Home@735 Gallery is pleased to announce we will be exhibiting a work by John Peart in our ‘Colour & Form’ show opening on the 1st of March 2018. Many thanks to Damien Minton and Watters Gallery for allowing us to exhibit this work – untitled #982, 1965, acrylic, felt tip on paper, 30x40cm.

John Peart (1946 – 2013) was an abstract artist with a career spanning more than 45 years. Peart was recognised as a leading non-figurative artist within Australia and has been included in numerous definitive exhibitions.

John Peart only ever planned to be an artist. Born in Brisbane, he moved to Sydney in 1962, finding work with Barry Stern Galleries and a friend in Frank Watters. Two years later, Watters and Geoffrey Legge opened their own gallery. Peart had his first exhibition at Watters Gallery as a painter in a group show, aged 19.

Peart had a long and distinguished career, first coming to national prominence through the seminal The Field exhibition in 1968. Featuring artworks of Colour field expressionism movement, the exhibition was held at the new National Gallery of Victoria. John Peart was awarded four major art prizes during that year.

In the 1980’s, Peart moved to the Wedderburn artist community. Situated on a 25 acre property south of Sydney, the informal group included artists Elisabeth Cummings, Roy Jackson, Suzanne Archer, David Fairborn and David Hawkes. Wedderburn advanced the shift towards a specifically Australian style of art – Peart later said “I realised that painting was not developing along a linear path dictated entirely by New York, then I got busy rediscovering Australia”.

John Peart’s work is held in the Australian National Gallery, all State Galleries and numerous other collections. He won the Wynne Prize in 1997, the Sulman Prize in 2000, and was a finalist in the Archibald Portrait Prize in 1998. A survey exhibition of his work toured Australia during 2004-06.