DICKERSON, ROBERT (1924-2015)

"Young Girl" (c.1970)
pastel
38 x 28cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Thirroul

Dickerson was one of Australia’s most recognised and senior figurative painters, and was a prominent member of the Antipodeans art group, formed in the late 1950s as a protest against the growing popularity of abstract expressionism. A self-taught artist, Dickerson refused to go to art school as a youth, leaving his education at fourteen and working in factories and other odd jobs, at one point touring with the famous Jimmy Sharman Boxing Troupe as a professional boxer. It was during his thirties whilst living in a caravan with his wife and three children that he began painting seriously in his spare time, using the male bathroom at the factory in which he worked as his studio on the weekends. His breakthrough into the art world came in 1954 when the NGV purchased his piece Man Asleep on the Steps. His move to professional painter and the turning point in his career came in 1957 when he won an Australian Women’s Weekly fridge decorating competition. Dickerson depicts the hardships of life in his artworks with firsthand knowledge – up until his mid-thirties, he lived a life of poverty and the loneliness and feelings of vulnerability he experienced are reflected in his often provocative paintings. He is represented in all major National Galleries in Australia, and is one of Australia's most collectable and sought after artist's!!