BIOGRAPHY
For nearly forty years artist John Ogburn saw it necessary to keep his art free from commercial pressures. His work has
nevertheless attracted international recognition and gained an Australian following.
Today, John Ogburn’s paintings are in collections in New York, London, Paris and Sydney, including The Rupert Murdoch collection in New York and Los Angeles, Agnews of London, Macquarie Bank and Matrix Finance Group.
Since 1966 he has mounted and presented his annual exhibition, first in the John Ogburn Studio in Lower George Street, Sydney and subsequently in the Harrington Street Artists’ Co-operative Gallery in Harrington Street, The Rocks and now at 17 Meagher Street, Chippendale.
The leading American art critic, Clement Greenberg, who saw Ogburn’s work when visiting Sydney in 1979, recognised it inherent qualities and wrote:
“ John Ogburn has his own kind of newness, the kind that belongs to the truly ‘compleat’ painter. There haven’t been all that many such. And they’re seldom innovative in a conspicuous or obvious way. But they’re always new somehow or other by virtue of their ‘compleatness’, and the solidity that goes with it. They can challenge, examine and
cross-examine your taste the way a lot of spectacular newness, intentional newness, doesn’t. I think of Thomas Eakin in my own country.
Ogburn can draw, boldly or delicately; he deals with colour from the inside, not the outside. (Let the beholder find out what I mean by that). He can handle the stuff of paint as any real colourist must. Above all he can put a picture together, unify it, without cost to its intensity or complexity. Sure, he owes a lot to Matisse. A painter of this time
couldn’t be indebted to any one better. I venture to say that a superior painter nowadays has to owe something to
Matisse. There may be exceptions, but they are only exceptions (and I myself can hardly think of one). Ogburn may have digested Matisse, but he hasn’t regurgitated him in his own art. He hasn’t succumbed to him.
In 1979 in Sydney, when I first came across Ogburn’s work I gathered he wasn’t ‘new’ enough, ‘far out’ enough. You Australians may be as benighted as we Americans are.”
He was born on 4th of June at St. Arnaud, Victoria. As an adult Ogburn worked for three years as an industrial research
chemist before turning away from a career in science and taking up art full-time. To clear his mind and spirit he travelled to Northern Queensland taking on various jobs on the cane fields and on cargo boats.
Arriving in Sydney, Christmas 1948, he studied under the artist Desiderius Orban, and the philosopher Austin Woodbury.
After his first one-man exhibition at the Macquarie Gallery in 1953, Ogburn sailed for Europe, and continued his studies in the museums and galleries until his return in 1957. From that time he conducted an art teaching studio in Sydney
part-time while continuing to develop his painting.
For nearly forty years artist John Ogburn saw it necessary to keep his art free from commercial pressures. His work has
nevertheless attracted international recognition and gained an Australian following.
Today, John Ogburn’s paintings are in collections in New York, London, Paris and Sydney, including The Rupert Murdoch collection in New York and Los Angeles, Agnews of London, Macquarie Bank and Matrix Finance Group.
Since 1966 he has mounted and presented his annual exhibition, first in the John Ogburn Studio in Lower George Street, Sydney and subsequently in the Harrington Street Artists’ Co-operative Gallery in Harrington Street, The Rocks and now at 17 Meagher Street, Chippendale.
The leading American art critic, Clement Greenberg, who saw Ogburn’s work when visiting Sydney in 1979, recognised it inherent qualities and wrote:
“ John Ogburn has his own kind of newness, the kind that belongs to the truly ‘compleat’ painter. There haven’t been all that many such. And they’re seldom innovative in a conspicuous or obvious way. But they’re always new somehow or other by virtue of their ‘compleatness’, and the solidity that goes with it. They can challenge, examine and
cross-examine your taste the way a lot of spectacular newness, intentional newness, doesn’t. I think of Thomas Eakin in my own country.
Ogburn can draw, boldly or delicately; he deals with colour from the inside, not the outside. (Let the beholder find out what I mean by that). He can handle the stuff of paint as any real colourist must. Above all he can put a picture together, unify it, without cost to its intensity or complexity. Sure, he owes a lot to Matisse. A painter of this time
couldn’t be indebted to any one better. I venture to say that a superior painter nowadays has to owe something to
Matisse. There may be exceptions, but they are only exceptions (and I myself can hardly think of one). Ogburn may have digested Matisse, but he hasn’t regurgitated him in his own art. He hasn’t succumbed to him.
In 1979 in Sydney, when I first came across Ogburn’s work I gathered he wasn’t ‘new’ enough, ‘far out’ enough. You Australians may be as benighted as we Americans are.”
He was born on 4th of June at St. Arnaud, Victoria. As an adult Ogburn worked for three years as an industrial research
chemist before turning away from a career in science and taking up art full-time. To clear his mind and spirit he travelled to Northern Queensland taking on various jobs on the cane fields and on cargo boats.
Arriving in Sydney, Christmas 1948, he studied under the artist Desiderius Orban, and the philosopher Austin Woodbury.
After his first one-man exhibition at the Macquarie Gallery in 1953, Ogburn sailed for Europe, and continued his studies in the museums and galleries until his return in 1957. From that time he conducted an art teaching studio in Sydney
part-time while continuing to develop his painting.