KEN WHISSON
Born 1927
Biography
1927 Born in Lilydale, Victoria
1944-45 Studied painting at Swinburne Institute of Technology
1946-47 Studied with Danila Vassilieff
1954-56 Travelled in Europe, lived in England
1968-69 Travelled in North Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe, lived
in Morocco
1968-70 Lived in England
1976-77 Artist-in-residence, Ballarat College of Advanced Education,
Victoria
1978 Moved to Perugia, Italy, where he currently lives
Awards
1979 John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria
1987 Visual Art Board Emeritis Award for substantial contribution to
Australian Art
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2007
Watters Gallery, Sydney
2006
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2005
Watters Gallery, Sydney
2004
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2003
Watters Gallery, Sydney
2002
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2000
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1999
Watters Gallery, Sydney
1998
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1997
Richard Salmon Gallery, London
Watters Gallery, Sydney
1996
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1995
Watters Gallery, Sydney
1994
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1993
Watters Gallery, Sydney
1992
Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1991
Watters Gallery, Sydney
1990
Ken Whisson: A survey, Pinacotheca, Melbourne and touring
Ken Whisson, 20 Drawings from 1973 to 1993, Cannibal Pierce Galerie
Australienne, St. Denis, France
1989
Watters Gallery, Sydney
Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney
1987
Ken Whisson Paintings 1957–1985, Broken Hill Art Gallery and touring
1986
Watters Gallery, Sydney
312 Lennox Street, Melbourne
1985
Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney
1984
The Paintings and Drawings of Ken Whisson, Contemporary Art Society
Gallery, Watters Gallery, Sydney
Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney
1983
Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
Pinacotheca, Melbourne
Watters Gallery, Sydney
1981
Watters Gallery, Sydney
1980
Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
Watters Gallery, Sydney
Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
Ken Whisson: Selected Paintings, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
1977
Ken Whisson, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
1976
Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1974
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
Macquarie Galleries, Canberra
1973
Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, Morwell
1972
Gallery A, Melbourne
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1968
Strines, Melbourne
Chester Beatty Research Institute, London
1967
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1966
Gallery A, Melbourne
1965
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1963
South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne
1962
Barry Stern Galleries, Sydney
1961
Victorian Artists Society, Melbourne
1960
Victorian Artists Society, Melbourne
1957
Victorian Artists Society, Melbourne
1956
Victorian Artists Society, Melbourne
1952
Lower Kozminisky Gallery, Melbourne
Selected Group Exhibitions
2007
Bloodlines: Art and the Horse, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, New South
Wales
2006
Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2005
Aerial View: The Reconfiguring of Painting, Hayward Gallery, London
2004
Artists for Kids Culture: 2005 Annual Art Exhibition and Auction, Melbourne
Home Sweet Home: Works from the Peter Fay Collection, National Gallery
of Australia, Canberra
2004
Drawing Biennale, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra
Penetralia: Art and Psychoanalysis in Melbourne, 1940–2004, RMIT
Gallery, Melbourne
2003
Blue Chip V: The Collectors Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2002
Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2001
Blue Chip IV: The Collectors Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
The Sense We Make: Australian Art from the Orica Collection, The Ian
Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
Octane: Celebrating 80 Years of the Royal Australian Air Force, Global
Arts Link, Ipswich, Queensland
2000
Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
1999
On the Road: The Car in Australian Art, Heide Museum of Modern Art,
Melbourne
1998
The Laverty Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
1997
The Urban Edge: Historical and Contemporary Works from the Queensland
Art Gallery Collection, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
A Face in the Crowd, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
1996
Hidden Treasures 11: Art in Corporate Collections, S H Ervin Gallery,
Sydney
1995
Summer 95–96, Watters Gallery, Sydney
1994
Drawing on Inspiration, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1993
Works from the Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane
1992
Contemporary Australian Drawings from the Collection, Art Gallery of
New South Wales, Sydney and touring
1991
Cross Currents: Contemporary New Zealand and Australian Art in the Chartwell
Collection, Waikato Museum of Art & History, Hamilton, New Zealand
Her Story: Images of Domestic Labour in Australian Art, S H Ervin Gallery,
Sydney
1990
Harbour Hymns, City Songs; Visions of Sydney from the Collection, Art
Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art on the Campus, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
Gallery 5, Vidal, Venice, Italy
1989
Prints and Australia: Pre-settlement to Present, National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra
Joseph Brown Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1988
Creating Australia: 200 Years of Art, Art Gallery of South Australia,
Adelaide and ICCA
Seventeen Australian Artists, Gallery 5, Vidal, Venice, Italy
The Great Australian Art Exhibition 1788–1988, touring all state
galleries
Drawing in Australia from 1770s to 1980s, National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra
1987
Painters and Sculptors: Diversity in Contemporary Art, Queensland Art
Gallery and Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
