The life and career of Arthur Boyd neatly spans most of the twentieth century, from his birth just after the end of the Great War until his death on the eve of the new century. Committed to the life of the artist from childhood, he achieved a unique place in Austr

Edwin Tanner began his working life at the Port Kembla steelworks in New South Wales, before qualifying as a civil engineer.¹ Tanner’s early interests were manifold and extended to cycling, mathematics, aeronautics, classical music, poetry and analytic

Charles Blackman strode on to the  international  stage  with  the Whitechapel Gallery’s 1961 exhibition, Recent Australian Painting, in which ‘a hothouse of geniuses suddenly stepped on to the pages of history.’¹

It is indeed a simple image made by a famous painter; one that situates the dilemma of all painters as they reach out into the world. Is it a mask that they hide behind? In Face 1979, Sidney Nolan toys with his lifelong image of the Ned Kelly mask. He moves it from the stuff of myth

In 1970 Arthur Boyd had completed the Nebuchadnezzar series, one of the defining groups of paintings in this distinguished artist’s career. These large brightly coloured and fundamentally literary works sharply contrast with equally important landscapes, some with figures, which Boyd produce

Although the various well known localities on the fringes of Melbourne, such as Templestowe and the Yarra Valley, had been subjects for Streeton since his earliest days as a painter, his extended series of paintings of the hilly, timbered scenery of the Dandenongs, particularly Olinda, began

In 1897, an accomplished artist, confident of his own abilities, and yet frustrated by the limitations of Australia, Arthur Streeton set sail for England.  Streeton knew that to progress in his work he needed to see with his own eyes the famous masterpieces he had heard about and seen i

Visitors to Maitland in the Hunter Valley will see stretched across the prominent façade of the public library huge images taken from Norman Lindsay’s iconic childrens’ book The Magic Pudding. Without text or commentary, the images are a reminder, if one was needed, of the enduring

Ray Crooke’s eternal stillness, described by John Henshaw as ‘the perpetual South Seas dream’¹ is a unique phenomenon in Australian Modern Art. His career, which spanned  more than 65 years began with his exhibition in 1948 at Melbourne’s Kozminsky Gallery. He was still paint

Some artists rise quickly to make a mark on the art scene; for others it can be a slow burn. Charles Blackman enjoyed a deservedly rapid rise – with adulation for his work increasing over time. This self-taught master of Australian art became recognised for his first solo exhibition, held in