b'4Image: Geoffrey Burke, Keith Haring water wall mural, National Gallery of Victoria, 1984 (see lot 763)Mid-Century MasterpiecesThe Geoffrey Burke CollectionNo one in the Burke family has any ideabooks reflecting these developments were where Geoffrey acquired his passion for,among the earliest acquisitions. Not many and taste in, the decorative arts. There isteenagers in the mid-1960s could show their no family tradition of any such interestoften-puzzled relatives, an Andy Warhol print and, descending from families with limitedor a book of photographs by Ed Ruscha!incomes and little capacity to accommodateDespite his wide and widening interests, such a passion, it is somewhat surprising Geoffreys favourite early purchases and one that we can now reflect on this wonderfullyarea he added to for the rest of his life, was diverse and fascinating collection of 20thMurano glassware of the 1950s and 1960s. century artefacts that Geoffrey assembledGeoffrey felt that the glassware of that era over the last sixty years of his life.represented the pinnacle of creativity in that Geoffreys passion for the decorative artsfield, especially before the Murano and other appeared quite early. When other teenagersglassware manufacturers lost something of were out playing football and developingtheir direction in subsequent decades.first relationships, Geoffrey was buyingIn 1968 the Beatles, seeking something books, reading about art and beginning thespiritual in their lives, went to India and collection you will find in this catalogue. Hestarted a ripple effect that would influence was not totally divorced from teenage fashiongenerations of young people for decades; and trends however, as he developed anand Geoffrey was one of them. From 1969 interest in British rock musicthe fashion,onwards for a decade or so, Geoffrey would the art, the gender-bending imagery visit India and engage in the Indian rituals the whole seismic cultural shift that thethat The Beatles gave focus toashram swinging 60s embodied. All this had aand meditation, vegetarianism and stripped powerful impact on Geoffrey, with the musicback living (not that the Beatles set much of opening up a wide, curious and deeplyan example as far as that was concerned). knowledgeable interest in the artefacts of thisFor Geoffrey, ever the collector with the fine era. Glassware, pottery, posters, clothes and'