John Perceval (1923-2000)

Biography
1923 Born in Bruce Rock, WA
1934 Moved to Melbourne
1938 Contracted polio and whilst in a rehabilitation hospital began making copies of Picasso, van Gogh, Modigliani
1939 Moved to Ballarat. Met David Strachan
1941 Volunteered for army service, working as a draughtsman. Discharged in 1942
1943 Attended art classes by the Commercial Artists Association in Melbourne with Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker and Noel Counihan. Began to receive a weekly stipend from art patrons John and Sunday Reed
1944 Married Mary Boyd. With Arthur Boyd and Peter Herbst, he began the Arthur Merrick Boyd Pottery at Murrumbeena
1947-53 Took over the pottery 'Open Country', Murrumbeena, as a residence
1949 Studied at the National Gallery of Victoria
1957 First series of Angels exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art of Australia
1960 Stayed in Brisbane with Jon Molvig while preparing for an exhibition at Brian Johnstone's Gallery
1962 Produce Homage to Lawrence Hargrave mural, Monash University
1963 Moved to Arthur Boyd's house in London; travels in Europe
1965 Returned to Australia. Took up the first Creative Arts Fellowship at Australian National University, Canberra (two year duration)
1972 Married Anne Hall
1977 Committed to Larundel Psychiatric Hospital. Mary Boyd married Sidney Nolan
1981 Divorced Anne Perceval
1986 Left Larundel Psychiatric Hospital
2000 Died

Selected Exhibitions
1942-44, 48, 54 Annual exhibitions, Contemporary Art Society, Melbourne
1956, 60 Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1957 David Jones Gallery, Sydney
1959 'Angels', Museum of Modern Art of Australia, Melbourne
1959 'The Antipodeans exhibition; Victorian Artists' Society', Clune Galleries, Sydney
1961 '50 Australian Painters', Whitechapel Gallery, London
1962 'Rebels and Precursors', National Gallery of Victoria, touring State galleries
1963 VII Biennale, Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paolo, Brazil
1963 'Australian Painting: Colonial, Impressionist, Contemporary', Tate Gallery, London
1964 Zwemmer Gallery, London; Sotuh Yarra Gallery, Melbourne
1966 Retrospective exhibition, Albert Hall, Canberra
1967-79 Various exhibitions at Clune Galleries, Sydney; South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne; Australian Galleries, Melbourne; Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne; David Jones Gallery, Sydney
1967 'Australian Painters 1964-66', The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, USA (the Mertz Collection)
1969 'Retrospective 1943-68', Villiers Gallery, Sydney
1984 Retrospective exhibition, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne
1984 'JGL Collection: The Great Decades of Australian Art', National Gallery of Victoria
1986 Adrian Slinger Gallery, Brisbane
1988 'Angry Penguins and Realist Painters in Melbourne in the 1940s', Hayward Gallery, London
1989 BMG Fine Art, Sydney
1991 Australian Galleries, Sydney; Greenhill Galleries, Perth
1992 Retrospective exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria

Awards
1958 John McCaughey Prize, National Gallery of Victoria
1959 Maude Vizard Wholohan Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia
1960 Wynne Prize for Landscape, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1991 Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)

Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences
Australian National University, Canberra
University of Western Austrralia
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Newcastle Regional Art Gallery
Bendigo Art Gallery
Benalla Art Gallery
Rockhampton Art Gallery
The Mertz Collection, USA
Joseph Brown Collection
ICI collection
State Bank of Victoria
ANZ Bank, Melbourne
JGL Collection, Melbourne
Wesfarmers, WA
Private collections in Australia, UK, USA

Source:
Traudi Allen, 'John Perceval', Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1992

KR