Jon molvig biography

Helge Jon Molvig (– 15 May 1970) was an.
Helge Jon Molvig (1923-1970), artist, was born on at Merewether, Newcastle, New South Wales, and registered as Helge John, only child of Helge.
1923 – 1970 Helge Jon Molvig was born and grew up in Newcastle, where he left school at thirteen and worked in a garage and at the steelworks.

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Jon Molvig

Jon Molvig (1923-70) spent the greater part of his productive life in Brisbane where he dominated the art scene into the late 1960s. Brisbane was the catalyst for his major work, providing him with scope for his expressionist view of the world.

A volatile and rebellious character, Molvig was a charismatic teacher whose uncompromising commitment to painting inspired a group of young artists.

This survey acknowledges his contribution to the local art community, features his early, vibrant works drawing on European influences and brings his stylistic eclecticism to the fore.

Queensland Art Gallery

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) is the state’s premier institution for the visual arts, based in two neighbouring gallery buildings on Kurilpa Point in Brisbane, Australia. Across both galleries we present ever-changing exhibitions of contemporary and historical Australian and international art, accompanied by dynamic programs and events, and hold a globally significant collection of contemporary art from Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

Museum

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Jon Molvig

Helge Jon Molvig was born and grew up in Newcastle, where he left school at thirteen and worked in a garage and at the steelworks. After war service in New Guinea and Manila, he enrolled as an art student under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme at the Strathfield campus of East Sydney Technical College. He exhibited with the Strath Art Group between 1949 and 1954 (thereafter, he was part of no group). During this period, from 1949 to 1952, he travelled in Europe, where he was particularly influenced by the German and Norwegian expressionists. In 1955 he settled in Brisbane, where he began to paint passionately intense and personal works that are now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Queensland Art Gallery. As a teacher, he encouraged a number of innovative artists including Andrew Sibley and Merv Moriarty to pursue their own visions. In 1961 he won the inaugural Transfield prize, the country’s richest art award, and was able to purchase land near Brisbane on which he built a house. Through the 1960s he won a series of art prizes in Queensland,

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Jon Molvig

Australian painter

Helge Jon Molvig (27 May 1923 – 15 May 1970) was an Australian expressionist artist, considered a major developer of 20th-century Australian expressionism, even though his career 'only' lasted 20 years. He was born in the Newcastle, New South Wales suburb of Merewether.

Career, influence and reception

Molvig won the Archibald Prize in 1966 with a portrait of painter Charles Blackman and portraits of Molvig by artist John Rigby were hung in the Archibald in 1953 and 1959. He won many other prizes including the 1955 and 1956 Lismore Prize, 1961 Transfield Prize (City Industrial), 1963 Perth Prize (The Family), 1965 David Jones Prize (Underarm Still Life), 1966 Corio Prize (The Publican) and 1969 Gold Coast Prize (Tree of Man X). During the late fifties/early sixties Molvig held weekly, very informal, life drawing classes which were central to the Brisbane art scene at the time, and he was mentor to various emerging artists such as John Aland, Andrew Sibley, Gordon Shepherdson, Mervyn Moriarty, Joy Roggenkamp, Hugh Sawrey and many others