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Andrew Sibley

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Andrew John Sibley (9 July 1933 – 3 September 2015) was an Australian artist and lecturer in fine art.

Personal history

Sibley was born in Addisham, Kent, England, the first child to John Percival and Marguerite Joan Sibley (née Taylor). With his family home bombed in the London Blitz, Sibley was relocated to Sittingborne Kent then moving to Northfleet Kent. In 1944 Sibley was awarded a scholarship at the Gravesend School of Art where he studied with fellow students including acclaimed English artist Peter Blake. [1]

Sibley then emigrated from post-war Europe to Australia with his parents and two brothers (Michael and Richard Sibley) where they lived and worked on an orchard in the rural town of Stanthorpe, Queensland. He left the farm in 1951 to undertake National Service Training with the Royal Australian Navy after which he spent a short time living and working in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Sibley moving to Brisbane, Sibley commenced his formal career as painter in 1957. After meeting his future wife Irena Sibley (nee Pauliukonis)at a party where he lived in Petrie Terrace In 1967 Sibley followed her to Sydney where they were married in 1968. The Sibleys moved to Victoria where they lived in Eltham and Prahran before purchasing a family home in Albert Park. [2]

Sibley commenced full-time work that year as a lecturer in fine art at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). His first son Benedict John Sibley was born in 1969, followed by a second son Jonathan James Sibley in 1975.

After working and travelling in Europe in 1972, the Sibleys buy a rural property in Flowerdale Victoria which is later established as a family home and artist studio. The family successfully defended the property against the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. Sibley died on 3 September 2015 at the age of 82 and is survived by his two sons and three grandchildren.

Career Overview

From his early success in the 1960’s Andrew Sibley consistently exhibited throughout Australia and internationally. Represented in all significant National, State and Regional collections in Australia as well as private collections in Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States, over his long career, Sibley achieved strong commercial and critical success as well as having won and been a finalist in numerous major art prizes. In addition to his career as an artist Sibley was a senior lecturer of painting at RMIT University from 1967-1987 and then Monash University from 1990-1999. In recent years Sibley has had a resurgence of interest in his work and contribution to Australian art.

Early Career

Sibley commenced his formal painting career in Brisbane during the latter half of the 1950’s alongside notable artists such as Roy Churcher, Jon Molvig and Ian Fairweather. Other notable artists that he met at this time included Brian Johnston, Charles Blackman and Clifton Pugh.

In 1960 Sibley had his first solo exhibition at ‘Rowes Arcade Gallery’ in Brisbane as well as being shortlisted for two minor awards, the H.C. Richards Memorial Prize and the Women’s Weekly Prize. In 1961 he was shortlisted for the Archibald, Wynne and Blake prizes, was awarded the Toowoomba Chronicle Art Prize, had his second solo exhibition at Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane, as well as a solo exhibition in that same year at Bonython Gallery, Adelaide. In this same year Sibley’s work Reflections on Europe [1961] was purchased by the Queensland Art Gallery and then included in the Recent Australian Painting exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.[1]

In 1962 Sibley was again shortlisted for the Archibald, Wynne and Blake prizes.. Success soon followed after Sibley received the Transfield Art Prize in 1962 with his painting The Bathers, an award that had the highest winning prize pool of any award in Australia He subsequently had solo exhibitions at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, and South Yarra Galleries, Melbourne. By the end of that same year Sibley also had a solo exhibition at Rudy Komon Gallery and was then invited to join the stable alongside many of Australia’s most important artists of that time including Jon Molvig, Robert Dickerson and Leonard French.

In 1963 Sibley was again shortlisted in numerous prizes, had a second solo exhibition at Bonython Gallery, Adelaide, had his first solo exhibition in Perth at Skinner Galleries and, having been noticed in these fervent early years, Sibley had a work selected to be exhibited at the Tate Gallery, London, followed by inclusion in the Paris Biennale of 1963.

The years that followed this first period of success did not slow down with continued inclusion in major prizes, joint exhibitions, solo exhibitions – inc. a first show at Georges Gallery, Melbourne - and the commencement of life long friendships with other notable artists such as John Olsen, Fred Williams, Jan Sensbergs, George Baldessin and Les Kossatz. In 1967 Sibley was offered a full-time position as a painting lecturer at RMIT, a position he would go on to hold until 1987. In 1968 the first monograph on the artist was written by Rodney Hall AM titled Focus on Andrew Sibley.

