Gareth Sansom
Encyclopedia
Gareth Sansom is an Australian artist, painter, printmaker and collagist and winner of the 2008 John McCaughey Memorial Prize
of $100,000.
Best known for introducing new themes and subject-matter into Australian art and being one of the first Australian artists to be influenced by Pop art
, particularly British Pop artists like Peter Blake
, Allen Jones
, Derek Boshier
, Joe Tilson and the formal strategies of the post-modernist R. B. Kitaj
. Another major Influence was and remains the British painter Francis Bacon
. He was an associate of Brett Whiteley
and there was a likely mutual influence. Sansom has had a distinct influence on subsequent Australian art, paving the way for later notable artists such as Juan Davila and Howard Arkley
. His work is represented by the National Gallery of Australia
, the National Gallery of Victoria
, the Art Gallery of New South Wales
, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, New York and the Mertz Collection. His paintings are eclectic, studded with allusions both historical, cultural and personal. There is something almost diaristic about his work, but it's presentation is anything but linear and logical. Abiding themes are mortality, ageing, sexual identity, popular and youth culture and cinema. There is also a strong element of humour, iconoclasm and irony in his work, from their titles, such as "Art Can't Fart (for Rose Selavay)", "Four Wise Men Looking for God in Abstract Art", "Dr Fu Manchu's Death by Gyro" or "Ship of Fools (Hello sailor!)" to comic and grotesque figurative elements and their sometimes lurid but highly resolved colour schemes. On a technical level his paintings combine oils, enamels (both sprayed and applied with brush) and collaged elements from personal photographs to objects stuck on or painted over. Stylistically Sansom uses a wide array of painting techniques but signature devices include allowing earlier layers of paint to remain visible, hard-edge geometric shapes juxtaposed with playful, lyrical, more organic or atmospheric passages of paint and figurative "doodles", often at the margins of the paintings.
), from 1959 to 1964. He held his first solo exhibition in 1959 at Richman Gallery in Melbourne. He approached the internationally renowned Australian expressionist painter Arthur Boyd
to open the exhibition and Boyd agreed. Boyd also purchased a painting from the show. After his studies at RMIT, two notable exhibitions were at South Yarra Gallery, in 1965 (from which the National Gallery of Victoria purchased the work, 'He Sees Himself'), and Gallery A, in 1966 (from which The National Collection - now Australian National Gallery - purchased the work 'Leaving that well known void'). In 1968 he painted 'The Great Democracy, a major early work where his influences can be readily discerned. (This painting is now in the collection of the Australian National Gallery, Canberra).
During the 1970s, Sansom began to experiment with self-portrait photographs involving images of himself dressed as a woman. In particular Sansom developed a series of photographs in which he portrayed Hollywood film noir icons such as Barbara Stanwyck
and Joan Crawford. Two series of works on cardboard using these photographs as collaged items within graphic media and paint were shown at Warehouse Gallery, Melbourne, in 1975 and 1977.
In 1978, RMIT Gallery at Storey Hall presented a major survey of Sansom’s paintings and graphic works covering the period 1964-1978. At this point Sansom had become head of painting at the VCA School of Art, prior to becoming Dean in 1986. (During his period at the VCA from 1977 until 1991 Sansom was to teach many of Australia's current leading mid-career artists).
in Amsterdam and in 1985 he was Artist-in-Residence at The University of Melbourne
.
In 1991, Sansom represented Australia at the Indian Triennial held in New Delhi. At this event he exhibited watercolours made while he lived for six months in New Delhi, in 1989. His aim had been to make one watercolour per day during this period, using humble materials, but on archival paper. Many aspects of contemporary Indian life and culture infiltrated the modus operandi of these works.
Back in Australia these watercolors were exhibited at Roslyn Oxley9Gallery in 1990 (‘Out of India’), and at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne in 1991. From 1986 to 1991 Sansom was Dean of the School of Art at the Victorian College of the Arts
(VCA).
