MISSINGHAM, HAL (1906-1994)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
"Overhanging Trees, London" (1939) 
watercolour
57 x 70cm
signed lower left
*the estate of leading Australian printmaker, Bruce Goold
 
Hal Missingham AO was an important Australian painter & long-time AGNSW Director. He studied drawing at Perth Technical School, attended art schools in both Paris (1926) and London (1926–1932). From 1927 to 1928 Missingham worked in Canada as a freelance artist and teacher. Before World War II he studied in Perth, Paris and London, where he became friendly with a number of leading artists and developed an interest in photography. He returned to Sydney in 1941 and after serving as a Signalman in the Second Australian Imperial Force helped to found the Studio of Realist Art. In 1945 he was appointed Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, shortly after the infamous Dobell Court Case of 1944; It was a post he retained until 1971. The previous incumbent was Will Ashton, who resigned in 1943, Ashton and John Young serving as acting directors until Missingham's appointment. He oversaw the expansion of the gallery including the construction of the Captain Cook Wing from 1968 to 1970. He also oversaw the 1964 Dobell Retrospective, an artist he championed through the institution. His collection policy made an outstanding contribution to Australian contemporary art and he was responsible for bringing a number of influential international exhibitions to the country. His memoirs, They Kill You in the End, were published in 1971. Missingham was the longest serving director of the gallery until Edmund Capon. He was also President of the Australian Watercolour Society from 1953-55. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia on 26 January 1978 for service to arts, particularly as Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.