Lyn Faulkner’s collection of art comprises a suite of predominantly local contemporary art. As a veteran accountant for Lowensteins, a well-known accounting firm focused on artists and their finances, Lyn had the opportunity to work with many notable Victorian and Melbourne-based artists. Her client list included prominent names such as Graeme Drendel, Kate Bergin, David Frazer, Mark Strizic, Greg Taylor, Lisa Roet, Godwin Bradbeer and Antonio Balletta. She commenced her collection in the early 1990s, amassing a variety of artists and media spanning works on paper, glass, sculpture, and paintings.
As Lyn gathered more artists under her wing, guiding them through the fraught labyrinth of the tax department as practising artists, she likewise gained immense admiration and respect for the work they created. As well as developing life-long friendships with many of her clients, fees often presented themselves as an artwork or two rather than standard remuneration.
One of Lyn’s favourite and earliest artists she represented is the acclaimed printmaker, David Frazer. The auction includes several of his detailed and mesmerising woodblocks, etchings and linocuts. Also included are paintings by Kate Bergin, the darling of the local art scene, whose whimsical still-life vignettes are cherished and highly sought after by collectors.
When Belinda Fox needed funds to purchase a printing press, Lyn assisted, and Belinda would repay the loan with artworks. Lyn followed these artists’ careers and many more with earnestness and belief in their creative endeavours, supporting them with her patronage, tax advice and friendship.
‘There would not be enough paper to name all the wonderful artists I have had the pleasure to work with over my long career – including sculptors, musicians, designers, curators, choreographers, theatre workers and all other art-related businesses and I have loved listening to all their stories and being able to help whenever I could.’
The collection is broad and esoteric; Lyn’s gregarious and ever-inquisitive nature is central to it all. It is time for Lyn to relinquish her collection. She says ‘It is with much sadness that I am letting “the loves of my life” leave my walls.’
Gibson’s is honoured to offer Lyn’s unique collection to new owners who will cherish these artworks as much as she has.