Upon resigning this post in 1991, Sansom began the long process of a reassessment of his art during the remainder of the 1990s, prior to recommencing exhibiting on a regular basis at the John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne, in 2000.
Sansom stated recently that
Sansom (now in his seventies) has recently returned to earlier themes in his paintings by inserting digital photographs of himself in various disguises using latex horror masks and realistic female masks, as well as incorporating latex prosthetics of female body parts; his aim apparently being to create an uneasy tension between the literalness of the photographs and the painterliness within the paintings which can veer wildly between abstraction and figuration.
Sansom, who is married to the painter Christine Healy, lives and works in Melbourne and Sorrento, and is currently represented by John Buckley Gallery in Richmond, Melbourne, the Milani Gallery in Brisbane, Queensland, and the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, NSW.
McCaughey Prize
The McCaughey Prize is an Australian art prize awarded to an artist or artists, under which the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales acquire work by the winning artist....
of $100,000.
Best known for introducing new themes and subject-matter into Australian art and being one of the first Australian artists to be influenced by Pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
, particularly British Pop artists like Peter Blake
Peter Blake
Peter Blake may refer to:*Peter Blake , British pop artist*Peter Blake , New Zealand yachtsman*Peter Blake Scottish-born actor...
, Allen Jones
Allen Jones
Allen Jones is the name of:*Allen T Jones ceo*Allen Jones , Continental Congress delegate*Allen Jones , British pop artist...
, Derek Boshier
Derek Boshier
Derek Boshier is a British pop artist works in various media including painting, drawing, collage, photography, film and sculpture....
, Joe Tilson and the formal strategies of the post-modernist R. B. Kitaj
R. B. Kitaj
Ronald Brooks Kitaj was an American artist who spent much of his life in England.-Life:Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, near Cleveland, United States, his Hungarian father, Sigmund Benway, left his mother, Jeanne Brooks, shortly after he was born and they were divorced in 1934. His mother was the...
. Another major Influence was and remains the British painter Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
. He was an associate of Brett Whiteley
Brett Whiteley
Brett Whiteley, AO was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize...
and there was a likely mutual influence. Sansom has had a distinct influence on subsequent Australian art, paving the way for later notable artists such as Juan Davila and Howard Arkley
Howard Arkley
Howard Arkley was an Australian artist, born in Melbourne, known for his airbrushed paintings of houses, architecture and suburbia. His mothers side of the family was Jewish and his father was German...
. His work is represented by the National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
, the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York and the Mertz Collection. His paintings are eclectic, studded with allusions both historical, cultural and personal. There is something almost diaristic about his work, but it's presentation is anything but linear and logical. Abiding themes are mortality, ageing, sexual identity, popular and youth culture and cinema. There is also a strong element of humour, iconoclasm and irony in his work, from their titles, such as "Art Can't Fart (for Rose Selavay)", "Four Wise Men Looking for God in Abstract Art", "Dr Fu Manchu's Death by Gyro" or "Ship of Fools (Hello sailor!)" to comic and grotesque figurative elements and their sometimes lurid but highly resolved colour schemes. On a technical level his paintings combine oils, enamels (both sprayed and applied with brush) and collaged elements from personal photographs to objects stuck on or painted over. Stylistically Sansom uses a wide array of painting techniques but signature devices include allowing earlier layers of paint to remain visible, hard-edge geometric shapes juxtaposed with playful, lyrical, more organic or atmospheric passages of paint and figurative "doodles", often at the margins of the paintings.
