E&OE..................
Thank you very much Peter. John Olsen, ladies and gentlemen. This is a special honour and privilege for me to come tonight, I hope on behalf not only of the Government, but of the entire Australian community to honour one of Australia's truly great painters. To express my admiration and awe at the wonderfully entertaining and apt and eloquent tribute paid to John by Edmund Capon. And to take the opportunity very briefly before I make the presentation to say how important it is that a nation that seeks to be a fulfilled and great nation in the proper senses of those two words, that a nation honours its achievers and its outstanding sons and daughters in all walks of life.
It's commonly said that Australia is obsessed with sport. It's frequently said that we don't honour enough those who contribute through the arts and contribute through business and contribute in other walks of life. Whether or not that accusation is true is not really to the point tonight because what we are doing tonight is to honour a truly great painter and in the process to honour the contribution of the visual arts to the life of our nation. This particular medal has only been awarded on four previous occasions; to Roger Kemp and to Lloyd Rees and to Louis Kahan and ladies and gentlemen it is fitting for all of the reasons that were outlined by Edmund Capon, it is very fitting that it should be awarded tonight to John Olsen.
He has had a very distinguished career not only as a painter but also as a teacher. His efforts have previously been honoured with the awarding of the Wynn Prize in 1965 and again 20 years later in 1985. Edmund has mentioned that his mural Salute to Slessor's Five Bells hanging in the northern foyer of the Concert Hall is probably one of the most viewed paintings in Australia. And as demonstrated by that and other pieces his work has been extraordinarily versatile and it's been greatly informed by his travel and by his love and appreciation of literature. His identification with the Australian landscape comes through in all of his work.
As a nation we owe a great deal to him as we do to all of our great visual artists for what they have done to interpret who we are, to interpret to us what our land is and help us understand the connection between our land and who we are. The lives of all of us and the life of our nation is enormously enriched by our artists. Our artists are irrepressibly putting views and expressing attitudes about our society. We don't always find them comfortable we don't always agree with them but we always find them challenging and refreshing. And we will always want a society that encourages and honours its artists.
As a Government, and this is not meant politically it's meant generically, as a Government we place great store on the role of the arts in the Australian community. We've done a number of things over the last few years to demonstrate that commitment in the various art forms. And recently as you know we've initiated an inquiry into the contemporary visual arts and crafts sector to look at issues affecting the sustainability, the development and the promotion of that sector. And that inquiry is being conducted by Rupert Myer and is due to report in March of next year. And I understand advertisements will appear in this weekend's media calling for submissions to the inquiry and an issues paper will be released in the near future. I hope it provides an opportunity for those concerned about the future of the sector, those who treasure its place and its role in Australian society to make submissions. And echoing the remarks made about the never ending identification of your industry like others with the taxation office, I'm pleased to note that a submission has been forwarded to me by the Association concerning taxation issues affecting visual artists and that's going to be considered by the inquiry as well.
Organisations such as your own do much to remind the Australian community of the place of your particular sector of the arts in our life and in our community. But tonight is a night for a very special man, it's for a person who has been part of the visual arts scene of Australia for decades. He's somebody who has not only given much through his artistic talent, but he's given much through his wonderfully rich personality, his lively wit, his wonderful identification with those things that so many of us as Australians hold very dear. I have a very great pleasure in inviting John to come forward to join me on the stage and to receive from me the medal, the Artists and Sculptors Medal to join those other four great Australian visual artists, Arthur Boyd, the one I forgot to mention before, Louis Kahan, Lloyd Rees and Roger Kemp.
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