After four decades, a collection of sculptures tracing "a path from the beginning of time to the present day" has finally made its formal entry into the collection of the Canberra Museum and Gallery.
John Robinson's Universe series, made up of 40 bronze sculptures and 11 tapestries, was donated anonymously to the city of Canberra in 1980, well before the growing capital had its own gallery or government.
Rowan Henderson, the assistant director of exhibitions and collections at the Canberra Museum and Gallery, revealed the Is and Ts have only been recently dotted and crossed on the collection's paperwork.
"It's one of those museum and gallery things where the paperwork was never quite tied up at the time. And the collection was never formally accepted into our collection until this year [2020]," Ms Henderson said last month.
Ms Henderson said the symbolic sculptures were originally put on display at the Nolan gallery at Lanyon.
"I guess you could say they were one of the very earliest works that were in the building as part of our collection, they just weren't technically part of our collection," she said.
"In any museum and gallery collection there are always things that the paperwork hasn't been quite finalised. And this is one of those things. The works had been sitting there on a shelf. We knew they were there. But we hadn't really looked into the story of the acquisition of them."
Robinson, who died in 2007 aged 71, was born in London and evacuated to Australia during the Second World War. He returned to England but would later jump ship from the Merchant Navy and find farm work in Australia. He returned again to England to take up sculpture.
Canberra gallery operators Ron and Betty Beaver saw the works displayed in the UK and put in motion the effort to bring them to Canberra.
"They started talking to John Robinson and said, 'We'd love to bring this out to Australia, to Canberra.' So then the works came to Australia and were put on display at Beaver Gallery. It was actually Ron Beaver who initially proposed the works come to the new city gallery, and they were offered to us by Ron Beaver as the donor's representative at that time," Ms Henderson said.
Minister for the Capital Territory Bob Ellicot accepted the donation in writing in February 1980. The works, valued at $65,000, were accompanied later that year by the dedication: "These sculptures and tapestries are dedicated to the memory of Ken and Helen Begg whose encouragement led to their creation and whose generosity enabled the collection to be purchased for the City of Canberra."
Ms Henderson said the Universe series were abstract and made to symbolise big ideas.
"The collection, as the artist says, portrays the earth, animals, man and woman, birth, religion, civilisation and death. So they're big ideas and the works are visual representations of the artist's feelings," she said.
The collection's significance to Canberra was its contribution to the city's growing creative practice over four decades and its link to other Robinson sculptures in the ACT, Ms Henderson said.
Robinson's Eternity, a polished bronze ring, was unveiled in Petrie Plaza in 1981, and four sculptures of sportsmen and women are within the grounds of the Australian Institute of Sport in Bruce.
Ms Henderson said she hoped the Universe series would be displayed later this year. "I'm also about to install a couple of them in our board room which is used for venue hire and things so that people can admire them," she said.
