Artist grants gallery $16m vision of future

JAMES Gleeson believes that art is society's strongest link between the past, the present and the future.

JAMES Gleeson believes that art is society's strongest link between the past, the present and the future.

And to ensure the grand tradition of Australian art continues well into the 21st century, the painter is putting all of his money - $16 million of it - where his mouth is.

In what is by far the biggest monetary donation received by the Art Gallery of NSW in its 104-year history, Gleeson has pledged his entire estate to the Sydney landmark.

"I thought about it quite seriously for a long time, and I decided that it was the logical thing for me to do," said the 91-year-old, who is considered Australia's pre-eminent surrealist painter.

"Art is my main reason for existence, really. I just love what man has made to satisfy some aesthetic instinct and need, and I think there should be more of it. It is the great connecting link between the past and today."

Last year, Gleeson and his longtime partner, Frank O'Keefe, established the Gleeson O'Keefe Foundation, with the gallery its sole beneficiary.

The pair provided an initial donation of $6 million to the foundation, but will eventually hand over all their possessions - including their house, savings, and art collection - which will take the total pledge to about $16million.

"It is my way of paying back to society what it provided me over the years and enabled me to devote my life to art," Gleeson said of the foundation.

But the one-time art critic, lecturer and curator has put one loose caveat on his generosity - he wants his money, at least in the short term, to go towards local artists.

"As the acquisition of international art rapidly depletes the art gallery's funds, it is my and the trustees' present wish that funds be used specifically to develop the gallery's holdings of important examples of Australian art," Gleeson said.

Yesterday the gallery unveiled the foundation's first purchase, a $337,000 sculpture by the late Robert Klippel, who was a longtime friend of Gleeson.

Gallery director Edmund Capon said the $16 million pledge was an act of generosity "unparalleled in the history of the institution". Before the creation of the Gleeson O'Keefe Foundation, the biggest cash donation to the gallery was the $2.4million bequeathed by Sydney doctor Mary Heseltine in 2003.