ART & CULTURE: The story behind Trinity's art collection

Having grown from humble beginnings as a cluster of curios to a large, sophisticated array of old and new works, Trinity’s art collection now reflects the College’s status as a world-class, 21st-century educational institution with a rich history. The diverse acquisitions span the genres from heritage portraits and Indigenous memorial poles to thought-provoking work by Australian contemporary artists.

BY DR BENJAMIN THOMAS

IMAGES: KIT HASELDEN PHOTOGRAPHY AND EMILY McAULIFFE

In the 1960s, Trinity’s fourth Warden, Robin Sharwood, had a vision for art at the College. ‘I firmly believed that the College was an institution which should, and could, develop a fine art collection over a period of time. I was encouraged in this belief by the Oxford and Cambridge collections.’

With that, Trinity’s art collection began to grow.

The early days

Some of Trinity’s artworks are almost as old as the College itself. In 1895, College Council member George William Rusden gifted an eclectic personal collection of largely Asian curios and objets d’art to the College – carved Japanese ivory okimono, stone teapots, items of lacquerware, and an oil painting, Nicholas Chevalier’s Lake Mavora, New Zealand (1867). The following year he donated £50 to help Trinity establish a dedicated exhibition space in Clarke, known as the Rusden Museum. An influx of students after World War I saw the museum packed away, but Rusden’s philanthropic gesture and legacy continues in the title of Trinity’s current collection role, the Rusden Curator.

A growing collection

It was the establishment in the early 1980s of the Trinity College Art Committee that propelled the art collections forward. Under the chairmanship of Professor AGL Shaw (TC 1935) and subsequently Sir Andrew Grimwade (TC 1949), Trinity’s art collection grew, particularly the notable portrait collection shown on rotation in the Dining Hall.

A student art collection was established in 1990 and, a decade later, the first Indigenous artworks were acquired. A purpose-built gallery space – the Burke Gallery – was added to the campus in 2016.

Indigenous art

A new century and a new Warden in 1997 saw a renewed engagement with Indigenous Australia. Building on some earlier steps throughout the 1990s, in 2001 Trinity established two dedicated scholarships to support Indigenous students coming into residence. At the same time, the earliest works of Indigenous art were acquired to augment Trinity’s existing art collections.

The student art club, the ER White Society, led the way with their purchase in 2000 of Yorta Yorta artist Lin Onus’ Michael and I Are Just Slipping Down to the Pub For a Minute (1992). That same year, Ray Vincent, of the Dunghutti people from the coast of northern NSW, visited as an artist in residence.

The Revealed exhibition in Trinity’s Burke Gallery (2019)

From this point, it was the development of relationships, especially with the Marika family of Yolngu artists, that shaped and strengthened the College’s Indigenous art collection, with a particular focus on north-east Arnhem Land.

In 2007, the ER White Society commissioned Rärriwuy Marika to produce a work as the society’s annual student acquisition. A decade later, the group purchased acclaimed Yolngu artist Nongirrnga Marawili’s wooden larrakitj pole, Yathikpa. It is one of a stand of three Yolngu larrakitj poles that greet visitors to campus entering through the Gateway Building.

Around these notable additions, the College itself has strengthened the representation of a range of artists from the community, among them the late Mr W Wanambi, his sister, the late Boliny Wanambi, Langani Marika, Dhuwarrwarr Marika, Ms B Marika and her daughter Ruby Alderton, Mawalan 1 and Mawalan 2 Marika, and Yanggarriny Wunungmurra.

The Marika family themselves have entrusted the College to act in a custodial arrangement to exhibit a beautiful suite of felt pen on paper drawings by the late Wandjuk Marika OBE, shown as a complete body of work in the Senior Common Room. Wandjuk’s granddaughter Mayatili, one of our Oakleaf Award recipients, has been an invaluable adviser to Trinity, most recently in the preparation of the exhibition Revealed: Arnhem Land Barks from the Anita Castan Collection: Yirrkala and Milingimbi, held in the College’s Burke Gallery in 2019.

A fine portrait

In 1911, after 27 years living in Europe, artist Rupert Bunny returned to Australia for a visit. He was promptly approached and engaged by a group of Trinity alumni to paint a portrait of Alexander Leeper, then in his 35th year as Warden.

The alumni body, the Union of the Fleur-de-Lys, opened a fund and called for philanthropic subscriptions from alumni and students. On 2 May the following year, the completed painting was unveiled in the Dining Hall. It was, as reported in the 1912 Fleur de Lys and as time has upheld, ‘not only a splendid portrait of the Warden but also a fine work of art’.

Part of Trinity College’s portrait collection in the Dining Hall

Trinity’s portrait collection grew primarily through the commissioned addition of wardens during the last century, until the formation of the Trinity College Art Committee in the early 1980s brought expertise, intent and direction to the College’s visual art collections.

The collection has since become one of the finest privately held collections of portraiture in Australia. The inaugural painting by Rupert Bunny now sits alongside other noteworthy works by Arthur Boyd, Judy Cassab, Rick Amor, Julia Ciccarone, Evert Ploeg and past Archibald Prize winners Yvette Coppersmith, Peter Wegner and Nicholas Harding, among many others.

The ER White collection

Established in 1990, the ER White Society’s collection is an exciting opportunity for residential students to play an active role in the acquisition and growth of the College’s art collections.

The brass Bulpadock Bull by Pamela Irving was acquired by the ER White Society in 1993

In 1958, a painting by emerging young artist John Brack was gifted to the College in memory of former Senior Student Edward Rowden White (TC 1901). Bold and unconventional, Brack’s The Breakfast Table proved a little too avant-garde and was underappreciated. With the consent of the donors, it was put to auction in 1989. A fund established from the proceeds of the sale has since enabled the ER White Society, an elected body of residential students, to annually select and purchase a work of contemporary Australian art to enrich the College art collections.

More than 30 years on, the ER White collection comprises an impressive array of artworks by established Australian artists including Bill Henson, Jon Cattapan, John Kelly, Nongirrna Marrawili and Polixeni Papapetrou, among others that adorn the campus grounds.

And what of The Breakfast Table? After almost two decades in a private collection, it again appeared at auction in 2013 where it was acquired by the Art Gallery of NSW.

The Professor Sir Joseph Burke Gallery

With the opening of the Gateway Building in 2016, Trinity gained a new space in the form of the Professor Sir Joseph Burke Gallery (the Burke Gallery).

The gallery is named after Englishman Professor Sir Joseph Burke (1913–1992), a much-valued resident art tutor and Fellow of Trinity, who lived for a time in Trinity’s Vatican building. Burke was the University of Melbourne’s first Herald Chair of Fine Arts, a position he held from 1947–1979.

The late Nicholas Harding's Be Brutal exhibition

Since opening, the gallery has presented a number of exhibitions, among them:

• Balnhdhurr – A Lasting Legacy (2020), celebrating more than 20 years of works by Yolngu artists from Yirrkala (Northern Territory)

• Revealed: Arnhem Land Barks from the Anita Castan Collection: Yirrkala and Milingimbi (2019)

• Be Brutal: Nicholas Harding (2019), presenting portraits by 17-time Archibald Prize finalist and 2001 winner the late Nicholas Harding

• Baring-bul (2018), curated collaboratively with the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School

• Beyond Woop Woop (2017), a suite of works produced by renowned Australian-Irish artist John Kelly.