Patrick Corrigan AM (b. 1932), businessman, art collector and arts patron, was born in Hanghow (Hankou) in China, and spent four years in an internment camp in Hong Kong during the Second World War. He left school at fifteen and by age twenty he was general manager at JN Campbell Customs Pty Ltd, Sydney. He went on to establish his own transport and logistics companies: Corrigan’s Customs Agency Pty Ltd (1967), Express Livestock Pty Ltd (1970) and Pace Express (1988), and served as chairperson for a number of similar businesses. Meanwhile, he built an important collection of Australian and international art along with a comprehensive library of scholarly art publications. He has subsequently donated over 1000 works of art to regional, state and national cultural institutions, including the National Portrait Gallery.
Anne Zahalka's photograph of Corrigan is from a series of portraits of art collectors, which combine references to formal, historical painted portraits with the informality of contemporary sitters surrounded by their collections in quirky, domestic interiors. Among the works shown in Corrigan's portrait is Patricia Piccinini's Felicity (1996).
Purchased 2021
© Anne Zahalka/Copyright Agency, 2024
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Portraits of philanthropists in the collection honour their contributions to Australia and acknowledge their support of the National Portrait Gallery.
Naomi Cass, Director of the Centre of Contemporary Photography, in conversation with Anne Zahalka.