Contemporary Art in Australia – A Review, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Brisbane
1984
The Australians, CDS Gallery, New York
1983
Twelve Australian Painters, Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth and
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
1983
Some Recent Australian Works on Paper, Art Gallery of New South Wales,
Sydney
Recent Australian Painting: A Survey, 1970–1983, Art Gallery of
South Australia, Adelaide
1982
Australian Painting and Sculpture 1956–1981, Art Gallery of New
South Wales, Sydney
The Seventies: Australian Paintings and Tapestries from the Collection
of the National Australia Bank, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1981
Australian Perspecta 1981, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Some Australian Drawings 1880–1980, Art Gallery of New South Wales,
Sydney
1978
Pemandangan alam dan Khayal/Landscape and Image: A Selection of Australian
Art of the
1970s, touring Indonesia
Collections
Allen Allen & Hemsley, Sydney
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria
Bathurst Art Gallery, New South Wales
British Museum, London
Broken Hill Art Gallery, New South Wales
Burnie Art Gallery, Tasmania
Centre for Contemporary Art, New Zealand
Chartwell Collection, New Zealand
Dalby Regional Art Gallery, Queensland
Kedumba Gallery, New South Wales
Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Victoria
Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, Victoria
McClelland Art Gallery, Victoria
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
National Australia Bank, Sydney
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales
NRMA, Sydney
Orange Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales
Parliament House, Canberra
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
Singleton Municipality, Queensland
Southern Cross University Art Museum, Queensland
State Bank
Sydney College of Advanced Education, New South Wales
Sydney University, New South Wales
University Art Museum, Queensland
University of New England, New South Wales
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Warrnambool Art Gallery, Victoria
Private collections, Australia and overseas
Selected Bibliography
Catalogues/Books
The John McCaughey Memorial Prize: 50 Years, National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne, 2008
Barbara Flynn (ed.), Emerge and Review: A look into the UBS Australian
art collection, UBS,
Sydney, 2007
Gael Ramsay and Gordon Morrison , Ballarat Fine Art Gallery: Highlights
from the Collection,
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, 2006
Jingzhe Li, Australian Contemporary Painting: The classic work of 42
excellent artists, Shanghai
People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, China, 2006
Gina Lee, ‘Ken Whisson’, 2004 Drawing Biennale, ANU Drill
Hall Gallery, Canberra, 2004
Ken Whisson: Paintings 1947–1999 with Writings and Talks by the
Artist, Niagara Publishing, 2001
Laura Murray Cree and Nevill Drury, Australian Painting Now, Craftsman
House, 2000
Christopher Allen, Art in Australia from Colonization to Post-modernism,
Thames & Hudson, 1997
Alan McCulloch, revised by Susan McCulloch, The Encyclopedia of Australian
Art, Allen & Unwin,
1994
Nevill Drury, Images 2: Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman
House, 1994
Mary Eagle and John Jones, A Story of Australian Painting, Macmillan,
1994
Peter and Susan Ward, A Different Light: Australian Artists Working
in Italy, University of Queensland
Press, 1991
John McDonald, ‘Ken Whisson and the life of forms’ (catalogue
essay), Ken Whisson: A Survey,
Pinacotheca, 1990
K Shepherd, ‘A soldier at war with the picture’ (catalogue
essay), Ken Whisson, 20 Drawings from
1973–1989, Cannibal Pierce Galerie Australienne, St Denis, France,
1990
Daniel Thomas, Creating Australia: 200 Years of Art 1788–1988,
ICCA and Art Gallery of South
Australia, 1988
Tony Bond, ‘Ken Whisson’, Twelve Australian Painters, Art
Gallery of Western Australia, 1983
Robert Lindsay, ‘Notes on the artists and their works’,
The Seventies: Australian Paintings and
Tapestries from the Collection of National Australia Bank, National
Gallery of Victoria, 1982
Richard Haese, An Introduction to the Core Collection, Heide Park and
Art Gallery, 1981
Kym Bonython, Modern Australian Painting 1950–1975, Rigby, 1980
Rosalie Gasgoigne, Ken Whisson: Selected Paintings, RMIT Gallery, 1978
Articles/Reviews
Ashley Crawford, ’50 of Australia’s most collectable artists’,
Australian Art Collector, issue no.
43, January-March 2008
Ian Findlay, ‘Ken Whisson at Niagara Galleries’, Asian Art
News, November 2004
Sebastian Smee, ‘Don’t fence me in’, The Weekend Australian,
6 November 2004
Jeff Makin, ‘Click age… bits, bytes and beauties’,
The Herald Sun, 18 October 2004
Sasha Grishin, ‘Exciting but is it drawing?’, The Canberra
Times, 26 July 2004
Jeff Makin, ‘Images picking up pace’, The Herald Sun, 18
November 2002
Timothy Morrell, ‘50 most collectable artists’, Australian
Art Collector, Issue 19, March 2002
Steve Tonkin, ‘The edge of recognition’, Artonview, Issue
23, Spring 2000
Peter Timms, 'Portraits and pleasure', The Age, 4 November 1998
John McDonald, 'Along the path to understanding', Sydney Morning Herald,
28 October, 1995
Robert Rooney, ‘Abstractions of a political landscape’,
The Australian, 29 October 1994
Christopher Heathcote, ‘Following a bright vanguard’, The
Age, 26 October 1994
Sonia Harford, ‘Reflections from happy exile’, The Age,
26 October 1994
John Barbour, ‘Ken Whisson’, Art Monthly, June 1987
Carolyn Barnes, ‘Ken Whisson – Paintings 1957–85’,
Art & Australia, vol.25, no.2 1987
Michael Wardell, ‘Ken Whisson: St. Kilda to Perugia’, Art
& Australia, vol.22, no.2 1984
Elwyn Lynne, ‘Letter from Australia’, Art International,
vol.XXV/3–34, 1982
Gary Catalano, The Years of Hope: Australian Art & Criticism 1959–1968,
Oxford University Press, 1980
Gary Catalano, ‘Ken Whisson and His World’, Aspect, vol.3,
no.4 1978
James Mollison, ‘The Australian Collection’, Art & Australia,
vol.14, nos 3,4 1977
Keith Looby, ‘Ken Whisson’, Art & Australia, vol.13,
no.4 1976
Alan McCulloch, ‘Scream in the Space Age’, The Herald, Melbourne,
31 August 1966
Robert Hughes, ‘Troublesome Melbourne’, Nation, 2 June 1962
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