Peter Laverty (1926–2013) was a painter, print maker, art educator and gallery director. In 1971 to become Head of the

National Art School The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and was Director of the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

from 1971 to 1977.The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 601

Life and career

Peter Phillip Laverty was born in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1926 and studied at

Winchester School of Art Winchester School of Art is the art school of the University of Southampton, situated 10 miles (14 km) north of Southampton in the city of Winchester near the south coast of England. History Winchester School of Art (WSA) was founded in 1 ...

. In 1951, at age 24, he emigrated to

, to teach at the National art School, Sydney, from 1952 to 1971. He was appointed Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1971-1977. Laverty served on numerous committees including: International Society of Art Critics, NSW Travelling Art Scholarship (1971–78), Sydney Biennale Committee (1975–77), Churchill Fellowships (1971–77), and New South Wales art education assessment committees. He judged many art competitions, wrote for several art journals, while giving numerous lectures. He was a foundation member and President (1980–81) of Sydney Printmakers and member of the

Australian Watercolour Institute The Australian Watercolour Institute (AWI) is a non-profit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolour painting in Australia. It was founded in 1923 by six painters in Sydney, and was modeled after the Royal Watercolour Soci ...

from 1965. Peter Laverty died in Sydney, Australia, in 2013, aged 86

Work

Laverty worked in oil, watercolour and graphic media. From 1959 his paintings were mainly semi-abstract stylistically related to contemporary British paintings.

Exhibitions

Laverty was included in several significant group exhibitions of Australian art held in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

(1965),

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(1966), and

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial ( Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

, Brazil (1961). In Australia he held joint exhibitions with his wife Ursula and had a retrospective at Penrith Sydney, in 1996.

Represented

Works by Laverty are held in the collections of the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

Art Gallery of Western Australia The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) is a public art gallery that is part of the Perth Cultural Centre, in Perth. It is located near the Western Australian Museum and State Library of Western Australia and is supported and managed by the ...

Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art The Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, colloquially known as QAGOMA, is an art museum in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It consists of the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), which is the main building, and a second gallery, the Gall ...

and the

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is a museum located in Hobart, Tasmania. The museum was established in 1846, by the Royal Society of Tasmania, the oldest Royal Society outside England. The TMAG receives 400,000 visitors annually. ...

Awards

Laverty won numerous Shire art awards including; Warringah (1957), Mosman (1961-2), Maitland (1965), Campbelltown (1966), Rockdale (1966), Berrima (1966), and Grafton (1969).

References

External links

Art Gallery of New South Wales website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laverty, Peter 1929 births 2013 deaths 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century British male artists 20th-century British painters 21st-century Australian painters 21st-century British painters British male painters Australian printmakers Alumni of the University of Southampton 20th-century British printmakers Directors and presidents of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Australian male painters 21st-century British male artists