Andrew Sibley (1933–2015), painter and teacher, is known for his figurative paintings, landscapes and abstract works. He arrived in Australia from England in 1948 at fifteen, having studied at the Gravesend School of Art in Kent. Associated with artist Jon Molvig, he became a key member of the Brisbane School and held his first exhibition in 1960. In 1961, he exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. The following year his work was included in an exhibition at the Tate Gallery and he won the Transfield Art Prize, then Australia's richest art award. In the 1960s and 1970s his work was included in exhibitions in Japan, USA, Paris and Germany. Sibley moved to Melbourne in 1966 and was a lecturer in Fine Arts at RMIT until 1990, when he became Head of Painting at Monash University. Throughout his career he exhibited regularly and is represented in most major Australian galleries. His portraits of Molvig, Mirka Mora and Alan McCulloch were finalists in the Archibald Prize, and he was a finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize with his works of his wife Irene Sibley and Rodney Hall. Drawing was an essential part of Sibley's practice, and the National Portrait Gallery has eighteen of the artist's portraits in pencil and ink.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2010
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© Andrew Sibley/Copyright Agency, 2022
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