Early career
Sansom studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, (now RMIT UniversityRMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
), from 1959 to 1964. He held his first solo exhibition in 1959 at Richman Gallery in Melbourne. He approached the internationally renowned Australian expressionist painter Arthur Boyd
Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, AC, OBE was one of the leading Australian painters of the late 20th Century. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, his relatives included painters, sculptors, architects or other arts professionals. His sister Mary Boyd married John Perceval,...
to open the exhibition and Boyd agreed. Boyd also purchased a painting from the show. After his studies at RMIT, two notable exhibitions were at South Yarra Gallery, in 1965 (from which the National Gallery of Victoria purchased the work, 'He Sees Himself'), and Gallery A, in 1966 (from which The National Collection - now Australian National Gallery - purchased the work 'Leaving that well known void'). In 1968 he painted 'The Great Democracy, a major early work where his influences can be readily discerned. (This painting is now in the collection of the Australian National Gallery, Canberra).
During the 1970s, Sansom began to experiment with self-portrait photographs involving images of himself dressed as a woman. In particular Sansom developed a series of photographs in which he portrayed Hollywood film noir icons such as Barbara Stanwyck
and Joan Crawford. Two series of works on cardboard using these photographs as collaged items within graphic media and paint were shown at Warehouse Gallery, Melbourne, in 1975 and 1977.
In 1978, RMIT Gallery at Storey Hall presented a major survey of Sansom’s paintings and graphic works covering the period 1964-1978. At this point Sansom had become head of painting at the VCA School of Art, prior to becoming Dean in 1986. (During his period at the VCA from 1977 until 1991 Sansom was to teach many of Australia's current leading mid-career artists).
Mid career
In 1982, Sansom was a visiting artist at the Stedelijk MuseumStedelijk Museum
Founded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...
in Amsterdam and in 1985 he was Artist-in-Residence at The University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
.
In 1991, Sansom represented Australia at the Indian Triennial held in New Delhi. At this event he exhibited watercolours made while he lived for six months in New Delhi, in 1989. His aim had been to make one watercolour per day during this period, using humble materials, but on archival paper. Many aspects of contemporary Indian life and culture infiltrated the modus operandi of these works.
Back in Australia these watercolors were exhibited at Roslyn Oxley9Gallery in 1990 (‘Out of India’), and at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne in 1991. From 1986 to 1991 Sansom was Dean of the School of Art at the Victorian College of the Arts
Victorian College of the Arts
The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...
(VCA).
Upon resigning this post in 1991, Sansom began the long process of a reassessment of his art during the remainder of the 1990s, prior to recommencing exhibiting on a regular basis at the John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne, in 2000.
Recent career
In 2005, a career survey of Sansom's work, titled "Welcome to my mind: Gareth Sansom, a study of selected works 1964-2005 ", was held at the Ian Potter Gallery at The University of Melbourne. In 2008, Sansom won the John McCaughey Memorial Prize. The judge, Alex Baker, the National Gallery of Victoria's senior curator of contemporary art, said of Sansom's work:
"The balance between figuration and abstraction, the self-investigatory aspect of the work, the psychedelic aspect, all really hit me as being very much of the moment. I think younger artists should really look at this guy's work to understand what's going on in contemporary painting."
Sansom stated recently that
"In my earlier days it was always firmly about being anti-intellectual and beating my chest. It seems somewhat foolish now. Nowadays I am open to anything that's going to make my paintings better. Where I had always relied on spontaneity I've realised you have to raise the bar and part of that is intellectually."
Sansom (now in his seventies) has recently returned to earlier themes in his paintings by inserting digital photographs of himself in various disguises using latex horror masks and realistic female masks, as well as incorporating latex prosthetics of female body parts; his aim apparently being to create an uneasy tension between the literalness of the photographs and the painterliness within the paintings which can veer wildly between abstraction and figuration.
Sansom, who is married to the painter Christine Healy, lives and works in Melbourne and Sorrento, and is currently represented by John Buckley Gallery in Richmond, Melbourne, the Milani Gallery in Brisbane, Queensland, and the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, NSW.
Awards and Prizes
- 1975 Visual Arts Board, Special Projects Grant
- 1976 Visual Arts Board, Travel Grant
- 1979 Victorian Ministry of the Arts, Tram Project
- 1982 Visiting Artist Stedelijk MuseumStedelijk MuseumFounded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...
