01 Oct Judith Neilson on the Instant Gratification of Collecting

Source Credit:  Content and images from Ocula Magazine.  Read the original article - https://ocula.com/magazine/conversations/collector-judith-neilson-on-chinese-contempory-art/

White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney. Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Neilson emigrated to Australia in 1983 with her then-husband, Kerr. Following the extraordinary success of the Platinum Asset Management fund, the Neilsons became two of Australia’s most generous philanthropists, including giving substantially to visual and performing arts.

Exhibition view: Laozi’s Furnace, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney (26 June–3 November 2024). Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Jessica Maurer.

Neilson has been a collector since childhood, amassing different objects, including over 1,500 Coca-Cola bottles. A determined and forthright personality, she has forged her way in contemporary art, a field rife with opinions about what should be collected and by whom. In addition to her collection of Chinese contemporary art, she has a significant holding of African and Indigenous Australian art.

Neilson’s collection provides a remarkable insight into an unprecedented period of growth and change in China.

Neilson’s hook into contemporary Chinese art came in the late 1990s when she came across a work by Wang Zhiyuan in a Sydney gallery. After several initial visits to China, she began to collect art, focusing on works produced from 2000 onwards and returning to China around 50 times over the next 25 years.

Wang Zhiyuan, Close to the Warm (2013). Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Hamish McIntosh.

Neilson’s collection provides a remarkable insight into an unprecedented period of growth and change in China. Works chronicle the rise of a middle class, a real-estate boom, the ramifications of the government’s one-child policy, and, more recently, growing government control, among other seismic shifts in Chinese society.

I spoke to Neilson about the genesis of her collection and the legacy she plans to leave.

Gu Wenda, Tian Xiang Forest of Stone Steles Sixth Series (2017) and Metapark (2008–ongoing). Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Hamish McIntosh.

SAHow did you come to contemporary Chinese art, build a collection and open the White Rabbit Gallery?

JNI’ve always been a collector. Objects like Coca-Cola bottles, all sorts of things. I’m now 78 years old, and when I was a child, I had a treasure box with a piece of paper, ribbons, and string—people didn’t throw away anything in those days. The first thing I collected was a bell that fell off a horse, which was given to me as a child. And so that started me collecting.

Liu Wei, Density 1-6 (2013). Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Hamish McIntosh.

I collect Chinese art because I believe there are more artists in China than anywhere else, and you see the best and worst and learn a lot. I’ve been doing this since 1999.

I buy for instant gratification; I’m not interested in who did it. I first saw Chinese art in Sydney, but I didn’t know it was by a Chinese artist. It was a work by Wang Zhiyuan at Ray Hughes Gallery¹. I was walking around, and there was an open door to a little storeroom. I saw two pieces on the floor. I hadn’t seen anything like it since the 1960s.

Mao Tongqiang, Leaseholds (2016). Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Hamish McIntosh.

SAWhy did you decide to collect work made from 2000 onwards, and what drew you to the artists whose work you collected?

JNWhen I started collecting, there were existing collections focused on work made before 2000. I wasn’t interested in that art.

Sun Xun, Magic of Atlas – The Magician Comes to Luocha (2020). Coloured woodblock relief, crystal balls (eight parts). 244 x 976 cm. Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Hamish McIntosh.

Many artists were focused on the western market because westerners were the only people who were buying. The serious artists were doing things that were not saleable—that really impressed me: artists doing work that is not commercial. They may not make any money from it, but they do it anyway.

When I first started, I was travelling with Wang [Zhiyuan] a lot, and he’d look at stuff, and he’d say to the artist, ‘Why? Why did you make it? Why did you do it?’.

Exhibition view: Laozi’s Furnace, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney (26 June–3 November 2024). Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Jessica Maurer.

SAChina seems to be constantly at a crossroads. The past 80 years have seen continuous cycles of change and growth. Do you see any reflection of current conditions in recent work?

