Aubrey Gibson

Aubrey Hickes Lawson Gibson (4May 190126March 1973) was an Australian businessman, arts patron and art collector. Born and educated in Melbourne, Gibson became a successful businessman in the city, establishing his own company, A.H. Gibson Industries, which was listed on the stock exchange in the 1950s. He was also a director of other major manufacturers and distributors, including Volkswagen Australasia and Hoover Australia.

Gibson is notable for his services to the arts. He maintained a substantial private art collection. He was a founding director of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust and of the National Trust of Australia, and deputy-chairman of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Personal Gibson was born on 4 May 1901 in Kew, Melbourne. The third child of Scottish business manager John Gibson and English born wife Ellen née Lawson, he was schooled at Melbourne Grammar and the University of Melbourne. He briefly studied art at the National Gallery of Victoria drawing school, but concluded that art was not his vocation. He said of that time that "with little resistance I allowed myself to be guided into commercial fields".

He married twice, with children from both marriages. His first wife was Marjorie Isabel Kimpton, whom he married in Melbourne on 3 February 1930, and with whom he had a daughter and a son. They were later divorced, and on 19 September 1947 in Colombo he remarried to Gertrude Jean Balfour, with whom he also had a son.

Gibson died on 26 March 1973, survived by his second wife and a child of each of his marriages. His company became A.H. Gibson Industries Ltd, and was listed on the stock exchange from 1949 to 1959, during which period he was chairman and managing director. Other artists well represented in his collection included Noel Counihan, John Passmore, Clifton Pugh, Arnold Shore and Clive Stephen. This led one writer to exclaim of his collection that "it must surely cover more ground than almost any other private one in this country". Toward the end of his life the collection included over 560 items from artists of over 30 countries. His fascination with silver also led him to spend time during a visit to Europe in 1952, learning from the British silversmith Robert Stone how silverware was made. This was an experience recounted in Gibson's only book The Rosebowl, so named because of a commission Gibson sought of Stone.

The Rosebowl was an account of a trip around the world taken by Gibson and his wife in 1951. It described his visits to cultural institutions and contained ruminations on cultural collections policy. Reflecting on the damage caused by World War II to cultural artifacts, art and architecture, he advocated a wide distribution of works of art around the world, to afford them greater protection.

Gibson was variously trustee, treasurer and deputy chairman of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in the period 1956 to 1964. Gibson was one of several new faces brought to the Gallery's board at a critical time: the Victorian government had announced a decision to build a new National Gallery in Melbourne, and governance of the existing institution was undergoing significant upheaval. Gibson was reported to be "always a man of strong opinions", bringing a robust and blunt character to some of the meetings of the Gallery's trustees. The trustees were concerned that the substantial resources of the institution's rich Felton Bequest were not being applied effectively to ensure the representation of contemporary schools of art in the Gallery's collection.

Seeking to directly support the NGV, Gibson financed the purchase of works by and for the Gallery, as well as making his personal collection available for exhibition. He provided a donation in 1962 allowing the NGV to purchase the Clement Meadmore sculpture Duolith III. for $20000, presenting it to the NGV in 1967. A selection from Gibson's extensive personal collection was presented as an NGV exhibition in 1969.

Gibson played many other roles in the arts, through societies of artists, of collectors, and through boards of which he was a member as a result of his involvement with the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. These included Deputy Chairman of the Melbourne Theatre Company from 1960 to 1968.

He was a foundation member of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) in 1955, and co-founded the Society of Collectors of Fine Arts.