Compiler

Peter Timms

Sorell Bowman (Year 9, Shoalhaven Anglican School), The coat of life’s ambitions, mixed media collage, 2005. In Headspace 6 2005: Who am I? at the National Portrait Gallery, Commonwealth Place, Canberra, until 6 November.

Libraries's treasures are coming

Australia’s libraries are Aladdin’s caves, with hoards of amazing material, most of it kept in storage and available only to those making a special request. The National treasures from Australia's great libraries exhibition, which opens at the National Library of Australia in Canberra on 3 December will bring out into the open 170 objects from libraries all around the country. Captain Cook's Endeavour Journal will be there, along with Ned Kelly's helmet, Eddie Mabo's drawings, early sketches for the Holden car, plans and models for the Opera House and the only surviving complete convict uniform. Donald Bradman's favourite bat and Henry Lawson's pen are included, too, although whether these can really be called national treasures is arguable.

No, no Wassily

The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) has ruled out buying Wassily Kandinsky’s 1912 painting Sketch for Deluge II. The painting was offered to a selected number of galleries by an overseas dealer for AUD$37 million. Gallery chairman, Harold Mitchell, said the gallery would love to have bought it but didn’t have the money. Although the government provides $15 million annually for acquisitions, it must cover all departments. Edmund Capon, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, interviewed on the ABC News, suggested that the NGA should sell its building to buy the Kandinsky; but that’s probably not an option.

Death of Donald Horne

Writer, philosopher, historian, academic and social commentator, Donald Horne, died in Sydney on 8 September, aged eighty-four. Horne was born in Muswellbrook, NSW, in 1921, moving to Sydney as a child. He began writing for the Daily Telegraph while a student at the University of Sydney and, in the 1960s, was editor of The Bulletin. He chaired numerous organisations, including the Australia Council, and was Chancellor of the University of Canberra. Horne is the author of twenty-four books including an autobiographical trilogy, three novels and several influential works of social criticism, the best-known of which are The Lucky Country and God is an Englishman. He introduced the idea of 'political culture' to Australian political science. One of his persistent complaints was that Australia is a country whose good fortune is mainly based on luck rather than good governance. He vehemently criticised the mediocrity of politicians and business leaders, arguing that Australia needed a plainly written republican constitution. Horne was that rare phenomenon in Australian culture: a knowledgeable polymath who was not afraid to speak his mind.