Familial Context: The collectors' granddaughter and an upbringing less ordinary

Neither of my grandparents considered making a career in art. Instead, my grandmother worked within early childhood and dedicated her time to looking after her four children within their home, while my grandfather studied law and was to eventually form his own practice.

Collecting art for my grandparents began in the early 1970s when they first became exposed to Petar Vuletic’s Gallery, conveniently placed below my grandfather’s law practice. During lunch, my grandfather would take the time to look at the stable of artists on display. As his interest in contemporary art grew my grandparents then joined, upon the invitation of Warwick Brown, the first art group collective in New Zealand, the legendary Prospect Group Collection, and within this group they began collecting art from the many skilled emerging contemporary artists that had become active during that time. During the ten years my grandparents collected within the Prospect Group their eagerness and presence continued to grow which then motivated them to begin collecting privately. During this time my grandfather had started to become more established within his practice and their family was beginning to grow. This opened up a lot more opportunity and motivation to collect as their larger available income could be dedicated to collecting. They could begin to fill the empty walls of my grandfather’s law practice and their newly built modern home. Having now collected over 200 individual works, my grandparents have presented a collection that represents the forefront of contemporary art over the last 50 years.

Collecting contemporary art was another way for my grandparents to express their passions and interests, and they found they could also do this within abstract contemporary art. They felt abstract art did not confine them to one or the other, and they did not feel restrained by either art-historical or institutional requirements. Unlike some other collector’s motives, they did not see the collection as trading stock and so were not unduly influenced by the potential escalation in value that their choices would achieve in the market; instead my grandparents collected what excited them, but of course they had to consider their relatively modest budget.

There have been many times my grandparents have been confronted with doubt, but their confidence in their community prepared them to grin and bear the many opinions shared by those detached from the world of contemporary art. “Oh your children paint?”: to that they would respond politely and would smile at the disbelief that crossed the many faces when they were told how much the artwork was bought for. “$2000? For a red square?” (Milan Mrkusich’s Painting (Red), Lot 28), but of course to my grandparents it wasn’t about their money; instead, the investment was into the artists, their career and the lives that they supported. Collecting primarily from artists that were only a few exhibitions out of art school, my grandparents relied on the relationships formed and their own personal attachment to the artworks they collected. This in turn has resulted in some unforeseen profit but a larger increase in personal value.

I have seen how my grandparents’ commitment to contemporary art has contributed value to the community, and how through their support they have personally promoted so much of the success and development of many New Zealand artists and their evolution within the contemporary arts ecosystem since the 1970s. The growing success in my grandfather’s career correlated with my grandparents’ desire to focus on giving support to local and aspiring New Zealand artists. Blending the personal passion my grandfather had for contemporary art with his professional practice, he created a unique environment that transformed the offices of his law firm, and grew to resonate in an entirely different way. The art slowly became a part of the firm’s identity, while encouraging and promoting contemporary art to the public.