William Robinson (painter, born 1936)
William Robinson AO (born 1936) is an Australian painter and lithographer. Life. William Robinson was born in Brisbane in 1936, and studied art at Ballarat High School from 1950 to 1953. After graduating, he began working as an art instructor, eventually becoming head of the Painting Department at the Brisbane College of Advanced Education in 1982. In 1989 he retired to work full-time on his paintings. Robinson held his first solo exhibition at the Design Arts Centre, Brisbane in 1967. He rose to international prominence as a part of the exhibitions Australian Perspecta in  1983 and The Sixth Bienniale of Sydney in 1986. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has several of his works in their collection, as does the National Gallery of Australia and several smaller Australian galleries. He has won the Archibald Prize for portraiture twice: first in 1987 for "Equestrian self portrait", then in 1995 for "Self-portrait with stunned mullet". He has also won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting in 1990 ("The rainforest") and 1996 ("Creation landscape – earth and sea"). Robinson released a solo exhibition, Landscapes, which consisted of oil paintings which showed fragments of the Australian bush in various  perspectives. In 2009 Robinson was the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Catherine Hunter. "William Robinson: A Painter’s Journey" traces the places that have inspired the artist, from his early farmyard paintings to the 'Creation Landscape' series and, most recently, the quiet still life paintings inspired by the intimate surroundings of his Brisbane house and garden. In 2011, The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Art Museum curated a major retrospective exhibition "William Robinson: The Transfigured Landscape" which was opened by the Australian Governor General Quentin Bryce. There is an art gallery within Old Government House on the QUT's  Garden Point campus devoted to Robinson's art, featuring many of his artworks, including some of his very first.