Collection

Overview
The Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest Collections consist of over 1,000 objects, primarily featuring paintings, sculptures, works on paper and photography. The Collection covers three distinct areas: 
Specifically….

The Lewers Bequest
The Lewers Bequest is a composite bequest comprising site, buildings, furniture, artworks, books, publications, photographs and printed ephemera. Fulfilling Margo’s wishes, daughters Darani Larsen and Tanya Crothers gifted the Emu Plains property and artwork collection to Penrith City Council in 1980. The 1980 bequest includes:
  • Paintings
  • Works on paper
  • Works on fabric
  • Sculpture 
  • Furniture and soft furnishings
  • Books, publications, photographs and printed ephemera
  • Aboriginal rock engravings. 

Gerald and Margo Lewers were actively involved in the development of the visual arts. This activity occurred through their practice, their formal and casual associations with other artists, writers, administrators and their desire to collect and preserve for the future. They lived in a specific period and were known to be keenly interested in the development of new and unique thought and practice in the visual arts.
The Lewers were interested in the development of the art of their time and their influence upon and place within that development. Thus the Lewers Bequest should be seen within the context of the Lewers, their contemporaries and the cultural debates of their time.
Gerald and Margo Lewers also collected books, journals, periodicals, catalogues and other printed material (including photographs) related to their interests and artistic milieu. This material is an important element of the Lewers Bequest and is available for research purposes.
 

 

Gerald Lewers, Tension c.1950, brass rods and woodMargo Lewers, Various Colours c.1971, plexiglass construction (detail) Thomas Gleghorn, Nuclear Couple 1956, oil on masoniteMargo Lewers, Spring 1966, synthetic polymer on masonite