'Right of Spring' by Clifton Pugh
Pugh was born in Richmond,
Victoria.
Both Pugh's parents were
amateur painters, and as a young man during the 1940s Pugh attended
evening classes at the Swinburne Technical College to study cartoon
drawing. Two years later whilst living in Adelaide he took evening
classes in life drawing at the South Australian School of Arts and
Crafts.
He served with the AIF in New Guinea and Japan from 1943-1947.
Pugh killed a Japanese soldier during fighting in New Guinea, and killed
Japanese prisoners of war, an act which led him to reject war in all its
forms.
After serving in World War II, with the financial support of the
Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme, Pugh returned to Melbourne
and enrolled in the National Gallery of Victoria Art School.
Pugh was heavily influenced by German Expressionism. He read Sheldon
Cheney's The Story of Modern Art (1941) while recuperating in hospital
in New Guinea during World War II.
Pugh's primary influence was Wassily Kandinsky: "I can see Kandinsky in
everything I do." He was also influenced by Russell Drysdale and Sidney
Nolan.
Pugh travelled across the Nullarbor Plain to Perth in 1954 then the
Kimberley in 1956. These journeys led to radical changes in his style.
Pugh encountered indigenous Australian art for the first time and began
utilizing incision, cross-hatching and collage.The
work inspired by these journeys was part of the Group Four Exhibits in
1955 and 1956.
In 1959 Pugh wrote to Bernard Smith:
Art must be indigenous...arising out of the environment and background
of a particular place and time. This could be nationalistic but I prefer
to call it geographical art. For instance, Chinese and Mexican art
reflect the background and the 'soul' of the country but are also
universal... I therefore believe very much in the development of an
Australian art -- it is the only truth for us to express to the rest of
the world.
Close observation of nature and its cyclical and savage rhythms became a
constant theme in Pugh's painting.
Pugh held his first solo show in 1957 at the Victorian Artists Society
Gallery, where he displayed landscapes and portraits. The show was well
received by critics.
Col. Aubrey Gibson, chairman of the National
Gallery, was an early patron,
as were a group of businessmen led by David Yencken and the businessman
Andrew Grimwade. Pugh joined the stable of the Sydney art dealer Rudy
Komon.
Komon paid his artists
a stipend, balanced against sales of their work, and this generosity
made them very loyal, as it gave them stability and freedom from daily
money worries.
Pugh had consistent official support in the crucial early stages of his
career. His inclusion in the 1961 Whitechapel and 1963 Tate exhibitions
of Australian art gave him international exposure.
In 1966 Komon arranged a one-man show for Pugh at the Artists' Guild
Gallery in St Louis in the United States; The Commonwealth Institute
staged a retrospective of his work in 1970. He was represented in London
by Andre Kalman, who showed him in 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1979, and with
the Athol Gallery on the Isle of Man.
The Historic Memorials Committee bought his 1964 portrait of the
Governor-General Lord De L'Isle and his 1972 portrait of Gough Whitlam.
Pugh's fame as an artist grew in the 1970s following the print
publication of two radio plays by Ivan Smith: Death of a Wombat and
Dingo King, both works featured Pugh's drawings and paintings.
Awards
(selected)
1985 - Order of Australia
1972 - Archibald Prize
1971 - Archibald Prize
1965 - Archibald Prize
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and all state
gallery collections
Numerous Australian university collections, regional galleries, public
collections
Private collections both here and abroad