RIGBY, JOHN (1922-2012)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
"Brampton Island, Nth QLD" (1996)
oil on canvas
107 x 153cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Rigby was a prominent Australian Mid Century Painter. Originally from Brisbane, Rigby served during WWII in Australia, New Guinea & New Britain before leaving the Army in September 1946 & commencing freelance commercial art & producing cartoon strips for The Sunday Mail in Brisbane. Rigby received a Diploma in Fine Art from East Sydney Tech during which time he and fellow art student Jon Molvig became close friends. He returned to Brisbane & commercial art as well as conducting art classes & having his first solo art exhibition at the Johnstone Gallery in 1954. Rigby won the Italian Government Travelling Art Prize in 1955 & travelled to Italy for nearly a year, then Britain before returning to Australia in early 1958. Later that year, he won the Women's Weekly Art Prize for Portraits, Australia's richest art prize at the time. He subsequently won many other prizes including the Sulman Prize for 1962. During his career, he had 24 portraits selected for hanging in the Archibald Prize, 24 in the Wynne Prize & 21 in the Sulman Prize. He was commissioned for various portraits, including Chancellors of universities. Rigby was a Trustee of the QLD Art Gallery from 1969 to 1987 & Officer-in-Charge of Fine Art at the Queensland College of Art between 1974 & 1984. He received an honorary doctorate from Griffith University in 1994 for services to the arts & was made an honorary member of the Royal QLD Art Society in 2001 & a Companion of the QLD Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2003. He was the subject of a comprehensive book "John Rigby: Art & Life" launched by the Queensland Art Gallery in 2003. In 2004, the Museum of Brisbane held a special survey of his portraits spanning some 50 years.