GARRY SHEAD
b. 1942, Sydney.
Garry Shead is one of Australia's most celebrated contemporary figurative painters, with his work steeped in allegory and symbolism, inviting spiritual, philosophical and historical interpretation.
Shead attended the National Art School in Sydney 1961-1962 and from 1966 exhibited regularly with Sydney's Watters Gallery. In 1967 he received the Young Contemporaries Prize, travelling to Japan, France, Vienna, New Guinea and Budapest. During this period, Shead also worked in film and television, being a founding member of the Ubu Film collective and making experimental films. Shead was also artist in residence at Karolyi Foundation Studio in Vence through the Victorian Arts Board in 1982 and has completed residencies with the indigenous artists of Lockhart River.
In the late 1980s he developed the figurative paintings for which he is best-know; the Bundeena Paintings the D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo Series(1993) and the Queen Elizabeth II Series (1995).
His work has been included in group exhibitions including the Archibald, Wynne, Sulman and Moran Prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Shead was awarded the Archibald Prize in 1993 and the Dobell Prize in 2004. His work is held in all major collections in Australia, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
“Shead is an artist who subscribes to what is now an unfashionable theory that the artist is a medium who surrenders to his Muse. Although he is an exquisite technician, who has spent forty years mastering the skills of the old masters, in the final analysis, as he notes in his journal "Ern Malley emerges from the blank page”...”
(excerpt from Garry Shead and the Ern Malley series by Sasha Grishin, 2003
2013
2009
2007
2003
ARTIST INFORMATION
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| Adamson, Robert; Cross the Border, Prism Books, Sydney, 1977 Auty, Giles; ‘Modern Mutants’, Weekend Review, The Australian, 4-5 Nov 1995 Bonython, Kym; Modern Australian Painting 1950-75, Rigby, Adelaide, 1980 Bonython, Kym; Modern Australian Painting 1970-75, Rigby, Adelaide, 1975 Bonython, Kym; Modern Australian Painting 1975-80, Rigby, Adelaide, 1980 Catalano, Gary; What Are the Wild Waves Saying?, Watters Gallery, Sydney, 1974 Catalano, Gary; Watercolours of Garry Shead, Aspect, No. 2/1, 1976, pp10-14 Catalano, Gary; Years of Hope: Australian Art and Art Criticism 1959-1968, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1980 Catalano, Gary; Building a Picture: Interviews with Australian Artists, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, 1997 Cantrill, Arthur and Corinne, Garry Shead Interview, Cantrills Film notes, 13 April 1973 Dodd, Terri; ‘Garry Shead wins the 1993 Archibald prize – At Last!’, Australian Artist, May 1993 Frost, Annabel; ‘Shedding connections’, Australian Country Style, May 1994 Gleeson, James; ‘Open Verdict on Violence’, Sunday Telegraph, 3 December 1967 Grishin, Sasha; Garry Shead and the Erotic Muse, Craftsman House, 2001 Grishin, Sasha; ‘Garry Shead: Kangaroo’, Canberra Times, 13 June 1992 Grishin, Sasha; Garry Shead: The D.H. Lawrence Paintings, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1993 Grishin, Sasha; ‘Fleshing Out a Royal Debate’, Canberra Times, 1 Sept 1995 Hard, Lynn; ‘Australia Suite’, ETT Imprint, Sydney 1998 Hawley, Janet; ‘Just one look’, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 August 2001 Horton, Mervyn; Present Day Art in Australia, Ure Smith, Sydney 1969 Horton, Mervyn; Australian Painters of the Seventies, Ure Smith, Sydney 1975 Krausmann, Rudi; Poems- Shead, Garry: Drawings, Fast Books, Sydney 1991 Krausmann, Rudi; The Journey and other poems, Fast Books, Sydney 1999 Lynn, Elwynn; ‘The Use of Pornography in Painting’, The Bulletin, 20 Nov 1971 McKenna, Mark; This Country – A reconciled republic?, UNSW Press, Sydney 1999 McKenna, Mark: ‘Poetics of place’, Griffith Review, Griffith University, QLD, Summer 03-04 McDonald, John; ‘Garry Shead: The Royal Suite’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Nov 1995 McGregor, Craig; In the Making, Nelson, Sydney 1969 McGregor, Craig; People, Politics and Pop: Australia in the Sixties, Ure Smith, Sydney 1968 McGregor, Craig; ‘For the Love of Lawrence’, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 July 1992, pp 10-15 Mendelssohn, Joanna; Kangaroo, D.H. Lawrence at Thirroul: Paintings by Garry Shead, Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong, 1992 Rish, Adam; The Royal Suite: Paintings by Garry Shead, catalogue essay, 1995 Smith, Bernard; Australian Painting 1788-1970, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1971 Tubb, Rochelle; ‘Look, The Queen Has No Clothes’, Sun Herald, 22 October 1995 Weight, Greg’ ‘Garry Shead’s tribute to D.H. Lawrence’, Australian Artist, August 1993 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The National Gallery of Australia, ACT; The Art Gallery of NSW; The Art Gallery of SA; Newcastle Region Art Gallery, NSW; Wollongong City Gallery, NSW; The National Museum, Budapest, Hungary; The Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria; The Philip Morris Collection, Canberra; Sydney Morning Herald Collection, Sydney; The State Bank Collection, Sydney; University of Western Australia; Queensland Art Gallery; Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery; University of NSW; National Film Library; Parliament House Collection, Canberra; Visual Arts and Crafts Board, Sydney; Australian National University; Northern Territory University; Queensland University of Technology; Brisbane City Hall Art Gallery and Museum; Artbank, Sydney; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; Mildura Art Centre, Victoria; National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Visual Arts and Crafts Board, Sydney. |
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