Gifted Artists

Donations by Patrick Corrigan AM

Exhibition
15 Aug 2014 – 12 Jan 2015
Photograph of nude woman reclined surrounded by mice

Patricia Piccinini, Subset - green landscape, 1997, Gift of Pat Corrigan AM 2010, Donated through the Australian Government Cultural Gifts Program, © Patricia Piccinini

About

Australian businessman, philanthropist and collector, Patrick Corrigan AM has been building collections since the early 1970s. His areas of interests range widely, from books, manuscripts, bookplates and memorabilia to the visual arts with particular focus on Indigenous painting and photomedia. In 2010 he offered the National Gallery the opportunity to select works from his extensive collection of Australian contemporary photomedia. Over the next three years seventy-six photographs were chosen, ranging in date from 1982 to 2008. A selection has been chosen for this display.

‘For me, works of art must invoke an involuntary and immediate physiological and emotional response. I only buy what I love. So there has to be a rapport with each work I buy. Each artwork speaks to me and means something to me, but I can't define what that is with precision.’

– Patrick Corrigan

Of the twenty-eight artists represented in the gift Corrigan acquired works by photographers whose careers were well-established as well as collecting emerging artists, who continue to acknowledge his goodwill and practical support at a critical time in their careers.

The Corrigan collection has especial value in the national collection because of its range and regional representation. The National Gallery holds one of the most extensive collections of Australian photographs from the 1970s to the present and the Corrigan gift has contributed to this holding in a significant way.

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