{"id":27713,"date":"2025-09-17T12:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/27713\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T12:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:20:09","slug":"art-gallery-of-nsw-receives-lee-ufan-sculpture-thanks-to-james-brownlow-and-doug-small-bequest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/27713\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Gallery of NSW receives Lee Ufan sculpture thanks to James Brownlow and Doug Small bequest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brownlow and Small were themselves veteran travellers to Asia who shared an appreciation for fine design and were collectors of Asian art.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Lee has also this very refined minimalist, understated aesthetic that\u2019s really sensitive to the environment,\u201d says Melanie Eastburn, senior curator of Asian art at the Art Gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an incredibly important artist, I would say, one of the most important living artists anywhere in the world. For a collection like the gallery\u2019s, which has this great emphasis on minimalism and also Asian art, the one thing that was really missing was Mr Lee. Without the bequest, we would not have been able to commission this sculpture.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the art gallery cuts jobs to address a $7.5 million budget shortfall<\/a>, bequests are taking on larger importance for the institution to add to its collections, and expand its programs, particularly as it receives no government funding for acquisitions. New Zealand philanthropist Michael Horton and his late wife, Dame Rosie Horton, recently donated the largest-ever gift of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks \u2013 193 pieces collected over 23 years.<\/p>\n

The Wendy and Arkie Whiteley Bequest<\/a> will one day see the gallery receive nearly 2,000 Brett Whiteley artworks valued at\u202fover $100 million. It\u2019s regarded as one of the most significant cultural gifts in the Art Gallery of NSW\u2019s 154-year history.<\/p>\n

The gallery says it has recorded a significant increase in pledges, either to the foundation\u2019s Major Acquisition Fund, the Art Gallery Trust, or through gifts of artwork, with some \u202f$40 million\u202fbequests disclosed.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

The average bequest is about $100,000, but several pledges involve substantial portions or entire estates.<\/p>\n

As a gallery patron for more than two decades, Wennerbom said she was more than pleased to learn that the proceeds of her friends\u2019 estate were to come to the gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had lots of money, I would too,\u201d she says. \u201cI have grandchildren and other things at the moment, but I think it is a good thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brownlow and Small were themselves veteran travellers to Asia who shared an appreciation for fine design and were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-27713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}