21C portfolios of First Nations Art published by Leo Christie

Show exhibition essay

Speech by Annette Larkin at the opening on 25 July 2026.

"Thank you for attending this wonderful celebration of Leo Christie, a very special and generous person in all of our lives, who was a great visionary. We are celebrating today his perception in gathering together a group of the originators of the First Nations art movement in Australia to produce two portfolios of work – Crossroads and Republic Unlimited. I personally knew Leo since the mid 1980s.

It was an arranged meeting at the Uluru Resort between Chris Hodges and Leo in 1990 that set the scene for the germination of this project. Leo had a vision that for the millennium he would like to document the First Nations artists across Australia and the contribution they were making to the national art discussion. Chris had the unique knowledge and the contacts. Together they were a force.

One has to remember the Australian artscene back in the late 1980s did not have First Nations art at the forefront of their mind as we see today. Major First Nations art dealers like Gabrille Pizzi only began her gallery in 1987, Emily Kngwarreye’s first commercial solo exhibition was at Utopia Art Sydney in 1990. Many of the state museums had not developed a collection policy for First Nations art and were still just collecting one or two pieces a year.

So the idea of limited edition prints by First Nations artists was a passion and vision that had little precedent… Leo was always good at spotting holes in the market.. look at what he did to Danks Street in Waterloo or Sydney dining experiences (with his son Sam) amongst many of his other achievements.

So back to the Uluru Resort in 1990, the next day Chris & Leo travelled to Alice Springs visiting Daphnie Williams at Papunya Tula Artists. Gloria & Ada Bird Petyarre were in Alice working as extras on Wim Wenders movie Until the End of the World, so Leo & Chris met with them. Robert Ambrose Cole was also in Alice that day, so Leo & Chris met with him and watched him ‘painstakingly paint his dots on a painting’. Soon Leo was flying to many communities across Australia signing up their major artists to participate in his vision.

An aside, Leo was for many years was the lawyer for the Sydney Film Festival, and as you know loved film. After his successful day in Alice Springs, Chris & Leo were having dinner and Wim Wenders and his actor partner Solveig Dommartin, were at the next table. Leo was thrilled that he had a great conversation with them both.

The Pinta Pinta painting hanging here was purchased by Leo from Papunya Tula Artists on that auspicious day as well. An amazing day all up for Leo.

Leo had experience with doing portfolios of limited edition prints after working with Eva Breuer in the 1980s on two portfolios of Australian prints as fundraising opportunities for the Cancer Council. Both were extremely successful.

Leo always treated the artists with the greatest of respect including introducing some of the best printmakers at the time to work with the artists – Basil Hall, Tom Goulder, Fred Genis and others. Leo arranged for some of the artists to make their plates and send them to the Master printmakers, while with other artists the printmakers went to their community and worked with them in their environment. Printers proofs were flying back and forth to the communities until everyone was happy. The final result was a real collaboration between the printmakers and the artists, which Leo made happen.

The boxing of the prints, the documentation and the overall way Leo arranged this project, was always with the greatest respect and best intentions for the artist. He wanted the highest quality in every part of it. It also allowed great freedom of expression for the artists and an opportunity to tell their stories in a new medium.

Once finished, Leo did presentations of the prints to curators at state galleries. Although this folio was looking at older artists, with funds from the sale of the Crossroads folio he established the Leo Christie Emerging Artists Fund, which funded paintings for state museums of younger First Nations artists work. For example the AGNSW were given a painting by Inyuwa Nampitjinpa and there were many others.

When it looked like we were moving towards a Republic, Leo decided to continue his interest in portfolios and created the Republic Unlimited folios as we see here. He decided on two prints per set, again producing an interaction between artists, printmakers and communities. He hoped to produce a folio every year or two until a republic in Australia was formed, however, after a certain period of time, he realised the idea had left the political agenda and so only 4 folios were produced.

Again, being visionary, Leo only invited women artists to participate in these folios.

The whole making of these portfolios was incredibly professional while also being very hands on for both Leo and Marion, Marion will give you an insight of that in a minute. These portfolios are a snapshot in time of many of the originators of the First Nations movements in Australia. The Crossroads portfolio was incredibly successful, to the point that out of an edition of 99, I only have 4 full portfolios remaining to sell with some artist proofs of single images… so we are offering a rare opportunity today.

I would like to thank Marion and Leo’s sons Matthew & Sam for their support in arranging this exhibition. I would also like to thank Christopher Hodges for his participation in the initial project and for the many stories he told me this week about those early days.

I would like to end on a quote from Leo from his essay on the Crossroads portfolio: “Although thousands of kilometres separate the artists from where each of them lives and works, I feel there is an underlying thread that binds them together: they are telling a story which is powerful and beautiful and they are focused not on technique, but on feelings.”