Eva de Jong-Duldig, the artist’s daughter and the founder of the Duldig Studio, reflects on the history and legacy of the Sculpture Garden.

Karl Duldig, believed that sculpture belongs in an outdoor setting, whether associated with the built environment or in a garden setting. This was already evident in Tatura, Victoria, where he placed sculptures outside the primitive corrugated iron hut which was our ‘internment’ home from 1940-42. Soon after we moved into our new home at 92 Burke Rd in 1955, he began to place sculptures around the perimeter of the back garden and he continued to place sculptures in the garden till the end of his life. Nearly all the sculptures in the Sculpture Garden were completed in Australia (post 1940). They are predominantly modelled in clay (terracotta / earthenware), though there are also examples of carvings in stone (marble and sandstone), castings in bronze, hand-beaten copper and cast lead. From the very beginning of his career, in 1920’s Vienna, portraits formed a very important part of Karl’s oeuvre. There were many commissioned portraits, but sometimes Karl would invite a stranger to sit for him with no prospect of selling the work. In the garden there are also heads which are imaginatively conceived and bear no resemblance to any living person.