Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408:front:0:p276
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408
Segment Type: other
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Character Range: 853336–856266

sculptor Ante Dabro in collaboration with the architects Lester Firth and Associates and Robert Woodward.  Dabro (born 1938) is a Croation-born sculptor who has been based in Canberra since the late 1960s.  He lectured in the ANU School of Art from 1971 to 2004, and is regarded as one of Australia's leading figurative sculptors (Wikipedia, 'Ante Dabro', en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ante_Dabro, accessed October 2011;  ACT Museums & Galleries, 'Ante Dabro', www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au/cmag/ante_dabro.html, accessed October 2011, site active 4 August 2022).
Kemal Ataturk Memorial                                                           Dedicated on 25 April 1985, the Kemal Ataturk Memorial was designed by architectural firm PDCM Pty Ltd and Hüseyin Gezer.  Gezer (born 1920) is a Turkish sculptor who specialises in figural works.  He is regarded as having made an important contribution to statue art in Turkey, where he also worked as Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul between 1969 and 1976.  His output includes several monuments to Ataturk (Artfact, 'Huseyin Gezer (1920), www.artfact.com/artist/gezer-huseyin-68sff3dyce, accessed October 2011, site active 4 August 2022).

Analysis of the memorials

Most of the memorials have been created – or jointly created – by widely recognised major artists – Mary Hall, Joan Walsh Smith and Charles Smith, Les Kossatz and Augustine Dall'Ava, Ken Unsworth AM, Ray Ewers OAM, Kingsley Baird, Marc Clark, Inge King AM, Ante Dabro and Hüseyin Gezer.  Robin Moorhouse, the designer of the Australian Nurses National Memorial, is a Sydney-based jeweller and silversmith, and now a sculptor.  She has been widely praised for this memorial.

It is true that each of the memorials was in a sense designed to a brief by a committee, and that some of the consultative processes involved compromise.  In the case of the Vietnam Forces National Memorial, the arguments and ensuing compromises have been documented (for an example see Inglis 1998, pp. 407-408).  Some may argue that a work born of compromise is not a true work of art, since it does not result from a single clear vision.  Be that as it may, the memorials indisputably have meaning, both for those closely connected to them and to the wider public.

They have also been widely photographed by the general public, and the numerous images published on web-based photo sites suggests that they are as interested in the details of the memorials as they are in the collection as a whole.

Some of the memorials have been well-depicted in publications.  In 1976 Cedric Emanuel included drawings of two of the memorials – the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial and the Royal Australian Air Force Memorial – in his Canberra Sketchbook.  In 1995 Jean Weiner's cartoon, 'Inauguration Day: Australian Vietnam Forces National Monument' appeared in Guy Freeland's Canberra Cosmos, and in 1998 it was given further exposure in