com/report/Private Art Museum Report.pdf

(9)

ibid., p. 6.

(10) Kathryn Brown, ‘Public vs private art collections: who controls our cultural heritage?’, The Conversation, 11 Aug., 2017, theconversation.com/public-vs-private-art-collections-whocontrols-our-cultural-heritage-80594, accessed 17 Jan., 2018. (11) Ben Mauk, ‘The rise of the private art “museum”’, The New Yorker, 28 May, 2015, www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-rise-of-the-private-art-museum, accessed 17 Jan., 2018. (12) Karl Fender, email correspondence with the author, 12 Jan., 2018.

Image credits (A) Howard Arkley, Freeway exit 1999 oil on canvas, 175 X 135 cm © Estate of Howard Arkley, courtesy Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art

(C) Tracey Moffatt, Doll birth, 1972 (from Scarred for life series) 1994 off-set print, one of 9 images, 80 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (D) Bill Henson, Untitled 1998-99 type C colour photograph, 102 x 101 cm Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (E) Ricky Swallow, The multistylus suite 2000 aluminium, hardboard, plywood, polycarbonate records, polystyrene cups, stain, turntables Courtesy the artist, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Modern Art, London, and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (F) Peter Booth, Untitled 1999 oil on canvas, 26 x 35.5 cm Courtesy the artist (G) Helen Johnson, Arc en bureau (without this stone the structure would collapse) 2007, acrylic on pencil on linen, dimensions variable Courtesy the artist, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, and Château Shatto, Los Angeles (H) Interior view, Buxton Contemporary (I) Interior view, Buxton Contemporary

A history of the Michael Buxton Collection

Andrew Stephens

(B) Mike Parr, Gold egg 1985 Girault pastel and charcoal on paper, 177 x 272 cm Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

Janet and Michael Buxton, Buxton Contemporary December 2017 Left:Â Mikala Dwyer,Â Necklace for wall (silver) 2011, Black lamp with Madonna and magnetic sculpture 2011 and White lamp 2011. Right: Marco Fusinato, The Infinitive 3 2015

Anna Schwartz Curator 1995–2007 In 1995, Michael Buxton called me at the gallery and asked to see me. He told me he wanted to begin collecting art seriously, contemporary Australian art, and he wanted a collection that would continue in the manner of the Victor and Loti Smorgon Collection of Contemporary Australian Art. Victor and Loti, great friends of mine, had focused on the latest works by leading artists. They visited and supported museum shows, cultivated relationships with artists and gallerists, and created, over many years, a culture of relishing and contributing to the art of the country in which they lived.

Another curator, John Buckley, was appointed to work alongside me, with the understanding that either of us had right of veto over decisions. The artists of the collection are discussed elsewhere in this book, but it was gratifying to see Michael confront and respond to the challenges of the work of Mike Parr and Peter Tyndall, among others, and to accept that works that may not have initially seemed of interest became, in time, extremely important to him and the collection. They became the basis for new ambitions to create a public museum in which the collection could be presented to the culture at large. Various sites and buildings for a museum were considered over time: the Red Tulip factory in Prahran and Docklands. Ultimately, however, the fruitful introduction of Doug Hall AM, who served on the board of the collection, to Glyn Davis AC, the vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, led to the realisation of the museum we had discussed over so many years.

Michael came to the gallery and invited me to his home, and we talked about what this collection might be and what it might mean. Several people had already offered advice, but on observing the era of the works he had collected to that point, I felt that it would be interesting and rewarding to begin a serious contemporary collection with a focused group of artists. I suggested engaging with the work and ideas of six artists to begin with, for at least two years; to expand slowly and systematically; and to look carefully and to acquire deeply, thereby assembling a body of work to render the artists comprehensible beyond our time. I felt that proceeding in this way would also be interesting for the artists – to know that their work was being observed seriously. Michael thereby began a series of strong relationships and discourses with the artists whose works he collected.

Title

detail A Person Looks At A Work of Art/someone looks at something ... LOGOS/HA HA in honour of Martin Luther King Junior - 1980 - 1998 Medium A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/ Someone looks at something … CULTURAL CONSUMPTION PRODUCTION Date -1991Artist Peter Tyndall

Michael has always been very intuitive and responsive to the work of the artists of his collection, visiting studios and arriving early at exhibitions, enthusiastically acquiring works on a very significant scale. Buxton Contemporary is the result of an ambition realised, with energy, imagination and application.

