Design and Art Australia Online

At times it seemed Bill Spencer led a double life. For many years he was a fixture at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where he gave advice to visitors and colleagues alike. But not on art, as the hierarchical gallery structure did not encourage attendants to pass opinions on matters aesthetic. But once the uniform was discarded he reverted to being an artist painting sensitive Post Impressionist inspired landscapes of mainly New South Wales’ subjects, and portraits often of family and friends.

Art governed Bill’s life. His father was a builder, designing as well as building houses on the lower north shore, near their Neutral Bay home. When Bill left school at 15 he enrolled in classes at the Julian Ashton school where he was taught by John Passmore, Eric Wilson, Jean Appleton and Henry Gibbons who praised his draughtsmanship. A solo exhibition at the Grosvenor gallery in 1939 was a great success. But as with most young men of his generation he was soon caught up by World War II, where he served in Army Intelligence. After the War his health was not good and this may have influenced his decision to choose the one job where he could work surrounded by art, as an attendant at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. With his thirst for knowledge of all manner of things and his natural organisational skills it was not surprising that he became the union representative of the general staff for the gallery.

He settled at Miranda with his wife Cainetta Caines and here they raised their four children. Bill continued to paint on his days off. He was a regular exhibitor at local art exhibitions in NSW and his paintings of regional landscapes can be found in public collections throughout New South Wales. He held solo exhibitions at Dominion Galleries in 1965, Holdsworth Galleries in 1970, 1975 and 1979. His watercolour, Landscape at Richmond NSW, was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1971.

In 1976 the AGNSW conservator, Bill Boustead, alerted the Gallery to the health hazards of the asbestos which had been sprayed onto the ceiling of the new gallery building. The matter was brought to the attention of the Public Works Department, but nothing was done. By 1978 the staff showed the administration evidence that the asbestos was flaking from the gallery ceiling throughout the building. A subsequent Health Commission report indicated that although there were areas where the sprayed ceiling was falling away and fibres going into the atmosphere, it was regarded as “being without health risk”. Bill did not accept this report and took his concerns to the Public Service Association. The PSA made representations on behalf of the gallery attendants to the Public Service Board. The Board refused to consider the removal of the asbestos, but agreed to replace the ceilings “as a long term projected. as funds become available”. Bill’s actions in convincing his colleagues of the danger of the asbestos led to the attendants threatening immediate work bans. Aleks Danko and Joan Grounds, artists who were preparing for the Biennale of Sydney picketed the gallery in sympathy, and threatened to withdraw their work. On 20 April 1979 the Premier, Neville Wran, agreed to the immediate removal of the ceiling. According to the gallery’s official communication “the decision did not arise from concern of any immediate health risk”. The name, “Asbestos Bill”, stayed.

After Bill and Cainetta’s children went their ways, their father had more time for art. In 1998 his portrait of Cainetta, entered in the Moran Prize was praised by the critic Robert Rooney for the way it reconciled “abstraction and figuration”. He taught at both Gymea Technical College and the Royal Art Society. He was an inspirational teacher, loved for his warmth, knowledge and passion.

Bill’s last years were cruel. Parkinson’s Disease immobilised him. Dementia destroyed much of his mind, except that when he looked at art he returned in part, to being the man he once was, and he continued to draw. The night before he died he was watching the Antiques Roadshow on television and saw a painting of cows in a field. “That looks like a Constable”, he said. It was not quite right, but the painting was indeed painted by one of Constable’s followers.

Writers:

Mendelssohn, Joanna Note:

Date written:

2007

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed