Gareth Sansom (born 19 November 1939) is an Australian artist, painter, printmaker and

collagist Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an Assemblage (art), assemblage of different forms, thus creat ...

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 Allen Jones may refer to: *Allen Jones (Continental Congress) (1739–1798), Continental Congress delegate *Allen Jones (artist) (born 1937), British pop artist *Allen Jones (record producer) (1940–1987), American record producer * A.J. Styles (A ...

Derek Boshier Derek Boshier (born 1937, in Portsmouth) is an English artist, among the first proponents of British pop art. Greene, Alison de Lima (2000). Texas: 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. New York, New Y ...

Joe Tilson Joseph Charles Tilson (born 24 August 1928) is a British artist and fellow of the Royal Academy. He was involved in the Pop Art movement in the 1960s; he has made paintings, prints and constructions. Early life and education Tilson was bo ...

and the formal strategies of the post-modernist

R. B. Kitaj Ronald Brooks Kitaj (; October 29, 1932 – October 21, 2007) was an American artist who spent much of his life in England. Life He was born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, United States. His Hungarian father, Sigmund Benway, left his mother, Jeanne ...

. Another major Influence was and remains the British painter

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

. He was an associate of

Brett Whiteley Brett Whiteley AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes. He held many exhibitions ...

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 (5 May 1951 – 22 July 1999) was an Australian artist, born in Melbourne, known for his airbrushed paintings of houses, architecture and suburbia. His parents were Australian, and had British ancestry. Early career John Brack wa ...

. His work is represented by the

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 ...

, the

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 ...

, 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 ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, 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 its 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 University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...

), from 1959 to 1964. He held his first solo exhibition in 1959 at Richman Gallery in Melbourne. He asked

Arthur Boyd Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...

to open the exhibition and Boyd agreed. Boyd also purchased a painting from the show. After his studies at RMIT, two exhibitions were at South Yarra Gallery, in 1965 (from which the National Gallery of Victoria purchased the work, 'He Sees Himself'), and

Gallery A Gallery A was a mid-century Australian gallery that exhibited contemporary Australian art. It was established in 1959 at 60 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, and then relocated to 275 Toorak Road., South Yarra. A second Gallery A venue was opened and run ...

, 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, 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 presented a major survey of Sansom's paintings and graphic works covering the period 1964–1978. Sansom was head of painting at the VCA School of Art, prior to becoming Dean in 1986.

Mid career

In 1982, Sansom was a visiting artist at the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam and in 1985 he was Artist-in-Residence at The

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. 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 The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...

(VCA). In 1991 Sansom resigned from the VCA. SPVS

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 eighties) 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 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 is married to the painter Christine Healy. He lives and works in Melbourne and Sorrento, and is currently represented by STATION Gallery, in Melbourne: the Milani Gallery in Brisbane, Queensland; and the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, NSW. In 2016 the artist participated in the exhibition 'Magic Object' - Adelaide Biennial at the

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 ...

. He also featured in the important survey show of Australian painting, ''Painting, More Painting'', mounted at ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art), Melbourne. Also in 2016, Sansom was included in ''Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday'', held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Sydney. In 2016 Sansom was interviewed in a digital story and oral history for the

State Library of Queensland The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contai ...

'
James C Sourris AM Collection
Sansom spoke about his life, art practices and his success at winning the Hugh Williamson Prize; the McCaughey Memorial Prize; and the Dobell Prize for Drawing. In October 2017, the artist was invited to speak at the seminar, 'Artist to Artist: Gareth Sansom', during which, he discussed his work as an artist, and his important and influential role as an art educator. This event was staged as part of 'ART150' at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia, which celebrated 150 years of art in Melbourne. In 2017–2018, the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia staged a major retrospective of Sansom's work, 'Gareth Sansom: Transformer'. Over 130 works were featured in the exhibition, including many ground-breaking pieces that had not been previously seen in public. The exhibition comprised: suites of works on paper; photography; watercolours; collages; and paintings - including many works from the past 15 years. The show was opened by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer,

Sebastian Smee Sebastian Smee is an Australian-born Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for the ''Washington Post''. Education and career Educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide, Smee graduated from the University of Sydney with an Honours degree in fine arts ...

, whose essay about the show stated that Sansom had a lack of sentimentality about "our darker natures; for the parts of us that idle along during the day, purring harmlessly beneath the surface of our charming, careful, mildly-anxious social selves, but that intermittently growl, bark or stare inappropriately; that come out at night, and are liable to erupt in spasms of desire, violence and teeth-baring, and are tempted by self-annihilation. Art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, John McDonald, wrote of the exhibition's: "sheer, crazed abundance. Part fun-house, part warehouse, the show is bursting with paintings, collages, photos, objects and memorabilia. There are veins of pure kitsch, grotesquerie, dark eroticism". In 2019, Sansom was included in the exhibition, ''Ways of Seeing: recent acquisitions from the collection'', staged at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. In the same year, his work was showcased in Berlin, in the exhibition, ''STATION at Arndt Art Agency'' (formerly

Arndt & Partner Arndt & Partner was the name of a contemporary art gallery based in Berlin, Germany, founded by Matthias Arndt, that belongs to the city's most important exhibition sites.Hohmann & Ehlers. (2007). ''Berlin Contemporary'', page 22. Jovis Verlag GmbH, ...