Curator reflections

Anna Schwartz

Max Delany Curator 1999–2009 The singularity, focus and ambition that characterises the Michael Buxton Collection is very much bound to its twin status of private collection – subject to the passions and interests of its patron – and the outcome of a rigorous professional process. It is the product of personal endeavour and a commitment to exploration, discovery and sustained dialogue between the collector, artists, curators, museum professionals and friends. Michael’s aspirations for the collection – to acquire the work of artists in depth, to follow their practice over time and to support the development of ambitious works and projects – has gone hand-in-hand with his sense of public responsibility, for the collection to benefit the public and serve an educative role.

In my current role as an institutional neighbour and colleague, I am excited to welcome Buxton Contemporary as a new protagonist in the cultural precinct at Southbank. An art museum straddling private patronage and public engagement, Buxton Contemporary sits happily alongside the contemporary context of new commissions and curatorial positions at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art; the heritage and legacy collections of the National Gallery of Victoria; and the educational, academic and research contexts of the Victorian College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne. We look forward to Buxton Contemporary extending the practices and dialogues between these institutions and their communities and publics.

From the outset, Michael engaged friends, fellow collectors, colleagues, curators and arts professionals – including Anna Schwartz, John Buckley, Charlotte Day, Samantha Comte, Mark Feary, Doug Hall and Simon Hayman, and his stepdaughter Luisa Bosci – to contribute to rigorous debates and discussions about the collection’s direction and terms of engagement. He formed a board and team of curatorial advisors to bring, in his words, ‘some discipline’ to the proceedings. Conducted with genuine inquisitiveness and respect for diverse viewpoints, the curatorial process has always been generative, lively and productive, with participants encouraged to introduce new ideas and critical reflection. There has been an openness, indeed readiness, to embrace new forms of artistic practice and discourse, and new knowledge and perspectives; at the same time, there’s been a healthy testing of received ideas and opinions. I have very much enjoyed both Michael’s and Janet’s adventurous, curious, questioning approach, along with their commitment, passion, openness and good humour. Michael has always been ready to embrace new directions, such as stronger representation of women artists and engaging with younger generations of artists and expanded practices, encompassing sculpture, installation, sound and video. Further to the collection’s primary role of supporting contemporary artists, Michael has always maintained its ambitious intention of serving a public, educative role. It was arguably founded on this principle, as it was first, for Michael, a personal vocation of self-education through engagement with art and artists; this quickly extended to family and friends, and then to the wider community through a program of loans, exhibitions and publications. Michael has encouraged others to

Curator reflections

The decision to represent and support the work of an initially small number of artists in depth has inevitably led to close relationships with the artists – something Michael derives great pleasure and insight from, and which is reciprocated by artists. It has also led to direct forms of patronage through providing studios to artists on occasion, or materials to allow artists to undertake new bodies of work. On other occasions, financial support has assisted artists to extend their practices, to travel or simply to navigate the precariousness of artistic endeavour. Michael and Janet Buxton have described as a great joy this aspect of friendship and support.

become patrons and champions of art and artists, and in this sense he has been exemplary. As we follow the trajectory of the Michael Buxton Collection, we see the private collection recalibrated towards an educational context in the establishment of a dedicated contemporary art museum within the academy. Buxton Contemporary is dedicated to the education, enjoyment and benefit of current and future generations of students and the public.

Mark Feary, Professor Charles Green and Max Delanay, Bendigo Art Gallery, 2015

Max Delany

Charlotte Day Curator 2006–13 I clearly remember my first meeting with Michael Buxton. Max Delany had recommended me to Michael and I went to meet him in his office, at that time an understated mirror-glass building near St Kilda Junction. I wore my best jacket.

what is most important about the Michael Buxton Collection is what it represents. This collection was decades ahead of many other public and private collections in its an unwavering investment in Australasian art: in its artists and the art process, in the twists and turns of a practice and in ambitious artworks.

Michael was, as he continues to be, disarmingly direct. We had a frank discussion about artists and art. I am pretty certain I presented some ideas on how we could progress the collection. I had no idea then that I would have the opportunity to work on the Michael Buxton Collection for years to come.

