John Kaldor Family Collection

Review -

John Kaldor Family Collection

The John Kaldor Family Collection was generously donated to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Valued at 35million it is the largest single art donation to an Australian public gallery with over 200 contemporary works of art including works by some of the most important artists of our time.  John Kaldor is an internationally recognized Australian art collector well known for his artistic programs, education and awareness.  Working with contemporary artists over the past 50 years, Kaldor has continually produced Kaldor Public Art Projects, commissioning groundbreaking works by emerging and established international contemporary artists. 

            The exhibition space has been developed to hold the broad array of work. The Gallerys old storage  area and existing display space have been renovated to create a entire new floor 3300 square meters of exhibition space. That now holds Australia’s most comprehensive representation of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present day. There is enough space to view each work individually and in the vast array of different works there is a consistent theme of Contemporary thew the presence of non-traditional art mediums and practices like video and sound installation. Key movements can be seen in the collection, including Pop art, Land Art and Minimalism. 

            A key aspect of this collection is the works unusual relationship with the space. The method of placing some of the works on the floor changes the way the viewer experiences the work evolving the piece to be interactive. The floor works ‘Body Double’ by Julie Rrap and ‘Steel-Copper Plain’ by Carl Andre use deliberate placement to change and add meaning to there work. In ‘Steel-Copper Plain’ it can be walked on creating and uncomfortable questioning as the interaction is  different to previously known “normal” behavior of  viewing in the gallery. The large variety in the collection is a great example and creates  more understanding of contemporary art across a variety of art forms. The collection creates questioning about the role of the individual. The individual as part of the work but also how the art work is alter by the presence of the individual.  The large exhibition displayed in the Art Gallery of New South Wales holds amazing elements of contemporary art but the selection of pieces are also a reflection of John Kaldor as an individual. Kaldor had a large impact on the placement of the works as well as his personal collection leading the exhibition to be about the individual from beginning to end.