David Smith, the American sculptor would have been pleased to have had his work collected and appreciated.
He also would have been annoyed to have had his world at Bolton Landing dismantled by the vagaries of demand during (and after) his life.
We imagine that demand constitutes the motivation to make the work in the first place, but that is not the case. Work gets made regardless by the urge of the sculptor.
The ‘Cubis’ were the first sculptures to be removed, being they were more ‘contempoary’, and therefore most immediately in demand. Subsequently the earlier works were collected, as their significance became more evident.
The ‘Cubis’ at Bolton landing, New York State
It is presumptuous to suggest my work is in any way comparable to Smith’s work. The paucity of a market for my sculpture here in Australia however, has left my ‘Bolton Landing’ at Wamboin a mostly complete collection.
Many works that were collected have been returned to me by virtue of those collectors having died or moved to other areas of interest.
The bottom dam at Wamboin
Currently at Wamboin I have the pleasure of hosting both the works that succeeded sitting alongside their relatively less successful companions.
The total of them constitutes a study of my work which is unique.
The Wamboin collection is an accident of the lack of demand for it. That culture emerges out of a lack of it may be just how things have always worked.
The Arena, Wamboin, NSW
The birth of culture cannot be designed or calculated into being.
Bolton Landing
Looking over the Brindabellas, Wamboin