Biography
Sculptor, Painter, and Teacher
Australia
Ron Robertson-Swann OAM was born in Sydney Australia in 1941.
For over 50 years, Robertson-Swann has been actively involved in the arts in Australia as a sculptor, teacher, mentor and advocate. He studied sculpture with Lyndon Dadswell at the National Art School, Sydney and with Sir Anthony Caro OM CBE and Phillip King CBE at St. Martin’s School of Art in London in 1962, and later was an assistant to Henry Moore for several years.
Ron at St Martins School of Art London, 1963
From left: Derek Howath, Sir Henry Moore, a man from the Hermann Noack Foundry in Berlin, and Ron
Returning to Australia, Robertson-Swann appeared in “The Field” exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968, a herald of international art in Australia. His achievement include: exhibiting at the inaugural Sydney Biennale in 1973; a founding member of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council; recipient of a Australia Council, Visual Arts Board Grant in 1976; Head of Sculpture Department at the Canberra School of Art 1978 - 1989; artistic adviser to David Handley from the outset of Sculpture by the Sea in 1997; Board member of Sculpture by the Sea 2003 - 2016; and Head of Sculpture at the National Art School in Sydney from 2009, a position he recently retired from.
Image from “The Field Revisited” at the National Gallery of Victoria 2018
Left: “Start”, 1965, synthetic polymer paint on cotton duck, 248.3 x 129. 5 cm
Right: “Oriel”, 1965, synthetic polymer paint on cotton duck, 248.3 x 129. 5 cm
Robertson-Swann has exhibited extensively in both Australia and overseas. His works are included in all major public Australian collections including: Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Art Bank; Australian National Gallery; Australian National University; Canberra School of Art; Deakin University; Devonport Regional Art Gallery; Macquarie University; McClelland Gallery; Mildura Arts Centre; Monash University; National Gallery of Victoria; Newcastle Regional Art Gallery; Parliament House, Canberra; Queensland Art Gallery; Queensland Cultural Centre; Transfield Collection; and University of New South Wales. His works are held in international collections including: Amstar Corporation, USA; Collection of Sir Anthony Caro OM CBE, UK; Leicester Education Authority, UK, and the Duncan Collection, New Zealand.
“Vault” in 1980, Melbourne
City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection
“Sydney Summer”, 1969, Acrylic on canvas, 192 x 179cm
Transfield Art Prize, 1969
In 2002 Robertson-Swann was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to the Arts in Australia.
He has had solo exhibitions nationally including: Rudy Kormon Gallery: Crossley Gallery; Gallery A; Irving Sculpture Gallery; Janet Clayton Galleries; Meridian Gallery; Michael Carr Gallery; Michael Milbrun Gallery; Newcastle City Art Gallery; Olsen Carr Gallery; Orange Festival of Arts; Painters Gallery; Powell Street Gallery; Solander Gallery; Sydney Festival; and Wollongong City Gallery. Further, Robertson-Swann has had numerous solo shows with his representing galleries: Australian Galleries; and Charles Nodrum Gallery. In 1970, he had an international solo exhibition with Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York.
Robertson-Swann has exhibited in important group shows nationally and internationally including: ‘Hard Edge’, National Gallery of Victoria, 2017; Sculpture at Barangaroo, 2016; ‘Mildura Revisited: Sculptures Exhibited 1961-1978’, Mildura Arts Centre, 2014; ‘Controversy: The Power of Art’, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 2012; ‘Cubism and Australian Art’, Heide Museum, 2009; ‘Tracking the Field’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2009; ‘Every Artist Remembered’, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2009; ‘Hyogo & Australia State Exchange International Sculpture Exhibition’, Asago Art Village, Japan; and ‘Federation, Australian Art Society 1901-2001’, National Gallery of Australia, 2001. Major commissions include: Devonport Jaycees, Tasmania; Prows on Swanston Street, Melbourne; Queensland Cultural Centre; Sydney Festival and Sydney Opera House; and ‘Vault’ for City of Melbourne, for which he is held to critical acclaim.
Robertson-Swann has been a regular exhibitor at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi in 2000, 2001, 2006, 2011-2014, 2016-2019, Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe in 2005, 2009, 2012 – 2015 and Sculpture by the Sea, Aarhus in 2009 and 2015. He was the recipient of the 2017 Helen Lempriere Scholarship.
“Inner Sanctum” , 2011, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi
Photograph: Clyde Yee
Graeme Sturgeon , an eminent Australian Sculpture historian and critic, described Robertson-Swann as “ the most consistent of the classic Formalist, that is , the one most concerned to produce a sculpture which, while obviously of its era, transcends considerations of style in search of a timeless sense of rightness.”
Robertson-Swann is currently represented by Australian Galleries in NSW and Charles Nodrum Gallery in Victoria.
Ron at his studio
Photograph: Michael Zanetti