It was very rewarding to be able to argue a case for an artist or particular artwork. What I most liked about Michael was his openness to consideration; he was not cynical, but was always open-minded and willing to be convinced, though not easily so. Some artists came into the collection very smoothly but for others discussion continued across a number of years. It was all part of a process that, to my mind, was well considered and fair, with everyone on the Board having input.

In those early days, the structure of decision-making was less formal than it is today, though it always involved presenting and reviewing curatorial recommendations. We did much good work determining what was and should be the true character of the collection: one comprising works of museum standard, focusing on fewer artists in more depth, and collecting works that other institutions may have not had the resources or will to collect.

Then there was the budget, capped to ensure discipline in our decision-making, as Michael would regularly remind us. But sometimes there were ways around this, if he got particularly enthused about an artist or artwork. I greatly enjoyed the dialogue with fellow curatorial advisors Max Delany and Samantha Comte, then Mark Feary, as well as with other board members, including Luisa Bosci and Simon Hayman. And there were many acquisition highlights. It is hard to pick favourites, but for me it was very pleasing that the collection acquired major video installations, including David Rosetzky’s Custom made, 2000, and Daniel von Sturmer’s The truth effect, 2003. It was also pleasing that it acquired such sculptural installations as Simryn Gill’s Throwback – remade internal systems from a model 1313 Tata truck, circa 1985, 2007, from Documenta12, which is undoubtedly a registration challenge with its inherent vices, and Emily Floyd’s imposing Temple of the female eunuch, 2008. No storage problem too large! Increasingly, there were opportunities to share the collection through the dedicated website, external loans and occasional exhibitions, which were a great joy to work on. As well as the artists who have been supported and the artworks acquired,

Curator reflections

5-channel video installation, 4:3 ratio, colour, sound; five screens, table and base; The truth effect (sequence 1), 01:34 minutes; The truth effect (sequence 2), 04:17 minutes; The truth effect (sequence 3), 02:06 minutes; The truth effect (sequence 4), 01:42 minutes; The truth effect (sequence 5), 01:58 minutes Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

Charlotte Day

Samantha Comte Curator 2006–15 In 2006, Charlotte Day and I joined Max Delany on the Michael Buxton Collection curatorial team. The collection was little more than ten years old and represented some of Australia’s most significant artists.

While there have been many highlights and challenges in the ten years that I worked with the collection – such as moving the ever-expanding collection to a new ‘art factory’, the ongoing task of storing and caring for ambitious installation works, and involvement in acquiring major Australasian artworks – for me the opportunity to advise on a collection that actively and truly supports artists throughout their careers was one of the most rewarding aspects of my role. Visiting studios, talking to artists about their work, supporting artists as their practices shift and develop has been some of the most enjoyable aspects of being a curator of this collection t I am very proud to have been part of this process. Another highlight has been co-curating, with Luisa Bosci and Mark Feary, a major collection show at Bendigo Art Gallery. Hiding in Plain Sight: A Selection of Works from the Michael Buxton Collection was an important moment in the collection’s history; it marked the twentieth anniversary and the second major exhibition of the collection. It provided a fitting occasion to reflect on this remarkable collection, which exists because of the vision of one person and his commitment to this vision. At the core of the collection is a twenty-year passion for art and the belief that a collection should not only acquire significant and influential works of art but also support and nurture the ambitions and ideas of artists, bringing their work to public attention.

Shortly after, Charlotte and I went to Sydney with Michael and Janet Buxton to visit galleries. We met gallerists and saw shows, discussed artworks and ate great food. On this trip Michael told me the story of the first work he purchased: a Jeffrey Smart painting. It was a work that he had fallen in love with and simply had to have, paying it off over a year. This first purchase began a life-long passion for collecting and supporting Australian art and artists. Michael pursued his creative ambitions, briefly studying at the Victorian College of the Arts and then completing a creative arts course at the University of Melbourne. I realised then that Michael approached collecting like many other aspects of his life, with enthusiasm, rigour, curiosity and total commitment.

