BINNS, VIVIENNE (1940-)

"Untitled" (1996) 
mixed media acrylic
32 x 40cm
details on verso
*exhibited Watters Gallery, 1996
*private collection, Sydney
 
Binns OAM is a pioneering Australian feminist artist. She attended East Sydney Technical College between 1958-1962 where her teachers included Dorothy Thornhill, John Olsen, Godfrey Miller and John Passmore. In 1962 Binns encountered the work of Mike Brown & the Imitation Realists at Rudy Komon Gallery. Thereafter she and Brown developed a close relationship through their shared interest in art produced outside of established schools and systems. Binns’ first exhibition, held on Gadigal land/Sydney at Watters Gallery in 1967, was widely criticised for its provocative and sexually explicit imagery. Even the artist Grace Cowley wrote a letter of complaint to the gallery. Among the works exhibited were Suggon, Vag dens and Phallic monument, all of which were later acquired for the NGA collection between 1977 and 1993. Her career is characterised by a succession of firsts, including the founding of the Sydney chapter of the Women’s Art Movement in 1974, & her participation in An exhibition of homosexual and lesbian artists at Watters Gallery in 1978, the earliest undertaking of its kind in Australia. She has worked as an educator, teaching painting, drawing and art theory at Sydney University, Charles Sturt University (Albury), & The Australian National University. In 1983 Binns was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for Services to Art and Craft. In 1985 she was given the Ros Bower Memorial Award for visionary contribution to community arts. Her work is represented in all major galleries and institutions in Australia, and remains one of our most revered living artists.