The Ormond College Students’ Club has a striking collection of contemporary art. Known as the Brack, this group of paintings, sculpture and even tapestry has a surprising history.
Whilst the College and Students’ Club bought art from time to time, the Brack collection proper began with the creation of the Brack Fund in 1988. This provides annual dividends that the Students’ Club uses to purchase contemporary art. The Fund was created by the sale of a painting by John Brack (1920-99), an Australian realist painter. The painting was ‘Study for the Bar’, a preparatory work (or ‘study’) for one of his most famous pieces The Bar (1954).The Students’ Club purchased the study soon after it was painted in 1954, and by the time it was sold in 1988 the artist’s fame made it a valuable piece.
The resulting funds were invested by the Students’ Club, and the annual dividends were used for a range of purposes including on the Katie Lush and Weary Dunlop Awards given annually to outstanding contributors to the Students’ Club. Today, the Brack still funds these awards but uses the bulk of the monies to buy contemporary art. Each year a committee invites nominations from the Students’ Club and selects up to three works of art for purchase. The works are then launched at a student art show and ‘reveal’ event.
Global events inspired the 2018 Brack purchase, Vincent Namatjira’s Hillary and Donald (acrylic on canvas, 2017).
Given that the Brack committee has different members from year to year, the Brack Collection is eclectic. It includes paintings, works on paper and sculpture created by everyone from unknown artists to noted Australian practitioners Patricia Piccinini, Gordon Bennett and Vincent Namatjira.
Sometimes, the artworks chosen reflect the events of the year. For example, in 2018, the first year the College had a female Master, Chair of the Students’ Club and Chair of the Middle Common Room, the committee purchased a sculpture of a Kunwinjku, or young woman water spirit by Indigenous artist Lena Yarinkura. This purchase also helped expand the Collection’s holdings of Indigenous art. Another topical purchase was made in 2018, when global politics inspired the committee to select a satirical portrait of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump by Vincent Namatjira.
Eclectic and interesting, the Brack Collection on the walls of the college represents the diverse and vibrant student body at Ormond College.
The Brack Fund was created by the sale of Study for the Bar, a preparatory painting for this work, John Brack’s The Bar (1954).
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