The Johnstone Gallery Archive  >  Home  >  Artists

Who were The Johnstone Gallery's artists? 

Like most commercial galleries, The Johnstone Gallery began with a small network of artists, many of whom were local to Brisbane. As the gallery developed, the Johnstones rapidly spread their artistic wings to match their widening interests, which included, by the mid- to late-1950s, the best Australian artists of their generation.

Guy Boyd exhibition, 1969

Ignacio Marmol exhibition

Arthur Boyd exhibition

Margaret Olley may have been a key figure in the establishment of the Johnstones' early artistic network. She was included in the first group exhibition at Marodian Gallery (11-23 December 1950) and had the first solo exhibition in 1951. Her friends and colleagues who also showed at this venue were Francis Lymburner, David Strachan and Donald Friend.

The Johnstone Gallery became best known for showing and popularising the work of the Melbourne-based figurative Antipodean painters. Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, Charles Blackman, Robert Dickerson, John Brack and, to a lesser extent, Clifton Pugh, were integral to the gallery's successes.

The gallery also became involved with a younger generation of Melbourne painters, notably Lawrence Daws, in the mid-1950s. An exhibition of "Four New Melbourne Artists" (Lawrence Daws, John Howley, Donald Laycock and Clifton Pugh) was held from 3 to 12 August, 1955. It was followed by "Paintings and Sculptures by Six Melbourne Artists" (Arthur Boyd, Phyl Waterhouse, John Rogers, Tate Adams, Geoff Jones and Max Dimmack) from 26 October to 7 November.

Johnston (1978) suggests that the focus on painting from Melbourne which started in 1957

...marked a more definitive stand in the Gallery's policy, a closer alignment with the figurative style more prominent in Melbourne than with the abstract international bent that many Sydney artists were beginning to embrace. This set the foundations for the tone of the Gallery during the 1960s.

(Johnston, R. (1978). The Johnstone Gallery and Art in Queensland 1940s-70s. Art and Australia: v.15, no 4, June. Page 395)

Jon Molvig, Brisbane's inspirational figurative painter of the period, showed with them regularly until he became part of Rudy Komon's stable in late 1959. Komon's dealing methods were new for Australia, and he sought an exclusive arrangement with his exhibiting artists. Johnstone, who preferred a "gentleman's agreement", disapproved, believing they should be free to show with other galleries as they liked. However, his success was such that some, Charles Blackman for example, routinely offered him first choice of their new work.

The Johnstone Gallery did not deal exclusively with figurative work. While figurative expressionism and its gutsy, visceral qualities had particular synergy with Brian and Marjorie Johnstone, abstract painters - Elwyn Lynn, Roy Churcher, Tom Gleghorn, William Rose, and, later, Ignacio Marmol - were also shown.

Ray Crooke, who had his first exhibition with the Johnstone Gallery in 1960, became one of its most successful artists. Brian Johnstone also took on new artists throughout the life of the gallery. He showed, for example, the work of 19-year old Peter Kennedy in 1964 and that of Keith Looby, with considerable success, from 1969.

"A Time Remembered", the Johnstone Gallery's second last exhibition, was Brian and Marjorie Johnstone's personal memorial to the artists who had defined the gallery. It included Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, Ray Crooke, Robert Dickerson, Russell Drysdale, Sidney Nolan and Lloyd Rees. These were the biggest names and the source of strong sales throughout the gallery's 22-year history.

The honour of the final exhibition in December 1972, however, went to the artists who had more shows with the Johnstone Gallery than any others: sculptors Leonard and Kathleen Shillam. 
     
All exhibitions at The Johnstone Gallery have been indexed on the List of Exhibitions held at the Johnstone Gallery 1950-1972. A search on an artist's name will show all solo and group exhibitions at the Gallery in which he/she took part.