Robert Juniper

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About the Artist

Robert was born in Merredin, Western Australia, in 1929. He is acknowledged as a major figure in Australian landscape painting, with work represented in many public and private collections. Exhibitions of Robert's work have been held in England, Japan and America. In 1980 he won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting. He has also been honoured by the Western Australian government as a 'Living Treasure'. Robert is passionate about the beauty of the Australian landscape. Aerial perspective is important in his paintings, which represent his feelings about the landscape and what is visible to the eye. Robert used to worry that Western Australia was a very isolated place to work, but now realises that it allowed him the breathing space to establish his own style without being influenced by say, the Sydney scene or the Melbourne scene.

Qualifications:

Commercial art and industrial design at Beckenham School of Art, England. He taught art in Perth until 1974, and since then has worked full-time at painting, sculpture and printmaking.

Robert has had one man shows in commercial galleries in major Australian cities each year since 1962 and in Japan in 1964. He is represented in all state art galleries. He has been represented in group shows of Australian contemporary art, exhibited in London, the USA and New Zealand (in 1959 – 1967), and more recently in Europe, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and New Caledonia (1979 – 1998).

Click here to read a review of Robert's exhibition, "Retrospective", at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1999.

Awards:

1998 - State Living Treasures Award by the Ministry for Culture and the Arts in Western Australia
1988 - Kingfisher Prize, New South Wales
1987 - National Heritage Award, Contemporary Division for stained glass design, 3 Century Windows,
Holy Trinity Church, York, Western Australia
1984 - Honorary Doctorate (D. Litt.) from the University of Western Australia, Perth
1980 - Mona McCaughey Prize, Wynne Prize for Landscape Painting, Art Gallery of NSW
1979 - Western Australia Week Council’s Citizen of the Year: Arts, Culture and Entertainment Award
1976 - Wynne Prize for Landscape Painting, Art Gallery of NSW
1966 - T.E. Wardle Invitation Prize
1962 - McKeller Hall Prize - Commonwealth Games, Perth Prize for Contemporary Art
1961 - Rubinstein Portrait Prize (second prize)
1959 & 1960 - Perth Prize for Contemporary Art
1954 & 1957 - Perth Prize for Contemporary Art