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

, Amsterdam, the Netherlands * 1984 Hugh Williamson Prize,

Ballarat Fine Art Gallery The Art 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 H ...

* 1986

Henry Salkauskas Henry Salkauskas (6 May 1925 – 31 August 1979) was an Australian printmaker and abstract artist in watercolors, a refugee from Lithuania. History Henrikas Salkauskas was born in Kaunas (aka Kovno), Lithuania, the only child of Henrikas Sal ...

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 Gallery * 2008 John McCaughey Memorial Prize, National Gallery of Victoria * 2012

Dobell Prize The Dobell Drawing Prize is a biennial drawing prize and exhibition, held by the National Art School in association with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation.The prize is an open call to all artists and aims to explore the enduring importance ...

for Drawing

Collections

, New York *

, Melbourne *

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

, Wellington, New Zealand *

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), located on George Street in Sydney's The Rocks neighbourhood, is solely dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting, and collecting contemporary art, from across Australia and around the world. It is ...

* Australian National Gallery, Canberra *

Art Gallery of Western Australia The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) is a public art gallery that is part of the Perth Cultural Centre, in Perth. It is located near the Western Australian Museum and State Library of Western Australia and is supported and managed by the ...

, Perth *

, Sydney *

, Adelaide *

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is a museum located in Hobart, Tasmania. The museum was established in 1846, by the Royal Society of Tasmania, the oldest Royal Society outside England. The TMAG receives 400,000 visitors annually. ...

, Hobart *

Artbank Artbank 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 c ...

, Sydney *

Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane 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 ...

* Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Victoria *

Geelong Art Gallery The Geelong Art Gallery, currently known as Geelong Gallery, is a major regional art gallery, gallery in the city of Geelong, Victoria, Geelong in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The gallery has over 6,000 works of art in its collectio ...

, Victoria * Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria * Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria *

, Victoria * Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria * Mornington Peninsula Art Gallery, Victoria * Wollongong City Art Gallery, New South Wales * Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales

References

* ''Present Day Art in Australia'', Mervyn Horton, 1968 * ''A Guide to Modern Australian Painting'', Ross Luck, Melbourne, 1969 * ''Australian Painting of the Sixties'', Kym Bonython, Rigby, 1970 * ''Australian Painting'', Bernard Smith, Oxford University Press, 1972 * ''Australian Painting, 1970–1975'', Kym Bonython, Rigby, 1976 * ''Gareth Sansom'', Graeme Sturgeon, Art & Australia, December, 1977 * ''Australian Painting 1975-1980'', Kym Bonython, Rigby, 1980 * ''The Years of Hope, Australian Art and Criticism, 1959–1968'', Gary Catalano, Oxford University Press, 1981 * ''Vision in Disbelief'', William Wright, Catalogue Essay, 4th Biennale of Sydney,

, 1982 * ''Vox Pop: into the eighties'' catalogue,

, 1983 * ''Perspecta'' catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1983 * ''Australian Painting 1788 - 1990'', Bernard Smith, Oxford University Press, 1991 * ''Welcome to My Mind - Gareth Sansom, A Study of Selected Works 1964-2005'', Bala Starr,

The University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, 2005 * ''Gareth Sansom'', Julian Holcroft, LIKE magazine, December 2000. * ''Two Centuries of Australian Art from the Collection of the National Gallery of Victoria'', Bernard Smith, Thames & Hudson, 2004 * ''Untitled: Portraits of Australian Artists'', Sonia Payes, Macmillan, 2007 * ''Eye to I'', Catalogue, Geoff Wallis, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 2007 * ''A Skilled Hand and Cultivated Mind - A Guide to the Architecture and Art of RMIT University'', Harriet Edquist, Elizabeth Grierson, RMIT, 2008 * ''Gareth Sansom'', Ashley Crawford, Australian Art Review, August – October, 2008 * ''The Naked Face: Self Portraits'', Vivien Gaston, Catalogue, NGV, 2010 * ''Standout Exhibitions'', Ashley Crawford, Australian Art Collector, January/March, 2012 * ''101 Contemporary Australian Artists'', Kelly Gellatly NGV Publication, 2012 * ''Gareth Sansom: Mind Grenades'', Ashley Crawford, VAULT magazine, 2015

External links

Official website

Gareth Sansom digital story, educational interview and oral history
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, 21 December 2016. 8min, 30min and 1:18min version available to view online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sansom, Gareth 1939 births Living people Australian male painters Artists from Melbourne Australian LGBT painters