Thursday 22 February 2024

“How the contemporary Chinese art collection of a former Australian ambassador to Beijing was accidentally pieced together via ‘friendship and serendipity’” | SCMP Geoff Raby

Reading and Art, by Shuai Mei
I knew Geoff Raby from before the time he was Australian ambassador to China. I was attached to the embassy in the nineties, as Executive General Manager of Austrade, when Geoff covered economy issues.

I also started collecting Chinese modern artists, early, back in 1990 in Shanghai. Continued collecting until our walls were full.

Geoff clearly went further than his walls being full, as he donated 147 painting to his Alma mater La Trobe Uni in Melbourne. They're now in exhibition in Sydney.

/snip:
Soon after assuming his post as Australian ambassador to China in 2007, Geoff Raby visited a restaurant in Songzhuang, Beijing, and was captivated by what he saw: oil paintings of cheerfully industrious pigs. Read on …