Peter Bray Gallery (a commercial gallery) was established as Stanley Coe Gallery in 1949 before being renamed in 1951, after a change of management. Situated at 435 Bourke Street,

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, Australia, it closed in 1957. Many of the major names in mid-century Australian contemporary art showed there during its brief, but very busy, lifespan.

Directors

The director/curators were

Helen Ogilvie Helen Elizabeth Ogilvie (4 May 1902, in Corowa – 1 August 1993, in Melbourne) was a twentieth-century Australian artist and gallery director, illustrator, painter, printmaker and craftworker, best known for her early linocuts and woodcuts, and ...

(from 1949 to 1955) and Ruth McNicoll (from Sept 1956 to close). The gallery was owned by Peter Bray, whose interest was in exhibiting pictures and retailing contemporary furniture by

Grant Featherston Grant Stanley Featherston (17 October 1922 – 9 October 1995) was an Australian furniture designer whose chair designs in the 1950s became icons of the Atomic Age. He was born in Geelong, Victoria. In 1965 he married Mary Bronwyn Currey, an E ...

, as it was not unusual in the 1950s to combine the two retail lines into the one establishment

Artists

Originally Stanley Coe Gallery, established in 1949, and taken over by Peter Bray the following year, Peter Bray Gallery showed Australian paintings, sculpture and prints by significant contemporary artists. Printmaker/painter Helen Ogilvie (1902–1993) was a generous mentor of emerging artists, and in 1949 Stanley Coe appointed her as one of Australia's first women gallery directors to create a commercial exhibition space on the upper floor of his interior design shop at 435

Bourke Street, Melbourne Bourke Street is one of the main streets in the Melbourne central business district and a core feature of the Hoddle Grid. It was traditionally the entertainment hub of inner-city Melbourne, and is now also a popular tourist destination and t ...

, decorated with pale grey-blue walls and hair-cord carpet. Artist Tate Adams dubbed it "the lone beacon in town for contempoary art." For the period until 1955, and with advice from her friends

Ursula Hoff Ursula Hoff (26 December 1909 in London, UK – 10 January 2005 in Melbourne) was an Australian scholar and prolific author on art. She enjoyed a long career at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, where she was deputy director from 19 ...

Arnold Shore Arnold Joseph Victor Shore (5 May 1897, Windsor, – 22 May 1963, Melbourne) was an Australian painter, teacher and critic. Biography Shore was the youngest of seven children of John Shore, a coachsmith, and his wife Harriett Sarah, née Mc ...

and Alan McCulloch, she organised a program of exhibitions of the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

;

John Brack John Brack (10 May 1920 – 11 February 1999) was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group. According to one critic, Brack's early works captured the idiosyncrasies of their time "more powerfully and succinctly than any Aust ...

who first exhibited there 27 October – November 1953, again in 1955, then first showed his ''Racecourse'' series 5–15 November 1956 and in the same year the gallery sold his most famous work '' Collins Street, 5 pm'' to the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

. Also exhibited there were

Margo Lewers Margo Lewers (19081978) was an Australian interdisciplinary abstract artist who worked across the media of painting, sculpture, tapestry, ceramics and the domestic arts. She was renowned for a number of major public commissions and for her la ...

Ian Fairweather Ian Fairweather (29 September 189120 May 1974) was a Scottish painter resident in Australia for much of his life. He combined Western and Asian influences in his work. Life Ian Fairweather was born in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, Scotland i ...

(23 April – 3 May 1956),

Leonard French Leonard William French OBE (8 October 1928 – 10 January 2017) was an Australian artist, known principally for major stained glass works. French was born in Brunswick, Victoria to a family of Cornish origin. His stained glass creations inc ...

(who showed his ''Illiad'' series, amongst his earliest experiments with enamel house paint on

Masonite Masonite board Back side of a masonite board Isorel, Quartrboard, Masonite Corporation, Masonite, also called Quartboard or pressboard, is a type of engineered wood made of steam-cooked and pressure-molded wood or paper fibers. The fibers ...

, October 1952),

Inge King Ingeborg Viktoria "Inge" King (; 26 November 1915 – 23 April 2016) was a German-born Australian sculptor. She received many significant public commissions. Her work is held in public and private collections. Her best known work is ''Forward S ...

Arthur Boyd Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...

(15–24 September 1953),

Charles Blackman Charles Raymond Blackman (12 August 1928 – 20 August 2018) was an Australian painter, noted for the ''Schoolgirl, Avonsleigh'' and ''Alice in Wonderland'' series of the 1950s. He was a member of the Antipodeans, a group of Melbourne painte ...

Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (11 July 1893 – 7 January 1965) was a German-born Australian artist. His formative education was from 1912 until 1914 at the , an art school in Munich founded by Wilhelm von Debschitz. Hirschfeld-Mack studied at the Ba ...

(whose first Australian show in a commercial gallery was there in 1953),

Helen Maudsley Helen Maudsley (born 1927) is an Australian artist, who has been described as "one of Australia’s most tenacious and perhaps most underrated artists". Born in Melbourne in 1927, Maudsley has had regular solo exhibitions since 1957. She is bes ...

, Sydney Nolan,

Clifton Pugh Clifton Ernest Pugh (17 December 1924 – 14 October 1990) was an Australian artist and three-time winner of Australia's Archibald Prize. One of Australia's most renowned and successful painters, Pugh was strongly influenced by German Express ...

, Michael Shannon,

Guy Grey-Smith Guy Grey-Smith () was an Australian painter, printmaker and ceramicist. Grey-Smith pioneered modernism in Western Australia, and has been described as "one of Australia's most significant artists of the 20th century". Biography Early life Gu ...

,'Inaugural exhibitions at two galleries' ''The Age'' June 5, 1956, p.2
/ref> David Dalgarno, Ian Armstrong and others. Charles Blackman unveiled his radical series of schoolgirl paintings at the Peter Bray Gallery in May 1953, establishing his reputation in a decade in which he invented the themes that defined his career. Abstract sculptor

Lenton Parr Thomas Lenton Parr AM (11 September 1924 – 8 August 2003) was an Australian sculptor and teacher . Sculptor Born in East Coburg, Victoria, Lenton Parr spent eight years in the Royal Australian Air Force (Svc No. A33223) before enrolling to s ...

, returning to the country after working as assistant to

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

, held his first Australian exhibition at the gallery in 1957, the same year that Arthur Boyd showed his figurative ceramic sculptures there. Ogilvie,

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

printmaker, painter and craftsperson in her own right, was engaged with the Crafts Revival of the 1950s and 60s, and made a living designing cutting edge lampshades in London for a period.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions at the gallery turned around regularly and were only a week or week-and-a-half in duration. Interspersed with the one-person shows mentioned above were group shows by artists in a particular medium, or by artist groups and societies. * 1951, from 1 November:

, Grahame King * 1952, April: Francis Lymburner * 1952, 22 Apr–1 May: Phyl Waterhouse, European and Indian landscapes * 1952, from 2 May: Allan David * 1952, 12 May: Paintings and drawings by Charles Blackman. * 1952, October: Len French * 1952, October: Inge King ''Constructions in Steel,'' Graham King, paintings * 1953: John Rogers paintings * 1953, 1 February: Multi-artist exhibition, including season. Roger Kemp, Charles Blackman and Leonard French * 1953: 23 June – 1 July: ''Drought'' paintings by

Sidney Nolan Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (22 April 191728 November 1992) was one of the leading Australian artists of the 20th century. Working in a wide variety of media, his oeuvre is among the most diverse and prolific in all of modern art. He is best known ...

. * 1953 Paintings by Eric Smith * 1953:

. * 1953, 15–24 September:

* 1953, 27 October – 5 November: Paintings and Drawings by

. * 1953 ''Paintings by artists living in Melbourne'',

, Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Dorothy Braund,

Roger Kemp Roger Kemp AO OBE (3 July 1908 – 14 November 1987) was an Australian modernist painter, and printmaker, recognized as one of the leading figures in Australian abstraction. He pioneered transcendental abstraction, developing a personal symbo ...

, Graeme King, Michael Shannon,

Eric Thake Eric Prentice Anchor Thake (8 June 1904 – 3 November 1982) was an Australian artist, designer, painter, printmaker and war artist. His 1972 Christmas card ''An Opera House in Every Home,'' a humorous take on Jørn Utzon's World Heritage-liste ...

, Alan Warren. * 1954:

* 1954: ''Painting by the Adelaide 1954 Group'', Michael Brous, Pamel Cleland, Ludvik Dutkiewicz, Wladyslaw Dutkiewicz, Ivor Francis, Jacqueline Hick, I. Rapotec, Douglas Roberts, Barbara Robertson, Francis Roy Thompson, Mervyn Ashmore Smith. * 1954, 1 February: ''Nine artists''. Prints * 1955: 40 prints by ten artists. Tate Adams, Geoff Barwell,

Barbara Brash Barbara Nancy Brash (3 November 1925 – 25 February 1998) was a twentieth-century post-war Australian artist known for her painting and innovative printmaking. In an extensive career she contributed to the Melbourne Modernist art scene, beside ...

