1923 Born in Newcastle, NSW, the son of a Norwegian steel worker
c.1937 Left school to work in the workshops and factories of the area, including the
Newcastle Steelworks
1942-46 Joined the army, serving in New Guinea and the Philippines. Became interested in
painting and drawing
1947-49 Studied at East Sydney Technical College, under the Commonwealth Rehabilitation
Training Scheme
1949-52 Travelled to England and Europe. Especially impressed by the Impressionist
collections in Paris
1953 Returned to Australia, first to Newcastle then Sydney
1954 Moved to Brisbane, teaching at St Mary’s Church Studio, Kangaroo Point
1958 Moved to Melbourne. Painting trip to Central Australia.
1958 Returned to Queensland, conducted an art school at Broadbeach with
Charles Blackman
1962 Spent six months in Arnhem Land
1963 Marries Ottie van Gilst
1966 Moved to Mount Cotton near Brisbane
1970 Died in Brisbane
1955 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, with Ian Fairweather
1956 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1957 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1957 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1958 Brummels Gallery, Brisbane
1959 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1959 Little Paris Gallery, Sydney
1960 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney. Works 1950-1960
1962 Argus Gallery, Melbourne
1962 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney
1963 Galeries Lambert, Paris
1964 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney
1966 Grand Central Gallery, Brisbane
1966 Kennigo Street Gallery, Brisbane
1966 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney
1968 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney
1972 Peninsula Arts Centre, Mornington peninsula
1972 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1978 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney
1949-53 Exhibited annually with the Strath Art Group
1957 ‘Contemporary Australian Painting’, Auckland City Art Gallery
1961 ‘Recent Australian Painting’, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1961 ‘Australian Artists’, Raymond Burr Galleries, Beverly Hills, USA
1962 ‘Australian Painting: Colonial, Impressionist, Contemporary’, Tate Gallery,
London, then Ottowa and Vancouver
1964 ‘Australian Painting Today’, touring Europe
1965 ‘Young Australian Painters’, Japan
1966 ‘Aspects of Australian Painting’, Auckland City Art Gallery
1966 ‘Contemporary Australian Painting’, Los Angeles
1967 ‘The Australian Painters 1964-66’, The Mertz Collection,
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington
Consistently selected for exhibition in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes
1955 Lismore Prize
1956 Lismore Prize
1960 Rowney Drawing Prize
1961 Transfield Prize, Sydney
1963 Perth Prize for Drawing
1965 David Jones Prize, Brisbane
1966 Archibald prize
1966 Corio Prize, Geelong
1969 Gold Coast Prize Queensland
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
West Australian Art Gallery, Perth
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, NSW
University of Queensland, Brisbane
University of Texas at Austin, USA
Numerous private collections in Australia and overseas
Sources:
Betty Churcher, ‘Molvig: The Lost Antipodean’, Penguin, Ringwood, Vic, 1984
‘Molvig’, exhibition catalogue, Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, Newcastle, 1978
‘Jon Molvig: Paintings’, exhibition catalogue, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 11 Feb – 1 Mar 1978.
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