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An endless unveiling, veil behind veil, plane after plane of imperfect transparencies, light and space themselves, veils and unveiling towards the unveilable, the nothing, the thing again. And burial in the unique, in place of impenetrable nearnesses, cell painted on the stone of cell, art of incarceration.
Samuel Beckett
Painters of the Obstacle
1948
There is a distinctive sense when encountering a body of John Beard's works of entering into a site of composure, withheld, of images silently bespeaking truths both personal and historical; hovering presences each conveying some species quality of time-less recognition.
William Wright
from catalogue essay HEADLANDS: John Beard works 1993 – 2008
2009
John Beard is one of Australia’ most internationally recognised painters. His work resides in the collection of the TATE Britain and has been the subject of successful exhibitions in London, Madrid, Sydney and Lisbon. A major survey of John Beard’s oeuvre, curated by William Wright, is to be staged at the Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra in June 2009. After Image includes a major self portrait from the National Portrait Gallery in London, alongside the ambitiously scaled painting titled Sphinx (pictured) and several other well worked painterly waxen portraits of subjects drawn from natural, historical and cultural sources.
Recent solo exhibitions include After Adraga/The Land's End - Installation of selected works from the Tate St Ives UK, Art Gallery of New South Wales (1999) The Land's End II, Galeria Presenca, Porto, Portugal (2000) The Rock and The Head, Stephen Lacey Gallery, London (2001) John Beard, Centro de Arte Moderna, Calouste Gulbenkian Museo, Lisbon, Portugal (2006) Eight Years, John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne (2006) and Untitled, FAS, 148 New Bond Street, London (2007). In 2006 he received the Wynne Prize and the Archibald Prize in 2007 for a portrait of artist Janet Lawrence.
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