John Beard (artist)

John Beard (born 1943) is a Welsh artist and painter born in Aberdare, Wales,[1] he is now based in Sydney, Lisbon and London.

Life and art

John Beard won the Welsh National Art Scholarship in 1962 at just 19 years of age. After training at the Swansea College of Art, he completed further studies at the University of London and the Royal College of Art, London.

In 1965 he won the British Arts Council International Prize and Commission, and has since won many residences and commission at various Universities and establishments around the globe. After various teaching posts in the United Kingdom, Beard arrived in Western Australia in 1983,[2] to become Senior Lecturer, Head of Painting, Curtin University, Perth. After resigning in 1989, Beard travelled extensively, living and exhibiting in cities such as New York, Madrid, Lisbon and London before establishing a Sydney base in 1997. When the Tate Gallery opened its St Ives gallery in Cornwall, 1998, John Beard was one of the first artists to be offered a residency and exhibition there.[3]

During the mid-1990s while living in Portugal, Beard created the Adaga painting series, studies of off-shore rock formations and their constantly changing character. This study led Beard into portraiture, or rather examining the nature of portraiture and its implications for the epistemology of human recognition.[4]

In 2007 Beard won the Archibald, Australia's most prestigious portrait prize, for his painting of artist Janet Laurence. It was part of a series of monochrome portraits of other artists.[5] Beard was good friends with Laurence and as preparation had photographed and filmed her at her studio. Beard had won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting in 2006.[6]

Collections

Awards and fellowships

Reviews, articles and essays

See also

References

  1. "John Beard, biography". Art Nomad. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
  2. Wright, William (Vol 46 No 4 Winter 2009). "Headland: the paintings of John Beard (a tacit knowing)". Art & Australia. Retrieved 17 March 2013. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. http://www.liverpoolstreetgallery.com.au/default.html/ Anthony Bond
  4. "After Image by Paul McGillick". John Beard. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
  5. "John Beard wins Archibald prize". Herald Sun. 2 March 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Iaccarino, Clara (3 March 2007). "A very big head takes the Archibald Prize". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 March 2013.

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Marcus Wills
Archibald Prize
2007
for Portrait of Janet Laurence
Succeeded by
Del Kathryn Barton