Aubrey Gibson - Collecting and Commissioning Works of Art

Collecting and Commissioning Works of Art

Although his career as an artist was fleeting, Gibson's career as a patron and lover of art was lifelong. In the 1950s and 1960s Gibson made major contributions to the arts in Australia, both as a collector and a patron of arts organisations. He acquired the works of some of Australia's most highly regarded artists, such as Russell Drysdale, Albert Tucker and John Brack. Other artists well represented in his collection included Noel Counihan, John Passmore, Clifton Pugh and Clive Stephen.

As a collector, Gibson's tastes were eclectic. At the same time as acquiring paintings by "the younger Australian painters" of his time, he was also collecting antique English silver. This led one writer to exclaim of his collection that "it must surely cover more ground than almost any other private one in this country". Toward the end of his life the collection included over 560 items from artists of over 30 countries. His fascination with silver also led him to spend time during a visit to Europe in 1952, learning from the British silversmith Robert Stone how silverware was made. This was an experience recounted in Gibson's only book The Rosebowl, so named because of a commission Gibson sought of Stone.

The Rosebowl was an account of a trip around the world taken by Gibson and his wife in 1951. It described his visits to cultural institutions and contained ruminations on cultural collections policy. Reflecting on the damage caused by World War II to cultural artifacts, art and architecture, he advocated a wide distribution of works of art around the world, to afford them greater protection. He was to have an opportunity to pursue these views in later roles with the National Gallery of Victoria.

The silver rosebowl was one of a range of works commissioned by Gibson. Others included three portraits of himself: one by Manx artist Bryan Kneale, one by Australian artist Noel Counihan, and a sketch by Archibald Prize-winning artist Louis Kahan, this last being in the University of Melbourne's Clem Christesen collection.