This comprehensively illustrated volume tells the story of two people - Sandra Bardas (nee Smorgon) and David Bardas - who inherited from their parents a deep appreciation of the visual arts and were convinced of the importance of having art around them in the family home. They did not set out to form a collection but now, half a century later, that is undoubtedly what it is. The artworks they bought, usually by mutual consent and with great enthusiasm, were acquired from local galleries or discovered while on business trips abroad. Today they form a fascinating assemblage featuring many important works by European modernists from the Post Impressionists to the School of Paris. Represented are artists such as Cezanne, Picasso, Braque, Signac, Derain, Bonnard, Leger and Vlaminck. Australian artists in the collection include John Brack, John Olsen, Brett Whiteley, Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan - and others of the next generation with whom Sandra Bardas studied at art school in the late 1950s.
Somewhat unusually, the collection also reflects a strong interest in sculpture, with works by Europeans Pino Conte, Jacques Lipchitz and Auguste Rodin as well as the Australians Brett Whiteley, George Baldessin, Tony Pryor, Gus Dall'Ava and Bruce Armstrong. Apart from showcasing the collection, this book offers intriguing insights into a family's dedication to lives lived in the presence of objects evidencing human creativity and the joy they bring.