Introduction
Godwin Bradbeer (born 1950 in Dunedin, New Zealand) is a New Zealand-born artist now living and working in Australia whose work has evolved from his photo-media (incorporating photography, drawing and painting) to pure drawing.
Biography
Bradbeer was born in 1950 in New Zealand. The same year his family moved to Glasgow, Scotland, migrating to Australia in 1955. In 1971, he received a Higher Diploma of Secondary Education (Art/Craft) at the Melbourne Teachers College (now part of the University of Melbourne) and taught in Victorian high schools from 1972 to 1982. He returned to study in 1983, completing a Bachelor of Education (Art/Craft) at the Melbourne College of Advanced Education (now part of the University of Melbourne) in 1984. In 1986, he married Gabrielle Pervesi. From 1983 to 2010, he lectured in drawing and painting at various institutions including the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne), Monash University and RMIT University.In 1994, he completed a Master of Art at RMIT University. Since 2010, he has guest lectured at various institutions.
Bradbeer held his first solo exhibition in 1977 in Melbourne, and his first international exhibition in Hong Kong in 1999. He won the Dobell Drawing Prize in 1998 and was a finalist for the prize in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, and 2012. In 2014, he published a book of poetry, Half truths: in lyric verse.
Artistic style and subject
Bradbeer began as a photographer but came to focus on drawing and his style has been described as ‘drawing for the temple not the café’.His drawings are focused on the ‘large-scale images of the human form’.
Awards/Prizes/Residencies
Dobell Drawing Prize (1st prize, 1998)
Collections
Bradbeer's work is held in the following collections:
- Art Gallery of New South Wales: 'Man of Paper VII
- National Gallery of Victoria: Approximate man III