Peter Benjamin Graham
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| Peter Graham | |
 Peter Graham, Sydney, 1953 |
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| Born | 4 June 1925 Melbourne, Australia |
| Died | 15 April 1987 Melbourne, Australia |
Peter Benjamin Graham (born 4 June 1925, died 15 April 1987), was an Australian visual artist, a master craftsman in a variety of printing techniques, and an art theorist. Unlike many modern artists, Peter saw no contradiction between abstract and figurative art. He just used them as alternative methods of exploring a subject.
In 1954 Graham began to explore native Australian wildlife (notably Kangaroos) and themes associated with Aboriginal culture, using the visual languages of European figurative Modernism and later geometric abstraction.
He began developing a new form of visual geometry related to Chaos Theory from 1960, eventually called Thematic Orchestration. This new visual language enabled the 2D deconstruction and synthesis of an observed subject, in a way fundamentally different from traditional abstraction. Thematic Orchestration allows the artist to 'grow' an image, producing almost infinite conscious invention.
In 1964 Graham began developing the world's first high level visual notation system for pure visual imagery, which he first called Notation Painting and later New Epoch Art. This notation system enabled the composition of animated visual images in any physical media, and separated the act of composition from the act of painting itself. In effect it does for painting what writing does for the spoken word and thought, and what staff notation does for music. Peter worked on the New Epoch Project until his death in 1987, when it was continued by his sons Philip Mitchell Graham and Euan Benjamin Graham.
Graham became a pioneer of the Australian artist run initiative movement, running The Queensberry Street Gallery in association with Victorian Printmakers' Group from 1973 until 1978.
In 2006 Peter Graham's 1945 painting 'Peter Lalor Addressing the Miners Before Eureka' featured in a major Australian travelling exhibition celebrating the 150 anniversary of the Eureka Stockade This painting is also featured in Riot or Revolution A dramatised history documentary on the Eureka Stockade directed by Don Parham and produced by Parham Media Productions in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2005.
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[edit] Early years
Peter Graham was born 4 June 1925 and raised in the Melbourne suburb of Hartwell.
Awarded scholarship to Melbourne Technical College Art School for one year in 1939.
Studied Hand Lithography with Ross McClintock Studios (Colour separation from artists' originals, drawn as lithographic plates - 24 sheet positives, etc.) 1940 - 1941
Transferred indenture to PhotoGravures Pty Ltd. 1941 Trained by master craftsmen in facsimile reproduction and pre-press Rotogravure techniques during war years. Received his Certificate of Completion of apprenticeship in 1946.
1941- 1946 Studied fine art with Victor Greenhalgh and John Rowell in night classes at Melbourne Technical College- figure and portraiture.
1945 Peter Graham began association with the Melbourne Social Realism group Noel Counihan, Josl Bergner, Victor O'Connor, Ma Mahood, Herbert McClintock, Rembrandt McClintock, Frank Andrew, and Nutta Buzzacott. First painting exhibited in the Australia at War Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Joined Victorian Artists Society and exhibited regularly there until 1947.
1946 Awarded Ferntree Gully Art Prize for best watercolour, Back Streets of Hawthorn.
1947 Awarded The Herald prize for best drawing, The Smokers. Left for England with Grahame King in August.
[edit] England
1947 - 1949 Lived and painted at The Abbey Arts Centre in New Barnet London, along with artists, Leonard French, James Gleeson, Douglas Green, Stacha Halpern, Graham King, and Robert Klippel. During this time he also befriended the Irish 'folk' artist Gerald Dillon who lived nearby, and who opened Peter's eyes to the visual languages of Picasso and Matise. He exhibited in group shows at William Ohly's Berkeley Galleries, and the Contemporary Artists' Society in London.
1948 Peter Graham studied drawing under Bernard Meninsky at Central School of Art, London
1948 - 1950 Peter Graham worked at Odhams Press, specialising in the inverted half-tone Dultgen process and masked colour separation.
1950 Peter Graham travelled in France and Italy before returning to Sydney under three-year contract to Consolidated Press working as a specialist in colour separation.
[edit] Sydney
1951 - 1953 Peter Graham exhibited paintings in various group shows in Sydney, including the Inaugural Blake Prize for Religious Art.
