George Johnson

CHARLES NODRUM  GALLERY
267 CHURCH STREET    RICHMOND    MELBOURNE    VICTORIA    3121    AUSTRALIA

www.charlesnodrumgallery.com.au 
gallery@charlesnodrumgallery.com.au 

GEORGE JOHNSON

1926  Born Nelson, New Zealand
1951  Arrived Australia

EDUCATION
1943-47    Wellington Technical College, New Zealand
1955-56    Certificate of Art, RMIT
1966-68 Diploma of Art, RMIT
1964-65    Technical Teachers Certificate, Melbourne Teachers College.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1948 Hitchings Gallery, Wellington, NZ
1956 Tasmanian Government Tourist Bureau Gallery, Melbourne
1962 Argus Gallery, Melbourne
 Terry Clune Gallery, Sydney
1965 Argus Gallery, Melbourne
1966 Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney
1967 Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney
1968 Pinacoteca, Melbourne
 Ararat Art Gallery, Ararat
1970 City of Hamilton Art Gallery, Hamilton
 Shepparton Art Gallery, Shepparton
1972 Gallery A, Melbourne
1975 Stuart Gerstman Galleries, Melbourne
1977 RMIT Gallery, Storey Hall, Melbourne
1978 Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
Susan Gillespie Galleries, Canberra
1983 Realities, Melbourne
1984 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney
1986 Brooker Gallrey, Wellington, NZ
1987 Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
1988 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1989 Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1992 Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
1995 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
2001 George Johnson: 50 years of Abstract Art 1952-2002, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
2006 Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
2009  Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1956 ‘Contemporary Australian Painting: The Pacific Loan Exhibition
1958 Survey 1, National Gallery of Victoria
  Modern Australian Art, Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
1962 Inaugural Exhibition, Gallery A, Melbourne
1963 Helena Rubenstein Scholarship Exhibition, Sydney
1964 Young Australian Painters, Tokyo
1965 George’s Invitation Art Prize, Melbourne
Survey, National Gallery of Victoria (Crawford, French, Kemp, Johnson & Senbergs)
1966 Felton Bequest Acquisitions Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria
1967 Benalla Art Gallery Acquisitive Award
1968 Tenth Sao Paulo Biennale
1970 George’s Invitation Art Prize, Melbourne
1975 George’s Invitation Art Prize, Melbourne
 McCaughey Prize, National Gallery of Victoria
1976 Caulfield Invitation Exhibition, City of Caulfield Art Gallery
1981 ‘Animals and Animism in Australian Art, RMIT Gallery
1983 ‘Abstract Art in Australia’, RMIT Gallery
1986 Abstract Painting in Melbourne from the Mid 1950s to Mid 1960s, RMIT Gallery
 Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
20 Years of Abstraction, Part 2. Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney
1988 Modern Australian Painting, Charles Nodrum Gallery
1989 Modern Australian Painting, Charles Nodrum Gallery
 Consciousness, David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
1990 Modern Australian Painting, Charles Nodrum Gallery
1994 First Australian Artists’ Books Fair, Queensland State Library, Brisbane
1995 Circle, Line and Square: Aspects of Geometry, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, touring to
Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Albury Regional Art Centre and New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale
The Situation Now: A Survey of Local Non-Objective Art, University Art Museum, LaTrobe University, Melbourne
1996 Non-Objective Presence, Australian Galleries, Sydney
1997 Australia Comes of Age, Museum of Modern Art at Heide
Geometric Painting in Australia 1941-1997, University Art Museum, The University of Queensland, Brisbane
1998 The Niland Collection, Penrith Regional Gallery and Lewer Bequest
2005 Abstraction 4, Charles Nodrum Gallery
2007 Abstraction/Architecture/Space, RMIT University
 New Abstraction: 1965 to 1985, Crawford, Johnson & King, RMIT Gallery
2009  Drawing Folio, Block Projects, Melbourne

 
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane
Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
MOMA Heide
University of Melbourne
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
Ballarat Teachers’ College
Benalla Art Gallery
Bendigo Teachers College
Geelong Art Gallery
German High Commission, Melbourne
City of Hamilton Art Gallery
Newcastle City Art Gallery
Warrnambool Art Gallery
RMIT Art Collection
Artbank
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, New Zealand

AWARDS
1966 Albury Art Prize
1971 Orange Art Prize
1973 Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council Grant
1975 George’s Invitation Art Purchase Prize
1977 Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council Grant

BIBLIOGRAPHY
JOHNSON, George H. ‘Art and the World Around Us: An Essay on Experimental Art’, Parent and Child (Wellington, N.Z._ Vol. 3, No. 6, August 1957

JOHNSON, George H. ‘Art Education: A Viewpoint’ Art Craft Teachers’ Association Magazine, (Victoria) No. 16, August 1973

McCULLOCH, Alan, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Hutchinson, Melbourne 1987

REED, John (Ed.) New Painting 1952-62. The Arts in Australia Series. Longmas 1963

REID, Barrie (Ed.) Modern Australian Art: A Melbourne Collection of Paintings and Drawings, Museum of Modern Art of Australia Publications No. 1, Melbourne 1958

SMITH, Bernard, Australian Painting 1788-1970. Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1958

ZIMMER, Jenny. ‘Recent Australian Paintings and Sculpture. The Influence of Aboriginal Culture and the Landscape. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (London), Vol. CXXX, No. 5307

ZIMMER, Jenny, George Johnson and ineluctable abstraction Art and Australia Vol 24. No. 2, Summer 1986