John Kaldor Family Collection

It has been nearly a year since the generously donated John Kaldor Family Collection was unveiled to the public at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, opening the floodgates to an extensive compilation of over 200 contemporary works.  John Kaldor is an internationally recognised Australian art collector, renowned for his impassioned championing of artistic programs, education and awareness.  Working in collaboration with many key contemporary artists over the past 50 years, Kaldor has continually produced the Kaldor Public Art Projects, commissioning groundbreaking works by emerging and established international contemporary artists to be enjoyed by the wider community. 

            The exhibition space is as broad as the range of work contained within it, with the entire gallery floor having been custom-renovated to accommodate the Kaldor bequest. As a result of this, in spite of the huge volume of works, sufficient space is available so that each may be viewed wholly and singularly without interruption. Despite the wide variation, there is a broad tendency towards non-traditional art forms, mediums and practices, such as video and sound installation. Several key movements since the 1960s can be clearly identified within the collection, including Pop art, Land Art and Minimalism. A key aspect of this collection is the works’ innovative, unexpected engagements with the space. This phenomenon is exemplified by, although not limited to, the placement of works on the floor, a practice that alters the viewer’s engagement with the work entirely. The floor works ‘Body Double’ by Julie Rrap and ‘Steel-Copper Plain’ by Carl Andre both employed this technique as a means of amplifying meaning, however with vastly disparate results. The enormous breadth of variety within the collection only furthers the understanding of contemporary art as a paradigm defined by chronology more so than a distinctive style or technique.            

By encapsulating a period of art making assumedly linked only by zeitgeist, this collection also seeks to question the role of the individual in relation to artwork.  John Kaldor is an individual, not a curator, yet he has hand selected one of the largest exhibitions to be displayed in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.  Yes, the collection contains supreme aspects of contemporary art, but one has to wonder about the impacts of excluding the institutional processes up until the point of exhibition. From where did Kaldor draw the definitive authority to promote what is ultimately his subjective opinion as a collective cultural retrospective?  That being said, whilst an important to aspect to consider when the viewing the collection as a whole, these concerns should not detract from the majesty of the pieces, which serve as valuable embodiments of contemporary international culture.