[edit] Alice Springs
In 1954 Peter Graham rode a BSA 500 motorcycle non-stop from Sydney to Melbourne. After rebuilding the bike, he headed across to Adelaide then rode solo up along the route of what is now the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs over five days. There he worked as a builder's labourer for 18 months while painting on the side, until the end of 1955. During this time he worked and painted alongside Aboriginal bushmen. He helped build the John Flynn Memorial Church and government housing at Hermannsburg Mission. At Hermannsburg he met anthropologist Ted Strehlow, who transformed Peter's way of seeing the Australian landscape and Aboriginal culture.
[edit] Fiji
Peter Graham spent six months in Fiji painting and drawing in 1956.
[edit] Gallery A (Melbourne)
1956 - 1960 Peter Graham returned to Melbourne, rejoined PhotoGravures Pty Ltd. Shared a studio with Leonard French and befriended the New Zealand born artist George Johnson, who introduced Peter to the work of Kandinsky, Klee and Mondrian. Painted a series of abstract works based on his Central Australian experience. These were exhibited at Gallery A (Melbourne) in 1960, founded in the same year by Max Hutchinson and Clement Meadmore.
[edit] Linear Extension
1961 - 1964 Peter Graham completed new series of paintings referred to as Linear Extensions.
1964 - 1973 Peter Graham conducted experimental studies based on new concept of Notation Painting.
1965 Peter Graham established his own photo-lithographic business, Photocraft Services.
In 1967 the Reverend Alfred M Dickie married Peter Graham and Cynthia Louis who went on to raise a family of three children - Philip, Michaela and Euan Graham.
[edit] Queensberry Street Gallery (Melbourne)
From 1971 to 1978 Peter Graham created a series of experimental works using photographic and lithographic techniques and materials.
In 1971 Peter Graham befriended artist Paul Cavell and collaborated with him on his Notation Paintings between 1974 and 1976.
In 1973 he opened the Peter Graham Gallery at 225 Queensberry Street, Carlton (6 April) supported by a photo- lithographic workshop in the same premises. Closed this gallery in 1974 and reopened it as the Queensberry Street Gallery in 1977.
Peter Graham's Solo Exhibitions at the Queensberry Street Gallery:
- 1973 Notation Drawings and Paintings from 1961 - 1973
- Australian Watercolours from 1954, 1955 and 1973
- 1974 Western Port Foreshores
- 1977 Western Port Places - Notation Painting
- 1978 Survey from 1947- 1978
During 1977, Peter Graham collaborated with Noela Hjorth and the Victorian Printmakers' Group which at the time was lobbying for space in the Victorian Government's proposed Meatmarket Craft space. He was appointed to the Interim Committee in the formation stages of the Meatmarket Craft Centre and helped to draw up a plan for the establishment of an access workshop for Printmakers at the Meatmarket. As part of his involvement, he had set up a plate-graining service for artists and student Printmakers and became the manager of this facility.
Victorian Printmakers' Workshop group show opened at The Queensberry Street Gallery by Professor Bernard Smith 26 July 1977
Peter Graham closed his gallery in 1978 and transferred his workshop to a home studio in Canterbury (Melbourne) at the end of the year.
[edit] Final years
1979 - 1984 Peter Graham experimented with esoteric printing techniques including collotype, and a new form of screenless lithography using a pre-sensitised continuous tone aluminium plate.
1981 - 1983 Peter Graham worked on series of drawings called Paradise Destroyed, and contributing to several anti-nuclear exhibitions.
1983 Peter Graham returned to his Central Australian subject matter with large series of watercolours and oils entitled The Painted Land. Completed at this time a memoir of his stay in Alice Springs, called 'Journal of a Small Journey'. (Taped version in Archives at National Library of Australia, collected by Barbara Blackman: see below.)
1984 - 1985 Peter Graham painted Tragic Landscape series.
Peter Graham returned to development of Notation Painting in 1986 in collaboration with his son, Philip Mitchell Graham. Arranged with Jan Martin for a retrospective exhibition to be held at her gallery in Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine, Victoria.
Peter Graham Admitted to Hospital where he was diagnosed with Cancer of the oesophagus December 1986 .
Peter Graham died 15 April 1987 at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.
Memorial exhibition for Peter Graham opened at the Lyttleton Gallery, Castlemaine on 6 June, two days after what would have been his 62nd birthday.
