LOOBY, KEITH (1940-)

"Creation Of The World” (1967) 
ink on paper
41.5 x 44cm
signed lower
*exhibited at Macquarie Galleries
*exhibited at Anne Von Bertouch Gallery
 
Looby is a prominent, award-winning Australian Artist. He studied at East Sydney Technical College (now The National Art School) from 1955 to 1959, where his teachers included John Passmore and he soon became part of the Sydney Push. He travelled overseas in 1960 and lived in Italy and London until 1967. In 1964, he held his first solo exhibition at the Carpini Gallery, Rome. An elaborate pencil drawing was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in the 1960s. Looby produced two books of drawings and illustrations on the history of Australia: The History of Australia in 1976, with poet David Campbell, representing the history of Australia up to the arrival of the English, with songs and poems inspired by the drawings and by Aboriginal myths and rock engravings of the Sydney Hawkesbury area; and Black and white history of Australia in 1979, in which he interprets aspects of Australian history, beginning with Indigenous Australia before European settlement on Aboriginal Australia, among other episodes of foundational mythology, Ned Kelly, The Goldfields, The Bush etc. A regular finalist in the Archibald Prize, he won the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 1973 and the Sulman Prize in 1974. In 1981, Looby received an Australia Council New York studio residency, whilst in 1973–1974 he was artist in residence at the Australian National University. In 1992, Looby was named Canberra Artist of the Year. He is represented in most Australian National Galleries.