Capon, Edmund

Edmund Capon, AM OBE, (11 June 1940 – 13 March 2019)  held an M Phil from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University and honorary doctorates from the University of New South, Macquarie University and the University of Sydney. He was Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1978 to 2011, where he developed the Asian galleries, created the highly successful Foundation capital fund to acquire works for the collection, and curated exhibitions encompassing Asian, European and Australian art. He wrote extensively on Chinese art and archaeology and on the work of artists such as Jeffrey Smart, Caravaggio and Giacometti. In 2011 he published a volume of essays titled, I Blame Duchamp. He was writer and producer of two, three-part television series: the ABC and China Central Television coproduced documentary, Meishu: Travels in Chinese Art and the BBC and the ABC coproduction, The Art of Australia.