Acquisitions Overview

2012/13 proved to be another major year in the development of the City of Townsville Art Collection, particularly with respect to the quality of artworks acquired, many of which featured in major exhibitions held across Gallery Services’ peak gallery venues in recent years. As such, these acquisitions strengthen the Collection’s standing as a significant historical and cultural asset for the region and community.

In total, 27 artworks were formally accepted into the Collection, at a total value of $123,840. Most importantly, $98,670 worth of artworks donated this financial year, either directly from artists, collectors, or through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program.

This enthusiasm to gift works to the City of Townsville Art Collection is indicative of the regard with which the Collection is held, and of the national significance of Townsville City Council’s premier art galleries, administered by Gallery Services, in attracting such favourable recognition within the arts sector.

The Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program encourages Australians to donate items of cultural significance from private collections to public art galleries, museums, libraries and archives. Gifts can range from paintings, books, sculptures, manuscripts and personal papers to jewellery, ceramics—even entire technological, mechanical, scientific or social history collections.

The program has proven to be particularly beneficial for the development of the City of Townsville Art Collection in 2012/13, with significant donations made through the program during this period by artists G W Bot, Barbara Cheshire, David Rowe, Anneke Silver and Margaret Wilson, and by collectors Mr Michael Bater and Mr Harley Gittoes (works by George Gittoes) and ASX Limited (work by Graeme Inson).

Perhaps the most significant acquisition in this financial period was the donation of George Gittoes’ Legless Bike Cambodia by Mr Michael Bater through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program. The Australian Army had commissioned Gittoes to record in photographs, drawings and paintings its peace-keeping efforts in Somalia, Cambodia, Western Sahara, the Middle East and the Sinai from 1993-95. Military personnel stationed in Townsville were on a selection of these missions.

Legless Bike Cambodia was painted in situ in a Cambodian hut, near Ankor Wot, while the artist was with Australian troops during a peacekeeping mission in 1993. The work includes many figures and scenes that were the subjects of his drawings, loose leaf diary pages, and smaller oils—particularly the legless bike man, who Gittoes saw as a symbol of hope and inspiration for Cambodia’s resilience and adaptability.

Having secured his time to deliver free stencil art workshops for Townsville’s youth thanks largely to a RADF grant, internationally recognised street artist HA-HA has also kindly donated the first edition of two works on paper, Maori Chief, and Maori Chief Natai

Further, $25,170 worth of artwork was acquired in 2012/13 through the Gallery’s major acquisitive exhibitions; Catherine Lane’s No burden winning the 2012 North Queensland Potters Association Awards, works by Laura Castell, Emily Hill and Barbara Pierce acquired through the Townsville Art Society Annual Awards, and Kevin Lincoln’s Self Portrait, which was judged the winner of the 2012 Xstrata Percival Portrait Award by esteemed judge Mr Barry Pearce.

These works serve to form a permanent record of the very best submissions to some of the region’s most prestigious art prizes. To this end, the donation of Barbara Cheshire’s Jack, which won the very first Percival Portrait Award in 2007- prior to the award becoming acquisitive – is also of great significance to the City of Townsville Art Collection

The period 2012/13 also saw the completion of payment for the major work Looking Back (Baucau) by Melbourne artist Jon Cattapan, and the Gallery Acquisition Working Group’s in-principle approval to purchase Bill Yaxley’s painting Riverway, Townsville. The work is of significance to the region, will be used to inform the 2014 Annual Children’s Exhibition, and has been made available to Gallery Services at a reduced rate.

David ROWE

Symbiosis 2007

Oil on canvas

180 x 129.5cm

Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program