JNSome artists used to do work that would get them into trouble so they’d get attention. I think people are on their toes a bit now, but who knows? Some people I speak to are very happy. Some of the older people I talk to enjoyed how it used to be: they had stability, they knew they would get a pension, and they would be cared for. And then everything changed. With artists that I have collected, their parents have different views.

Where you live, your needs might be completely different to those who live in another area. If you travel outside Shanghai for an hour, people can’t understand each other. I came home from one trip and thought, ‘I don’t know China at all. I don’t know how you judge it. It is so big; the people are so diverse.’

Shyu Ruey-Shiann, River of Childhood (2011). Ceramic, metal, electric motors, 80 ceramic boats. Dimensions variable. Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Hamish McIntosh.

SAIs there any difference between what you want to collect and what your institution wants you to collect?

JNI bought everything in the collection, and when I stop, it stops. It’s my collection. Nobody advises me—they show me work, but nobody advises me.

For many years, I traveled to China alone—how I got around, I don’t know. I’d get off the plane, and then two or three weeks later, I’d be back on the plane, not having seen another Westerner or spoken English.

SADid you have a translator with you?

JNNo.

Guan Xiao, 4S Prequel (2015). Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: David Roche.

SAWhen you look at what’s in your collection, it’s very diverse.

JNI have around 5,000 works, and maybe 4,000 of those are by Chinese-born artists. One work might take up this whole room, while another might be made up of a thousand small pieces.

SAAre you still collecting?

JNI was going to stop after ten years, and then it went to 15 …

I bought everything in the collection, and when I stop, it stops.

SADo you still travel to China regularly?

JNI haven’t been since Covid, but I’m going in November.

SAOn a buying trip?

JNI never go to buy art. I’ve been a couple of times and found nothing that interests me.

What surprised me recently was how painting has come back. I honestly thought it was going to be moving to performance. I’ve bought a lot of paintings and sculptures recently.

Exhibition view: I Am the People, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney (28 June–10 November 2023). Courtesy White Rabbit Gallery. Photo: Hamish McIntosh.

SAThat’s interesting. I think the art world is quite cyclical in that respect.

JNIt’s blowing in the wind. I think something starts somewhere, and then separately, it starts somewhere else, entirely independently. But with art, there are times when it’s full of creativity and then the creativity ebbs.

What surprised me recently was how painting has come back.

SAIs there any philosophical link between your support for the arts and your health, community, and environmental philanthropy projects?

JNI do it because I can. I hope that if I were needy, people would do it for me. It’s a responsibility. Ever since I was little, I was taught that you should give back, particularly growing up in Africa.

I focus on women, and that goes in lots of directions: a school in South Africa, aids programmes, food programmes in Rwandan hospitals, women who are part of an anti-poaching team in Zimbabwe, and the Cape Town Opera—today, I got a message that they are going to be performing in Shanghai, which is wonderful.

If the woman is alright, then the kids are alright. Domestic violence is out of control everywhere, and it can only be stopped if women are supported.

Judith Neilson in her home. Courtesy Judith Neilson.

SAIn this year of White Rabbit’s 15th anniversary, what are your plans for the next 15 years? Do you see White Rabbit always being here as a showcase for your collection? Will you continue to collect?

JNWhite Rabbit Gallery is not the important part. The collection of 800 artists and 5,000 works is what is important. Nobody’s ever had a collection like that. When I go, the collection stops. The collecting stops. It will all go to Dangrove² under one roof for research, loans, and history. —[O]

1 Wang Zhiyuan became a Neilson family friend. Wang travelled with Judith to China in the early 2000s and introduced her to artists.

2 Neilson’s art storage centre in Alexandria, Sydney, which functions as a site for conservation, curation, research, display, and audience interaction.–

Source Credit:  Content and images from Ocula Magazine.  Read the original article - https://ocula.com/magazine/conversations/collector-judith-neilson-on-chinese-contempory-art/