In 1965 Sibley was also included in an exhibition titled ‘Young Australian Painters’ that toured Japan, in 1967 his work was included in an exhibition titled ‘Australian Painters 1964-1966’ at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA, and then in 1970 he had work included in an exhibition titled ‘Miniaturen ’70 International’ at Gallerie 66 h.g.Krupp, Hoffheim am Taunus, West Germany. [1]

Mid Career

The exhibition at Gallerie 66 in 1970 was the first time that Sibley’s work had been included in an exhibition in Germany and following this, in 1972, he accepted an offer to participate in the Berliner Kunstler Programme in Berlin that deeply effected the work that followed this experience. During this time in Europe Sibley also took time out from the demands of his residency to travel with and his young family, including his wife Irena and son Benedict, throughout Western Europe, as well as Russia, Lithuania and Poland. In lieu of his time spent in Berlin a new body of work was shown at Gallerie 66, this time in a solo exhibition, and his work was also exhibited at the Australian Embassy in Bonn, West Germany. On returning to Australia the connection to Germany, and Europe more broadly, remained with his work being exhibited at the Arts Fair, Markburg-Lahn, West Germany in 1974; having work included in an exhibition titled Mensch und Roum at Epstein Gallery, West Germany in 1975; having work included in a touring show through Europe by the National Gallery of Victoria titled Australian Artists in 1976; and then in 1986 & 1987 Sibley had two solo exhibitions at Gerstman-Abdallah Fine Arts at their exhibition space in Cologne, West Germany. [1]

During this second decade of intense interest in the development of this Australian artist, emboldened with influences that were now derived from time away from his adopted home, the University of Melbourne Gallery produced a mid-career survey exhibition curated by Betty Churcher with a catalogue essay by Ronald Millar. In this exhibition many of the new techniques and influences were on full display including Sibley’s iconic perspex paintings.

Late Career

During the 1990’s and 2000’s Sibley exhibited throughout Australia and continued to achieve strong commercial success. In 2001, Sibley took part in an expedition to Lake Eyre in South Australia, along with nine other artists (John Olsen, Tim Storrier, Robert Jacks, David Larwill, Jefferey Makin, Hazel Dooney, et al.). The project was funded by the David Deague Family Foundation which resulted in a book, ‘William Creek and Beyond’ [3], a film documentary and a touring exhibition.

Following the death of his wife Irena Sibley (nee Pauliukonis) in 2009 he continued to create works although his earlier commercial success had begun to wane.

In 2012 Sibley joined Kick Gallery in Melbourne and through a re-presentation of a selection of his earlier works from the 1970’s discovered at the artist’s studio in Flowerdale, Sibley enjoyed a revival of interest from a younger generation of curators and collectors. In 2014 Sibley was included in a group exhibition Solitaire with many of his contemporaries at the Tarrawarra Museum of Art. Later in the same year early works from 1971 & 1972 by Sibley was then exhibited in a solo presentation at the Melbourne Art Fair and then in early 2015 early works by Sibley were exhibited at the Art Stage Singapore art fair in which a number of works were acquired by collectors based in Asia.

According to McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art [4] Sibley's work has remained distinctive for over 40 years of productive output. Sibley's work is represented in Australian galleries and the State libraries of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

Books on Andrew Sibley

Andrew Sibley has been the subject of a number of publications including: Rodney Hall's, Focus on 

* Andrew Sibley [5]  
* Sasha Grishin's, Andrew Sibley [6].

Collections

Andrew Sibley’s work is in the collection of:

Quotations about Andrew Sibley

  • Andrew Sibley is a painter of situations – extending the moment of intense emotion to a lasting image. - Rodney Hall AM | Art Historian. Extract from the catalogue essay for an exhibition at Bonython Gallery, Sydney, 1974
  • Any observer of Andrew Sibley’s impressive career will know that he is an artist with a visual intelligence of singular sophistication. Sibley’s work is informed by a range of circumstances and contexts that give his work a sense of human urgency, sometimes wretched, always innocent, invariably poignant. - Godwin Bradbeer | Fellow Artist and Former RMIT University Senior Lecturer. Extract from the catalogue essay for the 1972-1976 exhibition at Kick Gallery, Melbourne, 2012.
  • [Sibley's consistent] theme is essentially a celebration of the individual, a celebration of the innocent victim, of sexuality and of pure, loving emotions - all despite the madness of the surrounding society and the darkness of being. - Extract from the recent publication “Australian Art: A History” by Professor Sasha Grishin AM FAHA. Published March 2014 by Miegunyah Press.

References

  • [1] David Thomas, 2004, Andrew Sibley, Epic of the Everyman, Macmillan Art Publishing
  • [2] Irena Sibley, 2007, Self Portrait of an Artist’s Wife, The Lytlewode Press
  • [3 Ken McGregor, 2002, Williams Creek and Beyond, Craftsman House
  • [4] Alan McCulloch, 1994, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin
  • [5] Rodney Hall, 1968, Focus on Andrew Sibley, University of Queensland Press
  • [6] Sasha Grishin, 1993, Andrew Sibley, Craftsman House
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