Sample e-Card with a work by artist Elaine Campaner,
Boxing Day, 2007
Digital print on archival paper
85.5 x 83.5 cm.
MacLean Edwards
Non-Fiction #4, 2006
Oil on board, 102.5 x 102.5cm
Annual rental $3,080
MacLean Edwards
Non-Fiction #6, 2006
Oil on board, 102.5 x 102.5cm
Annual rental $3,080
Artbank ebulletin - November 2008
Artbank e-card launch
On 1st December Artbank will launch a new e-card facility, available free of charge to our clients and the arts community, with a selection of inspirational artwork images from the Artbank collection.
Initially we will offer a choice of 12 different cards, updating the selection throughout 2009. Pictured opposite is one of my favourites - and appropriately titled for the current festive season - Boxing Day, by Elaine Campaner.
This and other cards can be easily accessed via the Artbank website to send to friends and business acquaintances with a customised message.
The e-card service has been designed to complement Artbank’s charter by further expanding the audience for the artist’s works. Of course, sending an e-card also demonstrates your ongoing and valuable support for Australian contemporary art.
Geoffrey Cassidy, Director
New works donated to Artbank
Given Artbank’s primary role as an arts support agency which actively purchases artists’ works, many people assume we do not accept gifts. In fact, we are willing and able to accept donations under the Cultural Gifts Program (Taxation Incentives for the Arts scheme), freeing up our acquisitions budget and happily growing the collection of more than 9500 artworks.
A donation under the scheme benefits both the artist, who, if not already represented in the Artbank collection, gains the associated prestige, and the donor, who, as well as the satisfaction of knowing the work will be seen by a large audience, receives the associated tax deduction.
One such recent gift was a pair of works by Sydney artist McLean Edwards, from his own collection. The delightful oil on board works Non-Fiction #4 and Non-Fiction # 6 were donated by McLean earlier this year and approved under the scheme in October.
Gifts such as these must fit Artbank’s usual acquisition criteria and be deemed suitable for the collection as being representative of contemporary practice and of outstanding artistic achievement. Needless to say, such strong examples of McLean’s work were happily accepted.
Born in Darwin in 1972, McLean is one of Australia's most successful figurative painters. He has been exhibiting his work - which often alludes to the history of painting and particularly to Australian portraiture traditions - for over 15 years, including in key shows such as the Sulman (since 1995) and Archibald Prizes (2004, 2006 and 2007). He shows regularly with leading Sydney gallery Martin Browne Fine Art, and was listed by Australian Art Collector magazine in 1999 as one of the country's 50 most collectable artists.
In an interview in 2005, Edwards revealed his childhood hero to be Rembrandt, though figures from Tintin to Biggles feature just as strongly in his lightly comic portraits, which can be found in key collections such as the Australian War Memorial Museum; Deutsche Bank; Macquarie Bank, and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and the USA.
For information about donating contemporary Australian works to Artbank, please contact Senior Curator Jackie Dunn, or Director Geoffrey Cassidy, ph: 02 9662 8011
Jackie Dunn, Senior Curator
