Collecting Passions: A century of Modernism from the home of Justice Roddy Meagher

26 July – 27 September 2009

Behind Roddy Meagher’s illustrious legal career is a gentle connoisseur, passionate for the visual arts, who has spent his adult life collecting since studying arts at the University of Sydney. His purpose is now to pass on his passion through the splendid collection he has long nutured.

At the heart of Meagher’s collection is a range of Sydney modernists: Roland Wakelin, Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington-Smith, Ian Fairweather, John Passmoreand Godfrey Miller.

He also made forays into the birth of modernism through French graphic art – including Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Rouault and several works by Matisse and Picasso – as well as 20th century British art by Augustus and Gwen John, Gaudier-Breszka, Ben Nicholson, Graham Sutherland and Lucien Freud.

Photograph (top): Mark Tedeshi, Roddy at Rest, July 2007

Photograph: Michael Myers, 2009

Click here for the exhibition catalogue