Take a magical mystery tour

Sol LeWitt was responsible for the colourful, some might say psychedelic, lounge. Photo / Jenni Carter

Stepping inside John Kaldor's house must have been like taking a rambling, magical mystery tour through some of the world's best contemporary art.

The Australian collector and supporter of art across the ditch had everything from Christo's wrapped trees (that's two gum trees wrapped up like parcels), to numerous pieces by kitsch, self-promoting American artist Jeff Koons and a couple of Gilbert and George works.

In one room, he commissioned US painter and sculpture Sol LeWitt to paint him a colourful, some might say psychedelic, lounge, and in it lay a fat, creepy clown by Swiss mixed-media eccentric Ugo Rondinone.

Kaldor, 71, accumulated his art collection over more than 50 years. And then, one day a few years ago, he decided to donate the lot - all 200-or-so pieces estimated at a value of about $45 million - to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.

The gallery knew of his collection and curator Wayne Tunnicliffe said when he found out Kaldor wanted to donate it to them he couldn't believe it. "We thought: 'Holy shit, yes'," he smiles.

The gallery converted an old storage area into a new space to house the works and the John Kaldor Family Gallery opened last month.

Tunnicliffe says the beauty of Kaldor's collection is that he found artists early on in their careers and collected them intensely. He also collected a small number of artists in depth, giving an insight into their evolution.

That colourful room of LeWitt's, entitled Wall drawing #1091, has been replicated inside the new gallery and you're drawn towards it rather like that forbidden room you're not allowed to enter.

The room is devoid of the demented clown. He's reclining elsewhere and looks like he's about to jump up and chase you.

He's made even more unnerving because he's lying in front of another of Rondinone's works, What do you want?, which is made up of a large shattered mirror with audio of a couple's calm, yet relentless arguing repeated in a loop.

Less disturbing, and even a little chuckle-inducing, are Christo's Two Wrapped Trees, which are among the most impressive works. The artist, renowned for wrapping public monuments, did the trees in 1969 when he came to Sydney as part of Kaldor's first Public Art Project.

One of the trees was initially offered to the gallery but Tunnicliffe said the trustees rejected it because they didn't think it was art. So Kaldor kept the pair and, 40 years later, the Gallery of NSW ended up with both of them anyway.

Another participant in Kaldor's Public Art projects over the years has been video artist Nam June Paik. He's got his own little room with strange sculptures made out of TVs, including TV Cello, which the cellist apparently played naked while covered in chocolate. Hey ... it was the 70s.

And another clever film work is Francis Alys' Railings, which shows him walking around London with a drum stick as he taps and drags it across railings, wire netting, brick walls and cars, among many other surfaces, to create a cheeky and playful percussive piece.

And elsewhere there's the Jackson Pollock-style clay splatters of Richard Long's Southern Gravity across from a Gilbert and George, and the vast colour photographs of Andreas Gursky and industrial strength shots of Bernd Becher.

The great thing about Kaldor's collection is that there's something for everyone.

And even if you don't know your Gursky from your Becher, or your Gilbert and George from your Christo and Jeanne-Claude, it's fun, sometimes eerie and always engaging.

* Scott Kara travelled to Sydney courtesy of Events NSW and Tourism NSW.

Exhibition

What: The John Kaldor Family Gallery

Where: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney