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The Nick Cave Story

Photograph of Nick Cave by Polly Borland; backdrop painting by Tony Clark

Photograph by Polly Borland; backdrop painting by Tony Clark, Commissioned by the Arts Centre in 2007

Books from Nick Cave's office

Books from Nick Cave’s office
Nick Cave Private Collection
Object photography courtesy of Dan Magree © 2007

He is one of this country’s most iconic entertainers: a musician, songwriter, author, performer and, as visitors to the National Library of Australia will soon discover, a collector.

In a first for the National Library, the life and music of this world-renowned performer will go on show in Nick Cave: The Exhibition, opening on 15 August 2009.

Created by the Arts Centre, Melbourne, the touring exhibition will feature many of the hundreds of items donated by Nick Cave to the Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Collection.

They include his notebooks and diaries, lyrics selected by him especially for the exhibition, a compilation of video images and flyers, works of art from his personal collection and posters dating back to the 1970s.

‘What can I say?,’ said Nick Cave in 2007. ‘I have a thing about things. Some people, you know, they don’t have a thing about nothing.’

For Arts Centre curator Janine Barrand, her Nick Cave journey began back in 2003 when she visited the artist at his home in Brighton, United Kingdom.

‘I must admit to an underlying trepidation at the thought of meeting this tall, black-haired, thundering performer, whose reputation as an enigmatic genius precedes him’, she writes in the preface to Nick Cave Stories, published by the Arts Centre in association with the exhibition.

But Barrand need not have worried. ‘I am very pleased to say’, she later writes, ‘that it all did happen, coming to fruition almost three years later when I returned to sort through removal boxes hefted around by Nick Cave dressed in one of his bespoke suits’.

And for the artist? ‘This has been a revealing and rewarding experience,’ he said of creating the exhibition.

‘Much of this stuff has sat around in boxes for years and the process of “excavating” it has been many things—moving, disturbing, inspiring and downright terrifying.’

The National Library is the final destination for the touring exhibition and it is expected that it will attract a wide range of visitors.

‘Nick Cave has made an enormous contribution to music, both in Australia and overseas,’ said Jan Fullerton, Director-General of the Library.

‘And for an institution like the National Library, where we have such an extensive music collection, we are delighted to be able to host such an important exhibition.’

The exhibition is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program that provides funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia.

Nick Cave: The Exhibition
National Library of Australia
Exhibition Gallery
15 August to 29 November 2009
Open daily, 9 am to 5 pm
Free
www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions 

Sally Hopman, Media Liaison Manager