Peter Booth (b. 1940) grew up in the English steel mill town of Sheffield, bike-riding on the nearby moors.
Peter Booth
He left school at 15 and from 1956 to 1957, attended evening drawing classes at Sheffield College of Art while working as a copyboy for a local newspaper. Drawing constantly, he began keeping a dream diary in 1973. In 1957, the Booth family immigrated to Australia, settling in the then semi-rural town of Altona.
He attended the National Gallery School in 1962 finding an inspiring mentor in John Brack. Graduating in 1965, Booth went on to teach painting at Prahran Technical College from 1966-69, as well as teaching drawing part-time at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in 1967. Booth gained widespread recognition through the inclusion of his large architectural ‘block’ paintings in The Field in 1968. From 1969-75, during which time he began keeping a dream diary, Booth worked in the Prints and Drawing section of the National Gallery of Victoria, becoming deeply impressed with the work of William Blake and Goya as well as the authors Tolstoy, Singer, Lessing, and Marquez. He followed the ‘Block’ series with the ‘Doorway’ series (1970-74). From the mid-1970s his work changed to vivid abstractions drawn from his dreams, featuring monstrous hybrid figures, circular motifs, and warped space. During the 1980s he continued to depict mutants, as well as solitary men who also appeared amongst crowds in other works. Around this time, he began his continuing incorporation of flakes of snow drifting over his figures and desolate landscapes.
Booth is represented in all major Australian galleries; the Ian Potter Centre held an exhibition of 230 of his paintings in 2003.
Solo Exhibitions
2022
- PETER BOOTH, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Tarrawarra, Victoria
2018
- Paintings, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2016
- Recent Paintings /Deutscher/Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
2015
- Paintings 2012-2015 /Deatscher/Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
2013
- Peter Booth 99 Drawings /Olson Irwin Gallery , Sydney
2012
- The Human Condition/ Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
2011
- Peter Booth, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
2010
- MEMORIES, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
2008
- 21st Century, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
2007
- Peter Booth, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
2006
- Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
2004
- The Winter of Man, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
2003 -2004
- Peter Booth: Human / Nature, retrospective exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2003
- Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
2002
- Peter Booth, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
2001
- Peter Booth, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
2000
- Peter Booth: Landscapes, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
- Peter Booth, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
1999
- Peter Booth, Paintings and Drawings, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
1998
- Peter Booth, Paintings and Drawings, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
1997
- Peter Booth: Paintings, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne
1996
- Peter Booth: Paintings, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne
- Peter Booth: Paintings, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
1995
- Peter Booth: Small Paintings 1992 - 1995, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne
- Peter Booth: Recent Works on Paper, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
1994
- Peter Booth: Paintings / Works on Paper, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne
1993
- Peter Booth: Recent Paintings, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
1992
- Peter Booth: Recent Works on Paper, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne
1990
- Peter Booth: Recent Paintings, Deutscher Brunswick Street, Melbourne
1989
- Peter Booth: Drawings 1977 - 87, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne
1988
- Peter Booth: Works on Paper 1983-88, Albermarle Gallery, London
- CDS Gallery, New York
1987
- CDS Gallery, New York
1986
- CDS Gallery, New York
- Peter Booth: Works on Paper, Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
1985
- Peter Booth: Works on Paper, University Gallery, University of Melbourne
- Peter Booth: Recent Drawings, Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1984
- Peter Booth: Recent Drawings, Gary Anderson Gallery, Sydney
1983
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1982
- Peter Booth: Works on Paper,Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1981
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1980
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1979
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1978
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1977
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1976
- Project 12: Peter Booth, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Peter Booth: Paintings and Drawings 1968 - 76, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1975
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1974
- Peter Booth: 6 New Paintings, Chapman Powell Gallery, Melbourne
1973
- Peter Booth: 16 Small Paintings, Chapman Powell Gallery, Melbourne
1972
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1971
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1970
- Pinacotheca Melbourne
1969
- Central Street, Sydney
- Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1967
- Strines Gallery, Melbourne
Group Exhibitions
2018
- The Field Revisited/National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- My Monster,The Human Animal/RMIT Gallery
2016
- Panorama: Tarrawarra Museum Of Art/Melbourne
2011
- MOMA Museum Of Old And New Art/collection exhibition/Hobart
2010
- Contemporary Encounters, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2008
- Blue Chip X: The Collectors' Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Richmond
2007
- Voiceless: I feel therefor I am, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation - SCAF, Sydney
2006 – 2007
- Five Decades, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria
2006
- White mantle - the winter landscape in Australian art, Geelong Art Gallery
2005
- Drawing Centre, Newcastle Region Art Gallery
2004
- NGV Collection Recent Acquisitions, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne
2000
- Three-way Abstraction: Works from the Monash University Collection, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
2002
- Nocturne: images of night and darkness from colonial to contemporary, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
- Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968-2002, The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, Melbourne
- Memo, The City of Port Phillip, St Kilda
- It’s a beautiful day: New Painting in Australia: 2, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Nick Cave: The Good Son, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
2001
- Darkness & Light: Looking at Landscape, McClelland & Auckland Art Gallery travelling exhibition, Geelong Art Gallery
1995
- The Loti and Victor Smorgon Gift of Contemporary Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
1993
- Death, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1988
- Australian Biennale: From the Southern Cross, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Advance Australia Painting, Auckland City Gallery, New Zealand
- The Phillip Morris Art Grant: Australian Art of the Last Ten Years, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1987
- Field to Figuration: Australian Art 1960-1986, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Backlash: The Australian Drawing Revival 1976-1986, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Minimal Art in Australia: A Contemplative Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane
1986
- The Australians. Three Generations of Drawings, CDS Gallery, New York
1985
- Fifth Sydney Biennale, Art Gallery of New South, Sydney
1984-5
- Australian Visions: 1984 Exxon International Exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1984
- An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1983
- Recent Australian Painting: A Survey 1970-83, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
- From Another Continent: Australia: The Dream and the Real, ARC / Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1982
- Eureka! Artists from Australia, Serpentine Gallery, London
- Venice Biennale: Peter Booth & Rosalie Gascoigne, Venice
1981
- Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Some Australian Drawings 1880-1980, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1979
- European Dialogue: The Third Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1976
- Minimal Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1973
- Recent Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1968
- The Field, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Selected Literature
- Smith, J. (ed.), Peter Booth: Human / Nature, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2003
- Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 - 2002, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria,Melbourne, 2002
- Allen, Traudi,Cross Currents in Contemporary Australian Art. Fine RT Publishing . Sydney. 2001
- Allen, Traudi, Roar and Quieter Moments from a group of Melbourne artists 1980 - 1993. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1995
- Lindsay, R., Peter Booth: Recent Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Deutscher Brunswick Street, Melbourne, 1990
- Catalano, Gary, An Intimate Australia: The Landscape of recent Australian Art. hale and Ironmonger b, Sydney 1985
- Catalano, G., Australia: Venice Biennale 1982: Works by Peter Booth and Rosalie Gascoigne, exhibition catalogue, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council, Sydney, 1982!
- Calmer, John The Australian Arts Today . Edward Arnold 1980
Selected Collections
- Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
- Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
- Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria!
- Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
- Centro Cultural / Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico
- Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
- Heide Museum of Modern Art, Victoria
- Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
- Mona – Museum of Old and New Art | Hobart, Tasmania
- Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
- Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
- Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Newcastle Art Gallery, New South Wales
- Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art/Brisbane
- Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
- TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
- University of New South Wales, Sydney
- Wollongong City Art Gallery, Victoria
