It not every day that we are able to look inside the personal collections of others, or even gain an understanding of what is ‘collectible’ as opposed to ‘desirable’ or even ‘decorative’ in the visual arts.
From April 16, a country gallery is exhibiting for the first time, a collection of works that can only be described as ‘highly collectible’. These works have been drawn from the private collections of some of the gallery’s client base and have not been exhibited publicly before. Many of the works are over 100 years old and show the technique of previous masters of painting. We can see the delicate brushstrokes of John Absolon (1815-1895), a British Watercolourist whose painting would have made it to his family in Western Australia in the late 1800’s, and finally into a private collection on the east coast of Australia. His son, John de Mansfield Absolon was also a watercolourist who spent his time between England and Australia and managed his family’s mining interests.
An early aboriginal painting by Desmond Ebatarinja (1956-2004) of the Hermannsburg School from Central Australia who painted around Central Australia and the desert is featured in the collection.
Another delightful work is a fine example of Ukiyo-e featuring a landscape created from woodblocks around the 1850’s. These works are rare outside of Japan and feature works from the famous school on delicate papers.
For those wanting to get into the collectible market at an affordable price, there are a range of John Sands early maps framed and ready to hang. The maps are from his early book of maps of New South Wales, first edition in 1886.
Alongside these rare works, the gallery is exhibiting a number of today’s artists that are considered to be of increasing value. Works by Greg Hyde, Joy Engelman, Brett Garling to name a few as well as an amazing sculpture by Tim Kyle . Kyle won the Wynne Prize in 2003 for his “Seated Figure” and Jayes has a strong work by Kyle in “Standing Man” in a similar vein.
This is a show not to be missed and will be out at Molong in central NSW from April 16 through to May10. Opening night Friday 16 April at 6.30.
