Portrait of the artist as a collector

摘要

'An interior will result in a portrait of the person who lives there ...' wrote the Australian artist Margaret Olley (1923-2011), who was famous for her still-life paintings of flowers and objects from her extensive personal collection. After her death, 21,000 items were catalogued in her Sydney home studio and transferred to Murwillumbah, a town in rural New South Wales, where she'd spent part of her childhood. Several rooms were accurately recreated and furnished there, at the Margaret Olley Art Centre, where an artist residency programme was established in 2014. Last September, the Australian potter Kirsten Coelho immersed herself in this subjective and deeply personal environment. She also studied the form, colour and other characteristics of selected items within the more objective setting of the reserve collection.