The National Gallery’s Australian art collection is now one of the best collections of Australian art. You started with the Commonwealth collection but nothing much else. It was a huge job. How did you approach building the collection?
Vale James Mollison AO 20 March 1931 – 19 January 2020 James Mollison, the founding Director of the National Gallery of Australia, spent more than two decades building, shaping and carefully nurturing the
I followed instructions from government – through the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board – to put together a definitive collection of Australian art. I have to qualify that; the then Art Advisory Board thought that Australian art comprised paintings mainly; sculpture got a small look in, prints and drawings were of no interest really, nor were the decorative arts. But they did ask me to put together the finest possible collection of Australian work for the Gallery that was then to open in 1976.
national collection. Among Australian art’s most admired figures, James
You were ahead of your time in recognising that prints and drawings,
will always be remembered for his foresight in acquiring Jackson Pollock’s
decorative arts and photography were an important part of the whole
Blue poles 1952 and his extensive input into architect Col Madigan’s
story. Had you had seen examples of this in collections elsewhere?
design of the building, among many other incredible achievements.
I grew up in Melbourne. The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) contains
We pay tribute to James with an extract from his conversation with Anne Gray, former Head of Australian Art, from the 2003 publication Building the Collection.
marvellous prints and drawings and a collection of decorative arts at least equal in quality to the collection of paintings. It never occurred to me that some things were better art than others because of their category. How did you persuade the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board of this? I waited. I can remember putting a proposal to the Board that we set aside $2,000 a year from which we would buy a comprehensive collection of Australian prints. For $100 you could get a Margaret Preston print or the rarest impression of Norman Lindsay. But they said, ‘No. We will do without prints and drawings in the collection. You get back to work and find us the paintings we want.’
Above: Founding Director James Mollison pictured in 1975 with Sidney Nolan’s Death of Sergeant Kennedy at Stringybark Creek, 1946, enamel on composition board, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, gift of Sunday Reed 1977 © National Gallery of Australia Photo with permission of The Canberra Times
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Opposite (left to right): the founding Director holding a staff meeting at the former NGA facilities at Fyshwick; Mr Mollison and art critic Robert Hughes inspect Blue poles 1952 when it first arrived in Australia Page 50: Mr Mollison escorts Prince Charles around the National Gallery
So you just waited until the time was right? I was prepared to wait.