The Asian Collection

The Asian art collection at the Art Gallery of South Australia was established in 1904 following a Board decision to ‘extend the scope of their Art Department with the view of promoting the knowledge of the technical arts’. Their decision followed a major bequest by Dr Morgan Thomas of £65,000 to be shared by the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery: Mr S.I. Kepple of Bristol, England was commissioned by the Board of Governors to purchase both contemporary and antique European and Asian ceramics in Europe. Over 70 Chinese, and 33 Japanese wares, along with a much larger group of European pottery and porcelain were acquired by Mr Kepple in consultation with a member of the Board, the Hon George Brookman. The collection was put on display in 1905, marking the first phase of the Asian collection. Photographs of the new Gallery taken in 1913 show some of these ceramics in the handsome display cases specifically designed for the building.

Many of the Chinese wares, in particular Ming and Qing dynasties underglaze blue-and-white porcelain from the 17th to the 19th centuries have been constantly on exhibition since they were acquired. It is disappointing that Mr Kepple and Mr Brookman were not as discerning when they chose the Japanese wares since most are unsuitable for display.

The first Middle Eastern art entered the collection in 1916 when Sir Samuel Way bequeathed three late 18th or early 19th century Persian tiles depicting horsemen accompanied by Saluki hounds hunting boar. This remarkable collector and benefactor also left the Gallery a large collection of Japanese decorative art which included fine 18th and 19th century netsuke. The size and quality of his collection suggests that in all likelihood he visited Japan.

During the next fifty years the Asian collection grew rather haphazardly. The early directors of the Gallery were practicing artists whose primary interests were contemporary art, and to a lesser extent European old masters. Consequently the collecting policy remained focused on Western easel painting and sculpture. At that time there were no specialised curators of Asian art or even European decorative art. The bequest to the Gallery by Sir Samuel Way and the limited few who followed him provide valuable evidence that collections of Asian art did exist in Adelaide.

In 1940 important purchases of 33 Japanese woodblock prints by Hokusai and other artists were made in Sydney and Indian Mughal miniature paintings were acquired in London with the Assistance of the British Museum.

The second phase of the collection began in the early 1960s when a small and select group of Chinese and Persian ceramics was purchased in London by Mr R.J. Charleston who was Deputy Keeper of Ceramics at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Mr Charleston chose works from the Chinese Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties and Chinese-influenced blue-and-white Persian ceramics from the late 16th and 17th centuries. These ceramics have rarely been off display.

In the mid 1960s the Gallery broadened the scope of its Asian collection and acquired its first Cambodian sculpture and ceramics. John Baily, Director of the Gallery from 1967 to 1975, was introduced to Southeast Asian ceramics by Robert Haines, and with the help of the Adelaide philanthropist Max Carter, acquired the first Thai ceramics in 1969. Max Carter is best known for his extraordinary gifts of 19th century Australian painting to the Gallery, but he also played a major role in establishing the now well-known Southeast Asian ceramic collection and developing the Chinese and Korean ceramic collections. At the beginning of the 1970s he donated large collections of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai wares as well as more recently an extensive collection of Japanese netsuke and okimono.

In 1969 the Gallery’s collection policies were reviewed and redefined, and it was decided to focus the Chinese collection on ceramics that were made for export to both the Southeast Asian and Western markets. It was further decided to begin collecting in depth the wares of Southeast Asia, principally Thai, but also Khmer and Vietnamese. This fresh approach in collection policy evolved in response to the growing awareness in Australia of our region's culture.

Also in 1969 a new curatorial position was created at the Gallery with the responsibility to look after and develop the European and Australian decorative arts, South Australian historical works and other miscellaneous collections including Aboriginal art and Asian art. Although this new position embraced an interesting but impossibly diverse curatorial role, but it meant that new displays could be arranged and that Asian works be purchased and researched. In 1983 the new position of Curator of Australian Decorative Arts was created which reduced the curatorial load, and as late as 1989 Asian art became a separate department with its own curator.

In 1978 an anonymous donor established a generous capital fund for the purchase of works of art that has allowed the Gallery to continue to acquire Chinese, Vietnamese and Khmer ceramics and major examples of sculpture. In 1995 a life-sized, lacquered-wood Sino-Tibetan image of White Tara was acquired and an early 16th century Japanese gilt lacquered Amida Buddha, complete with case was purchased in 1997.

The 1970s and 1980s also saw the gradual development of the Japanese print collection. Hokusai’s great masterpiece Fuji in Fair weather or Red Fuji was acquired in 1976 along with prints by other masters. In the mid-1980s the Adelaide author and Japanese print dealer Geraldine Halls gave a large collection of fine 18th and 19th century Japanese sword guards, Tsuba, in memory of her late husband John.

In the late 1960s and 1970s collections of Indonesian and Cambodian textiles were established and a small number of Asian and Indian sculptures were acquired. Both collections have grown steadily through purchases and gifts.

The Adelaide collectors Michael Abbott and Mary Abbott have supported both the Asian ceramics and the textile collections with major gifts from the 1970s on. Gifts and loans from the Abbott family have enabled the Gallery to stage exhibitions of Asian sculpture in 1993 and of Indian and Southeast Asian textiles in 1996 and 1997. Generous donations of an Indian sculptures and Ottoman furniture were made by Barrie and Judith Heaven over the years from 1998 to 2006.

In recent years there have been significant acquisitions on Asian sculpture, the images of Tara and Amida Buddha described earlier and a pair of Japanese 13th century Shinto Deities or Shinzo. These austere sculptures are probably the finest works in the collection and the Gallery was able to purchase them with funds provided by the late Mary Overton.

From its beginning in 1904 the Asian collection has been built by benefactors. For the period between 1969 and 1991 Government funds were available for the purchase of Asian art but after this time these funds were required to be used for the purchase of contemporary art and the Gallery has depended entirely on the generosity of individuals and corporations.

The Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation has attracted outstanding gifts of Japanese screens from two corporate donors, Mitsubishi Motors Ltd and Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company and an early Balinese painting from Robert Thomas and Marcia Del Thomas. The Canberra diplomat and collector John Watson gave the Gallery his comprehensive collection of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai ceramics in 1992 and in 1995 R.H. Longden bequeathed his entire collection of Asian art and his extensive library to the Gallery.

Since 1998 Andrew and Hiroko Gwinnett have generously supported the development of the Japanese art collection and especially screen painting. The Adelaide collectors Dr. Brian and Barbara Crisp have ensured that the Gallery’s collection of Japanese woodblock prints has developed to become one of the foremost of its kind in Australia. Dr William Bowmore OBE gifted a major collection of Middle-East ceramics in 2003. In other areas, Diana Ramsay and Geoffrey Hackett-Jones has supported the acquisition of unique and outstanding individual works that have contributed to the Gallery’s comprehensive representation of the great artistic heritages of the Asian world.

Director

This page was updated 15 June 2006

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