He once described Parliament House’s art collection as “avant-garde crap”. But Tony Abbott, the conservative warrior and part-time art critic, says he has mellowed and is “more conscious of the fact all collections need to stay contemporary”.
“That was a throwaway line and like all throwaway lines, it probably should be thrown away,” the former prime minister conceded.
More than three months after being ousted from the Liberal party leadership, Abbott appears to be in a reflective mood.
The setting for his art observations is the Parliament House office of the backbench member for Warringah. The immediate audience is the ABC 7.30 program’s political correspondent, Sabra Lane. The purpose of the six-minute segment broadcast on Thursday evening is for Abbott to explain a painting on his wall – Cap D’Antibes – that he considers very special.
As it turns out, the piece ticks all the conservative boxes.
“It was a painting of Winston Churchill’s that he presented to Sir Robert Menzies back in the 1950s. My understanding is that after Menzies left office, the painting languished in some departmental warehouse. John Howard, when he was prime minister, found out about it, brought it out. It adorned his office for most of his time as prime minister. It then went back to the warehouse after 2007. I brought it out of the warehouse when I was opposition leader. It went with me from the opposition leader’s suite to the prime minister’s suite – and so far it’s been able to follow me.”
Abbott thinks it is a fine painting that evokes history – but as it turns out, he doesn’t think it’s perfect: “I’m not sure that all of the perspective is right, but the water is magnificent.”
His appreciation of Churchill the politician should not be understated, even if he insists that he does not see the wartime leader who returned to the prime ministership “as some kind of pattern for my own life”.
“They say that, you know, none of us are that special, but Churchill really was,” Abbott declares. “Churchill was the Michelangelo of politics, the Leonardo da Vinci of statesmanship. He was an extraordinary individual.”
As the art discussion draws to a close, Abbott discloses that he has received a letter from the relevant authorities about having his official prime ministerial portrait painted. But, still mulling whether to remain in politics or retire in 2016, he says he hasn’t really given it much thought at this stage.
The interviewer, Lane, helpfully offers: “I could try my hand.”
“Good on ya, Sabra,” Abbott replies.
It was all too much for some viewers:
Abbott's art collection comes on, TV goes off. #ABC730
— William PJ Kulich (@WillPJK) January 7, 2016
The 7.30 host, Hayden Cooper, ends the program with an artful quip acknowledging “that unusual report”.