Louise Weaver, Taking a chance on love 2003 high-density foam, hand-crocheted cotton & lamb’s wool, linen, silk, polyester, glass, rubber, plastic, acetate, aluminium, silver leaf, acrylic paint, wood, stone, polyester flowers cut and sealed with high-frequency sound waves (recouped from Issey Miyake evening bag), Eclipse lamp designed by Vico Magistretti, Expresso chair designed by Brian Steendyk, light, sound recording, 500 x 365 x 205 cm Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Hiding in Plain Sight signalled an important shift for the Michael Buxton Collection, with the announcement of the collection being donated to the University of Melbourne and the development of a dedicated public museum. I will enjoy watching the collection continue to evolve, making new connections between artists, across generations and among artworks. Making the works of the Michael Buxton Collection available to the public has always been central and it goes to the heart of the collection’s endeavour – to engage people with contemporary art and to support and encourage contemporary artists.

Samantha Comte

Curator reflections

Luisa Bosci Curator 2013–ongoing In June 2016, the board of the Michael Buxton Collection approved the acquisition of Echo cabinet, 2011. For me, this work stands out, as it was the first by artist Francis Upritchard that the Michael Buxton Collection acquired. She was an artist whose work the collection had reviewed time and time again, since before she represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale back in 2009. In that seven-yearplus timeframe there had been many conversations, musings, discussions and acquisition proposals put forward for her inclusion. To finally represent her in the collection felt like a small milestone but it speaks to the intensity, rigour and critique that accompanies every work that becomes part of the Michael Buxton Collection.

The artist has always been at the heart of the Michael Buxton Collection. Supporting artists in-depth and across media, as well as assisting them further their practice through representation in national and international exhibitions and studio residencies, are all ways in which the collection has continued to foster the practice of Australasian contemporary artists. Working with the University of Melbourne to create a permanent, custom-built home for the collection at the Victorian College of the Arts, the oldest and most recognised art school in Australia, therefore feels not only fitting but also like the collection is coming home.

When an artist’s work becomes part of the collection there is a commitment to the artist and their practice, highlighting developments as they grow, experiment and push the boundaries of contemporary visual culture. Artist Marco Fusinato is one such example. The Michael Buxton Collection first acquired a loud, largescale installation titled Imperical distortion, 2012, and has since acquired a suite of works on paper, a two-dimensional ink-on-aluminum work and more recently it was gifted Fusinato’s From the horde to the bee, 2015–17. This work represents the culmination of his presentation in Okwui Enwezor’s All the World’s Futures, the 2015 Venice Biennale. It is a work the Michael Buxton Collection helped fund.

This new home will continue to support the current generation of visual artists through commissions, exhibitions and publications, but also to inform future generations of artists through education, research and master classes. The Michael Buxton Collection, the culmination of one man’s vision, has helped to enrich the arts ecology of this country, and it is hoped that Buxton Contemporary will also provide a platform for the public to see and understand the importance of supporting our current generation’s visual culture. Through this, Buxton Contemporary can provide a centre for patronage to ensure future generations of artists continue to be supported to their full extent. It has been my privilege to be part of the board since 2006, part of the curatorial team for the past four years and current director of the Michael Buxton Collection. It has been a journey of discovery, education and friendships, with not only artists but the entire arts community. I look forward to seeing Buxton Contemporary in full flight.

Curator reflections

Marco Fusinato, From the horde to the bee 2015–17, the artist filling garbage bags with cash in the last minutes of the exhibition, All the World’s Futures, 56th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, 23 November 2015 Courtesy the artist and Anna Swartz Gallery, Melbourne

Luisa Bosci

Mark Feary Curator 2013–ongoing For a curator who has worked almost entirely outside the realm of collecting institutions, the opportunity to think about what a contemporary collection of Australasian artworks could be, and to contribute to its expansion, has held magnetic allure for me. The role has offered the opportunity to assist in enabling financial support of many of the artists I work with as a curator and to preserve many of their important works for a public context.

Since its foundation, the collection has been more than a repository of objects; it has also been a mechanism to financially enable artists to sustain their practices and continue making works of great ambition, intellect and risk. It is an ongoing and evolving romance with a selection of artists rather than a prolific history of one-night stands, bearing greater resemblance to a deep and lasting love than to a series of momentary seductions.

