INSON, GRAEME (1923-2000)

"Still Life - Brass Jug & Grapes" (c.1970)
oil on canvas on board
61 x 76cm
signed upper left
*private collection, Central Coast
 
Inson was a respected, award-winning Australian Tonalist. He studied art in Melbourne with Max Meldrum in the early 1940s and also worked for Meldrum as an assistant teacher, becoming a leading exponent of his mentor's theory of perception and the importance of tonal and space relations between objects. After Meldrum's death, Inson moved to Sydney and established a studio in Rowe Street. He held his first solo exhibition in 1954 and in 1955 he opened his own art school. One of the most successful 'Meldrumites', he painted landscapes and still life as well as portraits, travelling widely to paint and holding scores of solo exhibitions in Sydney into the 1990s. Inson was commissioned for many official portraits and was twice a finalist in the Doug Moran prize. He entered 41 works in the Archibald Prize between 1952 and 1979.