The University of Queensland’s original art collection will be reassembled for public display for the first time in 60 years for a Brisbane exhibition opening next week.
Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay AC will open special commemorative exhibition at the University Art Museum within the James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre, University Drive, St Lucia on Wednesday, April 13 at 3pm.
The exhibition will be displayed in a ground-floor gallery at the Centre. The show marks the anniversary of the first exhibition of UQ’s Art Collection at the University’s original home on April 13, 1945.
Because the University at that stage did not have an art museum to house its new acquisitions, the original collection was hung in the main student geology lab at the University’s original home in George Street, City.
The University’s first Professor of Geology, Professor H.C. Richards, who chaired the John Darnell art collection committee, asked geology student Jack Woods to hang the collection.
Professor Richards was a “mover and shaker” in the Brisbane art world, head of trustees for the Queensland Art Gallery and had conducted the first review of Australian museums in the 1930s.
79-year-old Mr Woods of Hamilton, said practical classes in the lab were cancelled while the exhibition was shown.
“I do remember that Professor Richards fostered an interest in Australian painting which the students were able to take further by visiting the art section in the old technical college next door in George Street,” he said.
Mr Woods will be a special guest at the new show opening. He graduated Bachelor of Science (Geology and Chemistry) in 1946 and Master of Science (1953) from UQ and lectured part time in UQ’s then Geology Department in fossil marsupials in the 1950s. His career highlights included being Queensland Director-General of Mines from 1976-1985, Chief Government Geologist from 1968 to 1975 and Director of the Queensland Museum from 1964 to 1967. He was awarded the Imperial Service Order in 1985.
University Art Museum Director Ross Searle said the works in the new exhibition held “special significance” for the University Art Museum as the first works purchased by the University, as a result of the John Darnell bequest.
“UQ was one of the first universities in Australia to systematically acquire works of art, and now has Queensland’s second largest public art collection, with more than 2500 items,” he said.
“Putting these pieces together as a group for the first time in 60 years is a wonderful way to mark the first anniversary of the reopening of the refurbished Mayne Centre on April 15 last year.”
Originally known as the Darnell Collection, the University Art Museum collection began in the 1940s following the £17,000 ($34,000) legacy bequeathed to the University by Wynnum businessman John Darnell, who died in 1931.
Mr Darnell, who was the son of a London boot and shoe manufacturer, came to Australia in 1878 to establish his fortune. A commercial traveller, he also left large amounts in his will to the Commercial Travellers Association and the Queensland Art Gallery.
While funds were originally applied to the endowment of a special library collection, the University redirected the remainder of these funds towards the establishment of the Fine Art Library in the 1940s.
Mr Searle said that the University’s first honorary professor of pathology Dr James Duhig, and prominent Brisbane art collector and Professor of Architecture R.P. Cummings were also instrumental in the formation of the collection.
They were assisted by prominent artists and advisors including Daryl Lindsay, Lloyd Rees, Lucy Swanton, Lillian Pedersen, Sydney Long, Roland Wakelin, Max Ragless and Vida Lahey.
“The collection contains watercolours, paintings and prints by mostly living Australian artists of the period, with a good number from Queensland, although it also includes a small etching by American artist James Whistler,” Mr Searle said.
The show will be open Tuesdays until Sundays 10am to 4pm until the end of May (free parking at weekends).
The James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre is named in honour of Dr James O’Neil Mayne (1861-1938) and his sister Mary Emelia Mayne (1858-1940), the last surviving members of Brisbane’s Mayne family, who were benefactors to the University. Among their donations was the land for the St Lucia campus.
The Atlantic Philanthropies provided a generous $5 million donation towards the transformation of this important cultural icon.
Media: Please contact Mayne Centre Director Ross Searle telephone: 07 3365 3046, r.searle@uq.edu.au or Jan King at UQ Communications telephone 3365 1120.
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