Australian Galleries: The First Four Decades 1956-1999

AG501405
Australian Galleries Publishing 2022
319 pages, hardcover
ISBN: 9780648116233

Using extensive archival and previously unpublished material, as well as rich and revealing anecdotes from the artists, critics and collectors involved, Australian Galleries: The Purves Family Business. The First Four Decades, 1956-1999, examines the significant contribution of Australian Galleries' founders - Tam and Anne Purves - and later their son Stuart, to Australian art in the post-war period. Theirs was the first professionally operated gallery in Melbourne: it promoted an extraordinary group of contemporary artists - including John Perceval, Arthur Boyd and John Brack - and was instrumental in creating public acceptance and a market for Australian modern art.

Caroline Field sensitively narrates the story of how the private world of the Purves family was interwoven with that of the artists and other personalities connected to the gallery, while exposing the relentless demands required in the fine art of dealing.

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