A Vision for Culture Without Borders

"What was very important for us was that, by having these international exhibitions, the status of the directors, the curators and other staff was raised, and that was a critical process and as well our relationships with audiences was changed...I very much enjoyed working with Bob on the Matisse exhibition...in the mid-1990's...

...It was Bob Edwards' personal support and the support of AEA that made Matisse happen. In the end there were over 200 loans from 50 collections worldwide. Negotiating loans with Bob, seeing him in action in the negotiation field, has also been a wonderful experience.

Others have remarked today that Bob is very much at home in a Land Rover but he is also very much at home in the offices of directors of major museums, as Neil MacGregor has pointed out, and at home as well in the Paris drawing room of Matisse's grandson Claude Duthuit. It was absolutely vital that we obtained Claude Duthuit's sympathetic involvement in the exhibition to do the sort of exhibition which we thought Australia needed to have.

Bob and Claude Duthuit have been friends for many years since that exhibition and I know are working on another exhibition of Matisse's works on paper for Australia later this year."

"...I know this is also Bob's vision...he had a passion to educate Australians but also to have them see the best in cultural heritage from around the world. But he ...did not perceive a hierarchy with Western art on top. His vision was that every human culture should be presented on an equal basis, so enriching Australians' experience and understanding of world cultures.

Another area in which Bob had great skills is that he has played an extremely important role in Australia's cultural diplomacy. Many of his exhibitions have also tied in with important diplomatic and economic policies and cultural connections that Australia needs to have with our region. With China, for example...through those friendships and networks that Bob put in place in the 1980's with China, we were able to get exhibitions...The Entombed Warriors is an example...It was the first time they had left China, and other museums around the world had asked for and did not receive...the Warriors."

From: A tribute to Bob Edwards. Caroline Turner

"When he returned a collection of Renoir paintings to their various owners after the tour of Australia earlier this year, there were 34 stops in the US, France, Spain and Britain and he was on the road or in the air for five weeks.

But even that marathon pales beside the complexities of organising the current exhibition....the famed French artist Henri Matisse.

Initiated by the Queensland Art Gallery, the show has been 10 years in the planning. With gallery director Doug Hall and his deputy Caroline Turner as key players. Bob Edwards helped to negotiate the loan of the 270 painting, drawings, prints and sculptures fo 54 public galleries and private collectors in six countries. It was, he says, like organising 54 separate exhibitions.

The logistics of arranging the loans and the multi-million-dollar indemnificaton from the Federal and two State governments - not to mention flying 26 couriers with the works from all over the globe -seems all the more amazing when one realises that Bob Edwards has a staff of seven.

From: Maslen, G. Master of Arts. Good Weekend, May 13 1995