Scott Redford is one of Queensland’s most important contemporary artists. This gift of a suite of the artist’s multiples, My beautiful pink polar bears 2005, relates to Redford’s use of the alias of artist–surfer Reinhardt Dammn, which is represented by a growing group of works in the Collection. It is also relevant to Australian interpretations of both Minimalism and Pop art and the Gallery’s significant collection of artist multiples.

This squad of pink bears had its genesis in Redford’s ‘Reinhardt Dammn’ project. They were modelled on one that the artist had found in a Paddington antique shop, which was signed ‘Robin’ underneath. An image of this found bear featured in Reinhardt Dammn and Honey Pump Poster: Polar Bear 2000, which was among the first works to make mention of Reinhardt Dammn and was designed as point-of-sale advertising for a single by Dammn and his band, Honey Pump. Redford collaborated with Michael Littler of Lustre Ceramics on his own larger version of the bear, My beautiful blue polar bear 2000, which was originally shown on a plinth resembling two Donald Judd-like cubes stacked one on top of the other.