John Perceval AO- untitled

John Perceval
untitled (1963)
unframed drawing, charcoal and oil on butcher's paper
44 x 60cm

Generously donated by Kylie Elkington and Richard Dunlop.

John de Burgh Perceval AO (1 February 1923 – 15 October 2000) was a well-known Australian artist. Perceval was the last surviving member of a group known as the Angry Penguins who redefined Australian art in the 1940s. Other members included John Reed, Joy Hester, Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker. He was also an Antipodean and contributed to the Antipodeans exhibition of 1959.

In 2000 from 19 August to 19 October John Perceval Retrospective Exhibition was held in Galeria Aniela Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Park. It was officially opened by the Chairman of Sotheby’s (it included 80 oil paintings and works on paper from 1946 to 1999). It was Perceval's last retrospective and was mentioned on ABC TV's National News.

Perceval held his first solo exhibition at the Melbourne Book Club in 1948 and showed regularly with the Contemporary Art Society. Between 1949 and 1955 he concentrated on producing earthenware ceramics and helped to establish the Arthur Merric Boyd Pottery in Murrumbeena. Returning to painting in 1956 Perceval produced a series of images of Williamstown and Gaffney's Creek.

Moving to England in 1963 Perceval held solo exhibitions in London, and travelled to Europe, before returning to Australia in 1965 to take up the first Australian National University Creative Fellowship. John Perceval, a major retrospective exhibition, was held at Albert Hall, Canberra in 1966. Author Margaret Plant's monograph John Perceval, was published in 1971.

Prior to his death Scudding Swans (1959) sold for $552,500, a record for a living Australian painter. In March 2010, it was sold for $690,000.