[edit] Represented
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
Commonwealth Bank Of Australia, World Trade Centre, Sydney
[edit] Publications by Peter Graham
- 'Artist's and Reality' Arena No 11 (1966)
- 'PEACE', Callenders published by Congress for International Co-operation and Disarmament (1980, 1981, 1982)
- Illustrations for The Westernport Bay Symposium, Royal Society of Victoria Proceedings, Vol 87, P1, 21 August 1975
[edit] Primary source material on Peter Graham publicly available
There are currently two tape recordings by Peter Graham available at the National Library of Australia, Petherick Oral History Reading Room. Unfortunately they are incorrectly catalogued at this time:
Call Number: ORAL TRC 2490 (please quote to locate catalogue entry) Record ID: 2069617 Graham, Cynthia, Interview with Cynthia Graham [sound recording] / interviewer: Barbara Blackman. Published: 13 July 1989 Description: 2 sound cassettes. Notes: Has transcript.
In fact these two recordings are as follows:
Interview with Peter Graham by Paul Davis et all, 5 June 1977 Concentrates on his early years in England and gives some information on his notation research
Peter Graham reciting his memoir, Journal of a Small Journey. Recording by Philip Mitchell Graham, 10 April 1982. This memoir details his motorbike trip to Alice Springs in 1954 and his subsequent experiences in Central Australia over the following 18 months.
[edit] References
- Bell, George, Review of Australia At War Exhibition, The Sun, September 1945
- McCulloch, Alan, Review of Ferntree Gully Exhibition, The Herald, 5 November 1945
- Turnbull, Clive, Preview of the Autumn Exhibition of the Victorian Artists Society, The Herald, April 1946
- Bell, George, Preview of the Autumn Exhibition of the Victorian Artists Society, The Sun, 27 April 1946
- Turnbull, Clive, Preview of the Spring Exhibition of the Victorian Artists Society, The Herald, 27? October 1946
- Bell, George, Review of the Ferntree Gully Art Exhibition, The Sun, 9 December 1946
- McDonald, Review of the Ferntree Gully Art Exhibition, The Age, 9 December 1946
- Bell, George, Review of the Autumn Exhibition of the Victorian Artists Society, The Sun 29 April 1947
- Turnbull, Clive, Preview of the exhibition of drawings at the Victorian Artists Society, The Herald, 18 July 1947
- Shore, Arnold, Diversity of Work and Painters, The Argus, June 1960
- McCulloch, Alan, Trend towards abstract, Melbourne Herald, 8 June 1960
- Boles, Bernard, Review of Peter\u2019s Notation drawings exhibition, The Nation Review, April 1973
- McCulloch, Alan, Dynamism in our seascapes, The Herald, p37, 16 May 1973
- McCulloch, Alan, An Object Lesson In Magnificence, The Herald, 12 December 1973
- McCulloch, Alan, Review of Peter Graham\u2019s exhibition Western Port Foreshores, The Herald, 2 October 1974
- George, Chris, Art Gets Into Print The Sun, 28 July 1977
- Germaine, Max, Artists and Galleries of Australia and New Zealand, 1979 ISBN 978-9768097026
- Lahey, John, Quiet artists life revealed on 2500 canvasses creates a stir, The Age, 7 July 1987
- Beyond the Grave - A Painting Performed, The Australian, 22 April 1988
- Prendergast, Maria Ed. The 1989 Australian Arts Diary, (1988) ISSN 0729 3127
- Litchman, Loy Dr. New Epoch Painting: The ideas of Peter Graham, InterACTA: Journal of the Art Teachers Association of Victoria, No 4, 1988
- Coster, Peter, Domestic treasures open up a masterly storehouse, The Australian, 2 October 1990
- Graham, Philip Mitchell, New Epoch Art, InterACTA: Journal of the Art Teachers Association of Victoria, No 4, 1990
- The art of painting in numbers, The Age 25 May 1991
- Mc Culloch, Alan, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, ISBN 978-1871569735
- Smith, Bernard, Noel Counihan Artist and Revolutionary Oxford University Press Australia 1993 ISBN 0195535871
- Heathcote, Christopher Dr. Harking back to Romantic spirit, The Age, 6 August 1993
- Mc Culloch, Alan and Mc Culloch, Susan, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art On line version by Google books. p 304, 1994
- Heathcote, Christopher Dr. A Quite Revolution: the rise of Australian Art 1946 - 1968 Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 1995, pp 8, 96, 125, 134, 160, 259, 263 ISBN 1 875847 10 3
- Film: Riot or Revolution A dramatised documentary directed by Don Parham and produced by Parham Media Productions in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2005
- Molony, John, Dawn Of A Democracy, The Age, 27 November 2006
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Graham, Peter Benjamin |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Australian painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4 June 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Melbourne, Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | 15 April 1987 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Melbourne, Australia |
