Art lifts you out of yourself. I think with Nic he was in pain ― he had terrible pain ― and I think for him to look at art and to get excited by it made the pain sit in another place and he was able to put it away to the side. The art did that for him. 

— Barbara Jools remembering her late husband Dr Nic Jools

This year, I have been working as a staff writer and editor for the Foundation of the Art Gallery of NSW. In the May digital edition of the Foundation News I interviewed donor Barbara Jools, who's husband left the Gallery an iconic painting by Australian artist Albert Tucker as a gift in his will. 

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I met with Barbara Jools in front of The Intruder in the 20th century Australian galleries and as we sat contemplating the work, we witnessed the many passing visitors stop to take it in.

... Tucker’s The Intruder is an important addition to the Art Gallery of NSW’s collection as it is a key example of his imagining of the dry, eternal Australian landscape and his re-mythologising of the antipodean figure with a weathered double-axe head.