The Michael Buxton Collection is not a random or rambling collection of pieces of everything, from everyone, from everywhere, but is notable and unapologetic for its resolute focus. This focus – undoubtedly elaborated on elsewhere in this publication – has been to create a sustained acquisition arc across the practices of select leading artists from Australia and, increasingly, New Zealand. Through this focus, an artist can be represented across various stages of their practice rather than being defined by a single iconic work – although the collection is replete with ambitious and career-defining works. This broader accessional approach enables their works to be considered within a more extensive spectrum of their artistic contribution over time.

It has been a sincere pleasure to have contributed to the evolution of the collection over the past four years, building on the thinking of the many notable curators and arts professionals involved with the collection over the past two decades. Through robust and rigorous conversations with the board and the family, underpinned by their deep passion for and commitment to contemporary art, a museum collection has formed in anticipation of its public platform. Like a trove of jewels (rough diamonds, even) accumulated over time, the collection has long awaited an iconic structure to contain and present it. Not unlike the collection itself, the newly opened Buxton Contemporary will undoubtedly forge a unique pathway, evolving as a dynamic museological model and continuing to support artists and to connect their works to a broad and curious public. Buxton Contemporary is not a trophy but a gift to all of us, a public asset to be individually and collectively enjoyed and revered. It is a legacy that hopes to inspire artists, to inspire new audiences, to inspire students, to inspire other philanthropists to think ambitiously and with great generosity. Indeed, it may be one that inspires other institutions to strive to better support the artists of our time.

Mark Feary and Luisa Bosci Michael Buxton Collection curators

Thank you, Michael, for your unwavering vision. Curator reflections

Mark Feary

A large house and garden 1997 oil on canvas, 175 x 135 cm Â© The Estate of Howard Arkley, Courtesy Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art

HOWARD ARKLEY

On the marble cliffs 1 2001 relief carborundum monotype on Velin Arches 400 gsm on canvas, 240 x 240 cm Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

MIKE PARR

Untitled 1995 oil on canvas, 167.5 x 305 cm Courtesy the artist

PETER BOOTH

detail A Person Looks At A Work of Art/someone looks at something ... -26th. August 1991Medium A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/ Someone looks at something … CULTURAL CONSUMPTION PRODUCTION Date -1991Artist Peter Tyndall

Title

PETER TYNDALL

Untitled 1997/98, 1997â&#x20AC;&#x201C;98 type C colour photograph, 134 x 182 cm Courtesy the artist, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

BILL HENSON

Jasperware (landscape) painting 1993 acrylic on canvas, triptych, 244 x 549 cm (overall) Courtesy the artist and Murray White Room, Melbourne

TONY CLARK

Conundrum 1990 sawn retro-reflective road signs on wood, 183 x 152.5 cm © Rosalie Gascoigne Estate/Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia

Big word combos – RN 4 ME/DILL 1998 oil paint on hessian with embroidery thread, wood, nylon rope, 330 x 220 cm Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

ROSE NOLAN ROSALIE GASCOIGNE

Un-Australian 2014 oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm Â© Juan Davila, courtesy Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art

Doll birth, 1972 (from Scarred for life series) 1994 offset print, 80 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

TRACEY MOFFATT JUAN DAVILA

International style 1999 wood, synthetic polymer paint, vinyl sheet, automotive paint, lights, looped sound track, 110 X 250 X 100 cm Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

CALLUM MORTON

Down home â&#x20AC;&#x201C; father and Down home - son 2009 watercolour on paper, two drawings, each 35 x 28 cm Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Modern Art, London, and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

There were two young icons 2004 enamel and laminex on board, 150 x 106 cm Courtesy the artist and Murray White Room, Melbourne

CONSTANZE ZIKOS RICKY SWALLOW

Bodyguard (for the Golden Helmeted Honeyeater) (from Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s little helpers series) 2004 silicon, fibreglass, leather, plywood, hair, 150 x 40 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco

Colour composition No. 3, 2006 enamel on board, 45 x 60 cm, Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

JOHN NIXON PATRICIA PICCININI

By the way 2010 pigment print , 90 x 72 cm Courtesy the artist, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne, and Bett Gallery, Hobart