, David Allen, Walter Gherdin, F. Higgs, Kenneth Hood, Kenneth Jack, Jennifer Purnell, Harry Rosengrave. * 1955: 8 March – 17 March: John Brack. * 1955, 20 May – 20 June: ''Thirty-six prints by twelve Melbourne artists''. Travelling * 1955, June: Margaret Bembina, Eric Smith,

* 1956: ''Drawings and Prints - Melbourne contemporary artists''. Dorothy Baker, George Bell, Barbara Brash, R.A. Center, William (Bill) Coleman, Dorothea Francis,

Madge Freeman Frances Margot ('Madge') Freeman (1895–1977) was an Australian painter of landscape and urban scenes working internationally who was known for her watercolour, and for her craft of lacquerwork and enamelware. Early life and education Born in ...

, Alan Foulkes, Ann Graham, Geoff Jones,

, Lesley Lawson, M.E. Lormer, Harry R. Mitchell, Anne Montgomery, Marjorie North, Harry Rosengrave, Ellen Rubbo, Richard Scales, D.K. Stoner, Eveline Syme, Elvrida M Verco, Percy Watson, Marjorie Woolcock. * 1956, 23 April – 3 May:

* 1956, 6–16 June:

* 1956

, paintings and David and Hermia Boyd ceramics * 1956: Karin Schepers and

Udo Sellbach Udo Sellbach (1927–2006) was a German-Australian visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and arc ...

* 1956, 25 September – 1 November: ''Prints by the Melbourne Graphic Artists''. Travelling * 1956, 5 November – 11 November: John Brack: ''The Race Course Series''. Paintings, Prints * 1957: Exhibition of Sculpture.

Anita Aarons Anita Aarons (6 November 1912 – 3 January 2000) was an Australian-Canadians, Canadian artist. Life Born in Sydney, Aarons studied at the East Sydney Technical College and the National Art School in Sydney before moving to New York City, wh ...

Ola Cohn Ola Cohn (born Carola Cohn; 25 April 1892 – 23 December 1964) was an Australian artist, author and philanthropist best known for her work in sculpture in a modernist style, and famous for her ''Fairies Tree'' in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbour ...

Clifford Last Clifford Frank Last OBE (13 December 1918 – 20 October 1991) was an Australian modernist sculptor. Born in Barrow-in-Furness, Barrow in Furness, England, he was the son of Nella Last, author of a World War II diary on which the TV film ''H ...

Clement Meadmore Clement Meadmore (9 February 1929 – 19 April 2005) was an Australian-American furniture designer and sculptor known for massive outdoor steel sculptures. Biography Born Clement Lyon Meadmore in Melbourne, Australia in 1929, Clement Meadmore ...

, Andor Mészáros, Tina Wentcher, Teisutis Zikaras, V. Jomantas. * 1957: ''Animal bird fish'' - paintings, drawings, prints.

Douglas Annand Douglas Shenton Annand (22 March 1903 – 14 December 1976) was an Australian graphic designer and artist. Early life Born at Toowoomba, Queensland, to Frederick Annand and Helen Alice Robinson. Douglas attended Tudor House School, located ...

, Margaret Bembins,

J. Carrington Smith Jack Carington Smith (26 February 1908 – 19 March 1972) was an Australian artist from Launceston, Tasmania. Born simply "Smith", he adopted "Carington Smith" as his surname around 1936 when he won a travelling scholarship which enabled him to s ...

, Dorothy Braund,

, Charles Bush, Raymond Glass, Robert Grieve,

Eileen Mayo Dame Eileen Rosemary Mayo (11 September 1906 – 4 January 1994) was a British artist and designer who worked in England, Australia and New Zealand in almost every available medium – drawings, woodcuts, lithographs on stone and tempera, tapes ...

, Anne Montgomery, Guelda Pyke, Eric Smith,

Edith Wall Edith Bayne (née Wall, 13 November 1904 – 21 April 2012) was an artist born in New Zealand who also resided in Australia. Biography Born Edith Wall in Christchurch, New Zealand, to Gypsy and Arnold Wall, her father was a professor and broa ...

. * 1957, 19 March – 28 March: Jack Courier, paintings, drawings, lithographs. * 1957: Elma Amor, paintings and Brita Sievers, ceramics

References

{{Reflist, 30em 1951 establishments in Australia 1957 disestablishments in Australia Art museums and galleries established in 1951 Art museums and galleries disestablished in 1957 Art museums and galleries in Melbourne History of Melbourne Modernism Australian art