PM Transcripts

FOR PRESS: X-S~ 1
13 DEC W PM. No. 131/ 1967
EXHIBITION OF AUSTRALIAN PAINTING IN INDIA
Statement by the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt
An exhibition of contemporary A ustralian painting, which
will be seen in several Indian cities over the next few weeks, has opened
in New Delhi. The exhibition is being sponsored by the Commonwealth
Government in co-operation with the Government of India, the Indian
Education Ministry and the Indian Academy of Art.
The exhibition comprises thirty-four paintings. Fourteen
have come from the Australian exhibition at EXPO 67 in Montreal and the
remainder, with two exceptions, from the National Collection. The
exceptions are " The Billy Boy" by William Dobell, lent by the Australian
WTar Memorial, and an Arthur Boyd from a private collection.
The paintings were selected on behalf of the Art Advisory
Board by one of its members, Mr Robert Campbell, CMG, OBE.
Mr Campbell, a former Director of the National Gallery
of South Australia, will travel in India with the exhibition. After New Delhi,
the exhibition will go to Calcutta, Madras and Bombay over a period of
about two and a half months.
It Is hoped that arrangements can be made for the
exhibition to go to Pakistan at the end of the Indian tour.
The exhibition had its origin in the joint communique
issued by the Australian Minister for External Affairs and the Indian Minister
of E~ xternal Affairs at the conclusion of Mr Hasluck's visit to India in March,
1966. The communique stated that increased cultural exchanges would offer
further opportunities for close constructive friendship between India and
Australia. Both Ministers agreed to give immediate attention to developing
further means by which these exchanges might be usefully increased.
The exhibition will further this objec tive and give an
insight into the diversity and vigour of contemporary Australian painting.
UCANBERRA, December, 1967.