PAT BRASSINGTON

Taking a chance on love 2003 high-density foam, hand-crocheted cotton and lambâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wool, linen, silk, polyester, glass, rubber, plastic, acetate, aluminium, silver leaf, acrylic paint, wood, stone, polyester flowers cut and sealed with high-frequency sound waves (recouped from Issey Miyake evening bag), Eclipse lamp designed by Vico Magistretti, Expresso chair designed by Brian Steendyk, light, sound recording, 500 x 365 x 205 cm Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

LOUISE WEAVER

The truth effect 2003 5-channel video installation, 4:3 ratio, colour, sound; five screens, table and base; The truth effect (sequence 1), 01:34 minutes; The truth effect (sequence 2), 04:17 minutes; The truth effect (sequence 3), 02:06 minutes; The truth effect (sequence 4), 01:42 minutes; The truth effect (sequence 5), 01:58 minutes Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

DANIEL VON STURMER

Sean’s dream of me 2003 acrylic paint and colour pencil on paper, transferred to single-channel DVD, 3:20 minutes Courtesy the artist

You sound like ... (30 November 2021) 2004 acrylic on paper, 108 x 82.5 cm Courtesy the artist’s estate and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

MUTLU ÇERKEZ JAMES LYNCH

Temple of the female eunuch 2008 vinyl, polyurethane and pokerwork on wood, variable dimensions Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

EMILY FLOYD

Think of yourself as plural 2008 single-channel DVD, colour, sound, 29:27 minutes Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

DAVID ROSETZKY

Trustee: forced into images 2001 Courtesy the artist, Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney

Effigy of an effigy with mirage 2010 pigmented polyurethane resin, pewter, 132 x 104.8 x 83.8 cm Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Foxy Production, New York, and Micheal Lett Gallery, Auckland

HANY ARMANIOUS DESTINY DEACON

I don’t think, I don’t feel because I know nothing’s real 2006 acrylic on board, 73 x 63 cm Courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney

130 Davey Street, Hobart (1/3 components) 2004–05 whiteboards, permanent and whiteboard markers, telephone book, Cibachrome, 188 x 131 x 57 cm Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane

RAQUEL ORMELLA DIENA GEORGETTI

That's the style, Mary 2011 oil on linen, 153 X 153 cm Courtesy the artist, Station Gallery, Melbourne, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney, and Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane

TIM McMONAGLE

The mutant message 2006 banksia nuts, box-brush hardwood, nylon rope, plastic gardening mesh, plastic funnels, set of speakers, beeswax, processed wax, oiled string, weed retardant tarp, CD audio variable dimensions Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

NICHOLAS MANGAN

Untitled 2008 screenprinted jute and linen collage, 210 x 300 cm Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Modern Art, London

DAVID NOONAN

Emergency services worker (greetings to Antony Gormley) 2008 tinted and painted plaster, 77 x 23 x 17 cm Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

LINDA MARRINON

Prospector 2007 acrylic on board, 110 X 87 cm Courtesy the artist and Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne

NADINE CHRISTENSEN

On the beach III part of liquid nature 2006 oil on glass, 43 x 57 cm Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

DAVID JOLLY

dontworry 2012 cast resin and powder, 9 pieces, variable dimensions Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

MARK HILTON

Fish 2010 blown glass, pigment, resin and wax, 88 x 30 x 30 cm Courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

101

100

BENJAMIN ARMSTRONG

Freeman Dyson 2008 oil on canvas, 40.75 x 255 cm (overall) Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

103

102

JAMES MORRISON

Shout on the hills of glory 2008 oil and enamel on linen, 200 x 310 cm Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

105

104

STEPHEN BUSH

A small town at the turn of the century # 5 1999â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2000/2010 type C colour photograph, 92 x 92 cm Courtesy the artist

107

106

SIMRYN GILL

Prime beef export quality 1999 colour DVD, 45:00 minutes Courtesy the artist, Station Gallery, Melbourne, and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

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TONY SCHWENSEN

Untitled (Artforum 2007â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2009) 2009 (detail) vitrine, 16 magazines 150 x 180 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane

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STUART RINGHOLT

Spirit and muscle 2006 digital video, 4:39 minutes Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

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LARESA KOSLOFF

An embroidery of voids 2013 single-channel digital video, colour, stereo sound, 19:25 minutes Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

