David Edgar Strachan (25 June 1919 – 23 November 1970) was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

and teacher. Strachan was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, in 1919 to a doctor in the Australian Army. In 1920 David and his family moved to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, later moving to

Creswick, Victoria Creswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres north of Ballarat and 122 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, in the Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the 2016 census, Creswick had a populatio ...

. He was educated at

Geelong Grammar School , motto_translation = 1 Corinthians 1:30: "For us, Christ was made wisdom"(1 Corinthians 1:30: Christ, who has been made for us in wisdom) , city = Corio, Victoria , country = Australia , coordinates = , ty ...

, Victoria. He moved to London in 1936 to study at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

under

Randolph Schwabe Randolph Schwabe (9 May 1885 – 19 September 1948) was a British draughtsman, painter and etcher who was the Slade Professor of Fine Art at University College London from 1930 until his death. He served as a war artist in both World Wars, crea ...

for two years. In 1937 he attended the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acadé ...

, Paris and worked as a printmaker. He returned to Australia in April 1938 and worked with

George Bell George Bell may refer to: Law and politics * George Joseph Bell (1770–1843), Scottish jurist and legal author * George Alexander Bell (1856–1927), Canadian pioneer and Saskatchewan politician * George Bell (Canadian politician) (1869–1940) ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

for a few years. Strachan moved to Sydney in 1941, and exhibited with many other prominent artists of the Contemporary Art Group. He again left for Europe in 1948 where he began experimenting in etching in Paris. In May 1960 Strachan returned to Sydney, continuing to exhibit. He was a member of

Sydney Printmakers Sydney Printmakers was an association of artists, founded in 1961, to further the art of print-making. It marked a renewal of interest in the technique after a lull of two decades occasioned by a boom in etching which began in the late 1930s. Membe ...

, and taught etching at

East Sydney Technical College The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts p ...

(1960–1965). He was the last president of the Society of Artists, serving in 1965. Strachan held solo and group shows in London and Paris and appeared in the Paris UNESCO Exposition. He exhibited his prints in numerous Australian galleries between 1961 and 1978. He won the

Wynne Prize The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. As one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne. Now held concurrently with the Sir John Sulman Prize ...

in 1961 and 1964. Strachan died on 23 November 1970 from a motorcar accident near

Yass, New South Wales Yass () is a town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Yass Valley Council. The name appears to have been derived from an Aboriginal word, "Yarrh" (or "Yharr"), said to mean 'running water'. Yass is located 280 km s ...

. His works are held in 15 major galleries in Australia and in many European and American galleries.

Notes and references

External links

Works by David Strachan
held at the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strachan, David Edgar 1919 births People from Salisbury Australian printmakers Wynne Prize winners 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Road incident deaths in New South Wales 1970 deaths 20th-century printmakers People educated at Geelong Grammar School Australian male painters British emigrants to Australia