On the 19th July 1972, the Martin Gallery – the brainchild of art-loving pharmacist Ralph Martin – held its opening exhibition at the rear of Ralph’s chemist shop in Flinders Street, Townsville. Although there was a burgeoning arts scene in Townsville at that time, the city lacked a permanent art gallery (the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery did not exist until 1981).
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| Display case of materials from the Martin Gallery Archive. Pictured centre of image are Ralph and Margaret Martin. Photo: JCU Special Collections. |
The day before his gallery was due to open, Ralph was interviewed and asked about what people could expect to see there. Decades later, in 2016, Ralph recalled his response to that question was:
I said that I knew that people liked gum trees, but I wasn’t going to be serving them up gum trees.
I intended to show them work that they would not normally see in Townsville. And I would go as far as I could to bring the best that I could.*
For the first few years, Ralph focused heavily on exhibiting work from local artists, but also regularly featured well-known artists from throughout Australia. Over the course of the gallery’s operation, a wide variety of styles, media and art forms were exhibited. These included: paintings, prints, drawings, photography, ceramics, sculpture, weaving, wood-carving, copper work, and hand-crafted jewellery.
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| Display case of materials from the Martin Gallery Archive. Photo: JCU Special Collections. |
JCU Library’s Special Collections holds the Martin Gallery Archive – an important resource for scholars and amateur researchers alike. The archive includes exhibition ephemera, correspondence, receipt books, newspaper clippings, 800+ photographs, as well as 192 individual files on artists whose work was represented by Martin Gallery.
A new suite of displays featuring a diverse range of items from the Archive has been lovingly curated by the Special Collections team at JCU Library and can now be seen on Level 1 of the Library. To complement the displays, artworks from the JCU Art Collection have been hung near the display cabinets to illustrate the breadth of styles and media once exhibited at Martin Gallery. Some of the works were chosen because they are by artists once represented by Martin Gallery. Some of the works were originally purchased from Martin Gallery, while others were later donated to the JCU Art Collection by generous donors.
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| Display case of materials from the Martin Gallery Archive. Photo: JCU Special Collections. |
A portion of the Archive relates to the business of running a regional art gallery and includes receipt books that record artist activity in the Martin Gallery; receipts for the purchase of artworks; records of artwork returns; and gallery mailing lists. The comments below, from the gallery’s Visitors Book were written on the occasion of the gallery’s 10th Anniversary and are testament to the popularity of the gallery:
‘Ten years young and a lamp in the darkness.’
‘Happy Birthday, alchemist of Townsville.’
‘Congratulations on a decade of aesthetic contributions to Townsville.’**
On Christmas Eve 1988, after 16 years, the Martin Gallery closed. Its loss was much lamented by the Townsville and wider regional north Queensland community. As one Letter to the Editor, printed in the Townsville Daily Bulletin noted, the gallery had been ‘an oasis of excellence’.***
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| Display case of materials from the Martin Gallery Archive. Photo: JCU Special Collections. |
To explore the archive listing for Martin Gallery Archive, go to our online repository NQHeritage@JCU.
Displays pertaining to the Martin Gallery Archive, and the supporting artworks from the JCU Art Collection, can be viewed on Level 1 of the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library at James Cook University, in Townsville, during Library opening hours, until 28th April 2025.
(Please note: the Special Collections Reading Room won't re-open to researchers until 4th February 2025, but that doesn't mean you can't check out all the displays on Level 1 of the Library before then!)
Trisha Fielding, Special Collections Library Officer
* ‘Images of an Era: the Martin Gallery’ [short film], Gallery Services, Townsville City Council, 2016.
** Quoted material is from Gallery Visitor’s Book [unpublished], item MGA/BOO/4, Martin Gallery Archive, JCU Library Special Collections
*** Townsville Daily Bulletin, 31 January 1989
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