First of all, very many apologies for missing a day. I got a bit out of synch yesterday and by the time I realised I hadn’t posted it was late and I was very tired.
What I meant to post was pictures of a trip I went on with my students last week. We went to the Heide Museum of Modern Art and very lovely it was too.
I’ve been reading this book,
and the accompanying exhibition is what we went to see.
Heide was the home of John and Sunday Reed, art collectors and art – nurterers, is the best word. They both came from wealthy families and were interested in contemporary art and creating a sustainable lifestyle – and combining the two.
The bought an old farmhouse,
created a vegetable garden and invited artists they liked to come and share bed and board (sometimes very literally with the bed sharing). They nourished emerging artists with food, with money and with support. In return, they amassed a collection of outstanding Australian 20th century art, the nucleus of the museum that was founded on the site in the 80s.
The book suggests that the give-and-take of the relationship between the Reeds and the artists was not entirely selfless; perhaps there was a certain expectation of art works in return for assistance.
No photographs inside, but I was quite happy taking pictures of the farmhouse, Heide I (Heide II is the modernist house the Reeds lived in from the 1960s).
This heart-shaped bed is a recreation of one that Sunday planted in mourning for her relationship with the artist Sidney Nolan.
This is the door to the vegetable garden,
and here is the accommodation for the cats (of whom there were many):
Part kibbutz, part Elizabeth David test kitchen, part art space - it's a lovely place to spend a sunny winter's afternoon.
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