, Amsterdam, Holland - 1984 Hugh Williamson Prize, Ballarat Fine Art GalleryBallarat Fine Art GalleryArt Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest and largest regional art gallery in Australia. Established in 1884 as the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery by the citizens of Ballarat both the building and part of its collection is listed on the Victorian Heritage Registerand by the National Trust of Victoria.The...
- 1986 Henry Salkauskas Art Award
- 1987 ANZ Bicentennial Commissioning Series
- 1989 Victorian Tapestry Workshop Commission
- 1991 VII - The Indian Triennale, New Delhi
- 1993/94 Collie Fellowship, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
- 1994 Virtuosi - Youth Music Australia Portfolio of Prints
- 2006 John Tallis Acquisitive Award, Mornington Peninsula Art GalleryMornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Works on Paper AwardThe National Works on Paper Award is a catch-all term for a body of related awards for contemporary art made on, or with, paper. First awarded in 1998, it is the successor event to the Spring Festival of Drawing and the Prints Acquisitive. The award is made biennially, except during the years 1998...
- 2008 John McCaughey Memorial Prize, National Gallery of Victoria
Collections
- Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York - National Gallery of VictoriaNational Gallery of VictoriaThe National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, Melbourne - National Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
- Museum Of Contemporary Art (MOCAMOCA-Museums:* Museum of Chinese in America, a museum in New York City which exhibits Chinese American history* Museum of Contemporary Art , any of several museums with this title...
), Sydney - Australian National Gallery, Canberra
- Art Gallery of Western AustraliaArt Gallery of Western AustraliaThe Art Gallery of Western Australia is a public gallery that is part of the Perth Cultural Centre, in Perth, Western Australia. It is located near the Western Australian Museum and State Library of Western Australia...
, Perth - Art Gallery of New South WalesArt Gallery of New South WalesThe Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
, Sydney - Art Gallery of South AustraliaArt Gallery of South AustraliaThe Art Gallery of South Australia , located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide, is the premier visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of over 35,000 works of art, making it, after the National Gallery of Victoria, the largest state...
, Adelaide - Queensland Art GalleryQueensland Art GalleryThe Queensland Art Gallery is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre, and is located nearest to Brisbane River at South Bank...
, Brisbane - Tasmanian Museum and Art GalleryTasmanian Museum and Art GalleryThe Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is a museum located in Hobart, Tasmania. The museum was established in 1843, by the Royal Society of Tasmania under the leadership of Sir John Franklin, the oldest Royal Society outside of England.-Governance:...
, Hobart - Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane
- ArtbankArtbankArtbank is an art rental program established in 1980 by the Australian Government. It supports contemporary Australian artists and encourages a wider appreciation of their work by buying artworks which it then rents to public and private sector clients. It was modeled on the Canadian Art Bank,...
, Sydney - Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Victoria
- Geelong Art GalleryGeelong Art GalleryThe Geelong Art Gallery is a major regional gallery in the city of Geelong in Victoria, Australia. The gallery has approximately 4,000 works of art in its collection...
, Victoria - Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria
- Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria
- Ballarat Fine Art GalleryBallarat Fine Art GalleryArt Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest and largest regional art gallery in Australia. Established in 1884 as the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery by the citizens of Ballarat both the building and part of its collection is listed on the Victorian Heritage Registerand by the National Trust of Victoria.The...
, Victoria - Bendigo Art GalleryBendigo Art GalleryBendigo Art Gallery in Bendigo, founded in 1887, is one of Australia’s oldest and largest regional art galleries. The Bendigo Art Gallery hosts Australia's richest open painting prize, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, worth $50,000, which was launched in 2003.- Prizes :* Arthur Guy Memorial...
, Victoria - Mornington Peninsula Art Gallery, Victoria
- Wollongong City Art Gallery, New South Wales
- Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales