Wendy Whiteley at the Sydney Modern opening.Nikki Short
Not everyone was impressed with the building. One of the gallery’s founding trustees,Sir Alfred Stephen,even admitted at the time it was “undeniably ugly”.
Some 137 years later,as AGNSW director Michael Brand surveyed the elegant,$344 million Sydney Modern wing at Wednesday night’s opening party,“ugly” was not a word being bandied about.
As they passed the now-cherished neoclassical sandstone main gallery in recent days,the likes of billionaire arts philanthropists Gretel Packer,John Kaldor and Anita Belgiorno-Nettis were clearly pleased as they admired the handsome new temple of modern art.
They are among 400 Sydney citizens who contributed to the $100 million in private funds raised towards its construction,courtesy of fellow patron David Gonski’s relentless campaigning. And on Wednesday night they got to see what their money – along with taxpayer dollars – had helped build.
Artist Ben Quilty on the black carpet.Nikki Short
In their wake was a new generation of well-heeled Sydney arts patrons,including Paris Neilson and Clare Ainsworth Herschell,heir to pokies tycoon Len Ainsworth.
Some of Australia’s most acclaimed artists joined the celebrations too,including Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran,Archibald winner Del Kathryn Barton,the internationally acclaimed Tracey Moffatt and Ben Quilty.
Actors Jessica De Gouw and Krew Boylan mingled with the likes of Penelope Seidler and Ashley Dawson-Damer,as seemingly polar opposite social orbits collided. Television personality Hamish Blake posed on the black carpet with his skin care entrepreneur wife Zoe Foster Blake.
Even Shane Jenek – aka drag queen Courtney Act – was there.
Shane Jenek,aka Courtney Act,at the Sydney Modern opening.Nikki Short
It’s been a busy week at the gallery,with a series of dinners and celebrations being hosted for various patrons and supporters before the doors open to the public on Saturday.
On Tuesday night Wendy Whiteley was given a rousing reception in thanks for her bequest to the gallery of $100 million worth of her late husband Brett Whiteley’s works.
On the same night former Premier Gladys Berejiklian was also applauded when she joined a coterie of her former Macquarie Street colleagues,including former arts ministers Don Harwin and George Souris,Victor Dominello and Gabrielle Upton,just hours after her former lover,MP Daryl Maguire,was charged with criminal conspiracy over an alleged visa fraud under way while he was sitting in the NSW parliament.
Exactly what Lord Carrington would have made of it all we will never know,but with pop-up performances from leading 21st century music acts Rufus Du Sol,Ngaiire,Charlie Villas and E Fishpool,it was a fitting celebration for a thoroughly modern gallery.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights..