Del Kathryn Barton (born 11 December 1972) is an Australian artist who began drawing at a young age, and studied at

UNSW Art & Design The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

(formerly the College of Fine Arts) at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. She soon became known for her

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

fantasy works which she has shown in solo and group exhibitions across Australia and overseas. In 2008 and 2013 she won the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

s for portraiture presented by 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 ...

. In 2015 her animated film ''Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose'' won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film.

Early life

Barton grew up in the bush-land of the lower Blue Mountains west of Sydney Australia, often living in sheds or tents with her hippie-like parents. Barton suffered depression as a child, and art became her therapy. She drew obsessively from an early age and lived in her imagination. Her early subjects included fairies, animals, nature, and maps. She also drew the female form, occasionally using her mother to pose for her nude works, other times copying work from published magazines. In 1990, she entered into the

College of Fine Arts The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include: The Americas North America *Alabama School of Fin ...

of the

, as an already accomplished artist with a wide repertoire of subjects. Her tutor during this time, whom she recalled as a “fantastic teacher”, was Michael Esson. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1993 the artist was employed as a lecturer at CoFA from 1994-96.

Career

She held her first exhibition in 1995, and has gone on to hold numerous solo exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne. Her solo exhibitions include: ''The Nightingale and the Rose'',

Australian Centre for the Moving Image ACMI, formerly the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, is Australia's national museum of film, television, videogames, and art. ACMI was established in 2002 and is based at Federation Square in Melbourne, Victoria. During the 2014-15 finan ...

(ACMI), Melbourne, Australia (2016); ''the highway is a disco'', ARNDT, Singapore (2015); ''Electro Orchid'',

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is an art gallery in Sydney, owned and operated by Roslyn Oxley and her husband Tony Oxley. The gallery has been a longstanding contributor to regional, national and international art fairs, and supporter of a range of mo ...

, Sydney (2014); ''The Nightingale and the Rose'',

Heide Museum of Modern Art The Heide Museum of Modern Art, also known as Heide, is an art museum in Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum houses modern and contemporary art across three distinct exhibition buildings and is set ...

(2012); ''the stars eat your body'', Kaliman Gallery, Sydney (2009); ''the whole of everything'',

Karen Woodbury Gallery Karen Woodbury Gallery was a commercial art gallery in Victoria, Australia that operated from 2004-2016. History The gallery was opened in 2004 on the ground floor of 4 Albert Street in Richmond by its namesake director Karen Woodbury. By 2009 th ...

, Melbourne (2008) and ''thank you for loving me'',

, Melbourne (2005). On 7 March 2008, it was announced that Barton had won the 2008 Archibald Prize for

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

ure, for ''You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella'', a

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

with her two children. Barton said of the portrait: "This painting celebrates the love I have for my two children and how my relationship with them has radically informed and indeed transformed my understanding of who I am". A key inspiration for Barton is her experience of motherhood. In 2013, she won the Archibald Prize for her portrait of actor

Hugo Weaving Hugo Wallace Weaving (born 4 April 1960) is an English actor. Born in Colonial Nigeria to English parents, he has resided in Australia for the entirety of his career. He is the recipient of six AACTA Awards, Australian Academy of Cinema and Tel ...

. Of portraiture generally, she says: "I really value the discipline" that it brings. She was also an Archibald Prize finalist in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. She is represented by

in Sydney. Del Kathryn Barton has participated in group exhibitions that include: ''Like-ness'', Albertz Benda, New York, USA (2016); ''Express Yourself: Romance Was Born for Kids'',

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

, Melbourne (2014); ''Dark Heart'', Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Adelaide (2014); ''Theatre of the World'',

Museum of Old and New Art The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. MONA houses ancient, mode ...

, Tasmania (2012); ''Lightness and Gravity'',

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is an art museum located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in the South Bank precinct of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. GOMA, which opened on 2 December 2006, is the largest ...

, Queensland (2012); ''Freehand: Recent Australia Drawing'',

, Melbourne (2010/11); ''2009

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 ...

for Landscape'',

, Sydney (2009); ''Half a World Away: Drawings from Glasgow, Sao Paulo and Sydney'',

Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (aka Hallwalls) is a non-profit art organization located in Buffalo, New York. Since 1974, Hallwalls has shown and shows the work of contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds who work in film, video, literature ...

, Buffalo, New York (2002). Barton produced the animated film ''Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose'', which celebrated its world premiere at the

65th Berlin International Film Festival The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the President of the Jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...

in 2015 and was shown at the 2015

Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venice Film Fest ...

. The movie won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film. As a result of the film, in 2015 she was also she was awarded an Australian Film, Television and Radio School Creative Fellowship. In 2020 her sculptural work, ''the infinite adjustment of the throat...and then, a smile,'' was shown in Part One of the exhibition, " Know my name: Australian women artists 1900 to now" at the National Gallery of Australia.

Artistic practice

Barton's paintings are fantasy-like and include female figures merged with flowers and plants. Historically flowers have often been used to represent femininity and female genitalia. In later works she included photographic images of male figures. Many works are digital collages and she often incorporates gouache, glitter, sequins and markers. Barton begins a work by making a drawing, perhaps of an emotion, gesture or image from a dream. She then develops the drawings into a highly patterned paintings, working on more than one painting at a time. Each work takes several months to complete.

Movies

In 2022 her debut movie ''Blaze'' was released. It tells a story about traumatized young girl with a vivid imagination. Del Kathryn Barton was a director and a co-writer of the script. Del Kathryn Barton and Huna Amweero won Best Feature Film - Original for their feature film script ''Blaze'' at the 2022

AWGIE Awards The AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild, for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing. The awards began in 1967. The awards are judged by over 50 writers, most of whom are previou ...

Collections

Del Kathryn Barton is represented in galleries across Australia: *

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, four prints in her series that's when I was another tree''' from 2007 *

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 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

QAGOMA The Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, colloquially known as QAGOMA, is an art museum in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It consists of the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), which is the main building, and a second gallery, the Ga ...

(Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art),

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

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 ...

Collection Search
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Publications

References

Images

Del Kathryn Barton 2008 exhibition Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne

Del Kathryn Barton 2005 exhibition Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne

Video

Del Kathryn Barton, Wilderness exhibition

Behind the scenes of ARTIST PROFILE Issue 15's cover shoot, inside Barton's studio

External links

Del Kathryn Barton interview with Owen Craven, 2011, ARTIST PROFILE Issue 15, pp. 52–60

Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Del Kathryn Barton on Artabase

The Australian, Del Kathryn Barton

Art & Australia, Emerging artists, Del Kathryn Barton

Arndt Fine Art Singapore, Del Kathryn Barton

the highway is a disco, Del Kathryn Barton, Arndt Fine Art

Publication, Del Kathryn Barton, Julie Ewington

The Nightingale and The Rose, Oscar Wilde, Del Kathryn Barton

Karen Woodbury Gallery Publications, Melbourne, Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Del Kathryn 1972 births Living people Archibald Prize winners University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts alumni Australian women painters Artists from Sydney Archibald Prize finalists 21st-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian artists 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian artists