Andrew Southall

1947

Painter and printmaker, Andrew Southall lives and works in Moe, Victoria. Southall is self-taught. Although he has been a figurative artist in the past, his current work explores a type of middle ground between figuration and abstraction.

Influenced by Art, Dubuffet and several painters from the Cobra Group, Southall spent several years in London trying to make art from the kind of uncompromising material which would deter most present-day European (jumping) in heedlessly, protected perhaps by a king of holy innocence. His art continues to evoke a sense of primitive design and rhythm and deals essentially with simple repetitive forms. His surfaces are richly textured, his colours are bold and uncompromising. As his friend, fellow artist Rick Amor has commented, when he watched Southall in action, he would concentrate intently as he judged colour, composition and subject with a speed and assurance that was fascinating. The result was always a daring, memorable and creative interpretation of whatever was before him.

Andrew Southall has exhibited regularly in Australia and the United Kingdom since 1981 and is represented in Parliament House, Canberra, corporate and private collections in Australia, the United States and Europe.

A & S McCulloch, Encyclopaedia of Australian Art, 1994 ed; N.Drury, Images 2: Contemporary Australian Painting, 1994; N.Dury, Images 3: Contemporary Australian Painting, 1998

Collections

National Gallery of Victoria; The Parliament House, Canberra; Hamilton Art Gallery (VIC); New England Regional Art Gallery, Armidale (NSW); Visual Arts/Crafts Board of Australia Council; Private Collections in Australia and Overseas