Official Opening of the
SPRING FLOWERS AUTUMN GRASS
The Spirit of Nature in Asian Art
Exhibition at the
National Gallery Of Victoria,
20 February 2002
Opening Address by:
Dr. Terry Cutler, Chairman, Australia Council for the Arts.
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Mr Rupert Myer, Dr Gerard Vaughan, Dr Mae Anna Pang, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am delighted to be here to launch SPRING FLOWERS AUTUMN GRASS - The Spirit of Nature in Asian Art : what prescience this great national institution has shown in anticipating Melbourne's current lack of summer. The leap from Spring to Autumn is the right focus for a Melbourne exhibition
I am especially grateful that your trustee, Rupert Myer, has taken time out tonight to be the trustee on duty, because I have been having quite a bit to do with Rupert in the course of his current role in Chairing the Federal Government's inquiry into support for the visual arts and craft sector in Australia. This is a very important review, and it is comforting to know it is in such good hands.
Important national cultural institutions like the NGV play a crucial role in the overall ecosystem of contemporary arts, credentialling emerging artists and, most importantly, locating the new with the context of an ever evolving cultural heritage. This is where curatorial excellence and scholarship is important, as witnessed tonight in the work of Dr Mae Anna Pang, whom I want to congratulate for this exhibition and the important catalogue that accompanies it.
The NGV is also important nationally as being at the forefront in having a strong focus on the decorative arts, and their importance. The craft arts and design are sometimes neglected in arts policy and funding, and this is something that both Rupert Myer and I have been frequently reminded of during his current enquiry and an associated review of craft support undertaken by the Australia Council.
I mention craft here because some of the most beautiful representations of nature in art in the Asian tradition are often embodied in objects, whether ceramics, lacquer ware, the installation art of gardens, or even "spirit rocks".
Tonight I am delighted to have an opportunity to add my own tribute to Kazari, to Robert Joyce and Jo Maindonald, for sponsoring this exhibition. For many years Robert and Jo have helped me build my own modest collection of Asian art, and their educational role as dealers has been hugely important in fostering an appreciation of the Asian aesthetic here in Melbourne.
While I am delighted to be launching this exhibition because of my personal passions - particularly for Japanese art - it might strike some as odd that the Chairman of the Australia Council for the Arts, an institution dedicated to the fostering of Australian arts and the nurturing of an Australian identity, should leap at the chance to be here tonight.
The simple reason is that to enjoy and learn from the aesthetic and heritage of other cultures has always been a crucial stimulous to the development of new insights, new ways of looking at the world. Art, ideas, and aesthetics have always been borderless. Our appreciation of our own emerging local voices, our distinctively Australian framing of insights and perspectives, must always be informed by reference to other traditions and approaches within the broad base of our collective global heritage that is our civilisation and our spirituality, our common humanity. Cross cultural inspiration has produced some of the most exciting developments in modern art - think of Monet to name just one artist - and it is of particular importance to us here in Australia as we explore just what our increasing multiculturalism means for our artistic expression and the visual representation of our evolving Australian sense of identity, and an "Australian-ness" drawing on a growing variety of rich aesthetic traditions.
There is something in this exhibition for every Victorian - for every Australian dare I say - to enjoy, whether gardeners and nature lovers, philosophers, artists, members of our Chinese or Japanese communities, or simply those who want another inspiring day out, a short-lived chance to visit the NGV at this temporary home before it moves on to its exciting new phase of life at St Kilda Road and the new Federation Square.
For all these reasons I have the greatest pleasure in officially opening Spring Flowers: Autumn Grass: The Spirit of Nature in Asian Art.
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