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DANIEL CROOKS

YOU! 2016 painted polyurethane, urethane coated CNC polystyrene, clothing, wig, MDF and lighting, variable dimensions Courtesy the artist, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, and STATION, Melbourne

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RONNIE VAN HOUT

Touching face 2014 oil on linen, 56 x 41 cm Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

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ROB McHAFFIE

Imperical distortion 2012 fluorescent tubes, ballasts, aluminium frames, powered speakers, electrical cables, variable dimensions Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

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MARCO FUSINATO

Necklace for wall (silver) 2011 sterling silver, shell, wood, modelling clay, ceramic, leather, turquoise, moonstone, steel, copper, 169 x 210 cm Courtesy the artist, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, and Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington

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MIKALA DWYER

Floating eclipse 2013â&#x20AC;&#x201C;14 gouache, acrylic and ink on paper, triptych, 150 x 300 cm (overall) Courtesy the artist and Murray White Room, Melbourne

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MIRA GOJAK

Empire play 2016 acrylic on canvas, 280 x 214 cm Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Photo: Andrew Curtis

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HELEN JOHNSON

Special mechanism for universal uncertainty 2010 (detail) Sandra Selig in collaboration with Leighton Craig book pages, acrylic frames, sound, 9 parts, 32 x 22 cm Courtesy the artists and Milani Gallery, Brisbane Photo: Sandra Selig

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SANDRA SELIG & LEIGHTON CRAIG

Your boat my scenic personality of space 2012 2-channel HD video, 7:33 minutes Courtesy the artist and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

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JUSTENE WILLIAMS

In the ear of the tyrant 2013â&#x20AC;&#x201C;14 (still) 3-channel HD video installation, surround sound, 5:00 minutes Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

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ANGELICA MESITI

Untitled (two point perspective) 2012 synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 198 x 152 cm Courtesy the artist, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, and Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington

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STEPHEN BRAM

Welcome to hell 2014 felt appliquĂŠ, needlepoint, sequins, beads, buttons, found objects, 280 x 247 cm Courtesy the artist and Neon Parc, Melbourne

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PAUL YORE

Untitled #1 (from the Mob rule (family) series) 2014 Courtesy the artist, Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne, and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide

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TONY GARIFALAKIS

Untitled 2014 oil, charcoal and archival glue on linen, 213 x 274 cm Courtesy the artist, STATION Gallery, Melbourne, and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

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DANIEL BOYD

The wurm turns against 2014 3 step frame, pen, fibre-tipped markers, metallic paint and gouache on paper, 171 x 125 cm Courtesy the artist, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, and Jack Hanley Gallery, New York

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JESS JOHNSON

In time 2015 HD digital video, colour, no sound, 24:00:00 hours Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

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KATE MITCHELL

Blockchain future states startup case mod: 21 inc 2016 screenprint and UV print on Lian PC-Y6A Odyssey Yacht Mimi-ITX, UV print on laser-cut plexiglass component, UV print on Aludibond, Lian Li LED strips, Paulmann power supply, 30 x 80 x 27 cm Courtesy the artist, Petzel Gallery, New York, and Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland

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SIMON DENNY

Reading the bird entrails 2014 gouache and pencil on paper, 85 x 66 cm Courtesy the artist, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Ivan Anthony Gallery, Auckland, and Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin

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KUSHANA BUSH

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Echo cabinet 2011 veneer and Italian oak, brass fittings, modelling material, wire and paint, 99.5 x 190 x 65 cm Courtesy the artist, Anton Kern Gallery, NY, Ivan Anthony Gallery, Auckland, and Kate MacGarry Gallery, London Photo: Christian Capurro

FRANCIS UPRITCHARD

Marco Fusinato, The Infinitive 3 2015Â installationÂ view, Buxton Contemporary 2017

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Tim McMonagle, Michael Buxton 2012 installation view, Buxton Contemporary 2017

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Installation view, Buxton Contemporary, 2017. Left: Mikala Dwyer, Necklace for wall (silver) 2011, Black lamp with Madonna and magnetic sculpture 2011 and White lamp 2011. Right: Marco Fusinato, The Infinitive 3 2015

Melissa Keys, Michael Buxton, LuisaÂ Bosci and Professor Su Baker, Buxton Contemporary, 2017

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BUXTON CONTEMPORARY