Design and Art Australia Online

Sellheim, Gert Hugo Emmanuel, b. 1901

Sellheim was a graphic artist and industrial designer. He won the Sulman Prize in 1939 and was one of the first poster artists to work ...

Updated Nov. 26, 2019

Merfield, Bertha Elizabeth, b. 1869

Known for her mural paintings in Victoria, Bertha E. Merfield was a pioneer of landscape painting among female artists in Australia. Her mural for the ...

Updated Nov. 17, 2019

Cassab, Judy, b. 1920

Painter born in Austria. Resident of Sydney she is a prolific and accomplished artist, able to paint portraits in a single sitting if necessary. Cassab ...

Updated Sept. 30, 2019

Haxton, Elaine Alys, b. 1909

Painter, printmaker and designer, Haxton worked through the 1930s as a commercial artist in both Sydney and London. In 1943 she won the Sulman Prize ...

Updated Aug. 28, 2019

Pinder, Phil, b. 1945

Pinder was an artist working across a wide range of media including murals and interior design (the Last Laugh theatre, Melbourne). A poster "April Fools ...

Updated Aug. 16, 2019

Smith, Eric, b. 1919

Smith began his painting career with training in Melbourne and was active in Sydney art circles. He is a frequent entrant to the Art Gallery ...

Updated May 6, 2019

Melocco, Pietro, b. 1883

Pietro and one of his brothers (Antonio) were the principals of Melocco Brothers, Sydney. Pietro trained as a mason's apprentice and later at the Cooper ...

Updated May 5, 2019

Gapp, Vanoo, b. 1917

Illustrator and mural artist active in Sydney, Adelaide and North Queensland in the 1930s and 1940s

Updated March 9, 2019

Annand, Douglas, b. 1903

One of Australia's best known graphic and poster artists, Douglas Annand also had a distinguished career as a camouflage artist during the Second World War. ...

Updated Feb. 15, 2019

Lewis & Skinner

Lewis & Skinner were a Melbourne-based sign writing firm active in the early decades of the 20th century until ca.1960.

Updated Dec. 22, 2018

Morrison, Alistair, b. 1911

Morrison was a typographer, graphic designer, industrial designer and author. He had a celebrated design career in London from 1936-1939, returning to Australia before the ...

Updated Dec. 1, 2018

Snow, Bill, b. 1938

Snow was one of the founders of BUGA UP, a loosely affiliated group of activists opposed to tobacco smoking & advertising. The group began ca.1979 ...

Updated March 20, 2018

Milat, Nado

Milat executed a mural for the Hacienda Espresso Bar. Hunter Street, Sydney with interiors designed by Silvano Mariti in 1957. As an architect, he worked ...

Updated Nov. 18, 2017

Atyeo, Sam, b. 1910

In addition to a career in painting after training at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, Atyeo designed interiors, murals, designed and painted furniture for commercial ...

Updated Oct. 4, 2017

Kelly, Orry George, b. 1897

Kelly was a fashion designer born into a tailor's family. He was active in theatre in Australia, moving to NYC where he worked as a ...

Updated July 21, 2017

Carter, Norman St Clair, b. 1875

Norman St Clair Carter was a portrait painter, stained-glass artist, muralist and teacher who trained in Melbourne before relocating permanently to Sydney in 1903.

Updated July 18, 2017

Andrews, Gordon Arthur, b. 1914

Gordon Andrews was one of Australia's prominent mid-20th century multi-disciplinary designers. While best known for designing Australia's first decimal currency notes (1966), his international career ...

Updated July 8, 2017

Lewers, Margo, b. 1908

Margo Lewers was primarily a painter and an admirer of the Bauhaus movement which she experienced during travels in Germany in 1934. She was initially ...

Updated June 16, 2017

Elliott, Margaret, b. 1934

Elliott is described as the designer of a "spectacular ceramic mural" for the "Club Bar" at the Chevron Hotel, Potts Point ca.1960 and her age ...

Updated June 11, 2017

Abbott, Barbara, b. 1928

Sydney-based female sketcher, printmaker and textile artist who passed her final assessment in art school by completing an Aboriginal reference workbook she started in her ...

Updated May 24, 2017

Holman, Haldane Sinclair, b. 1922

Holman was a polymath artist working in film, murals, portraiture and other art forms. His career began after the conclusion of the 1939-45 War, he ...

Updated Feb. 8, 2017

Tichy, Vladimir, b. 1926

Tichy was a Czech-trained ceramicist with a considerable European career before immigrating to Australia. He formed a partnership with Anne Dybka working as Studio Dybka ...

Updated July 15, 2016

Dybka, Anne, b. 1922

Dybka was a London-trained artist with later studies in Melbourne at the National Gallery school and George Bell. She worked in ceramics and glass for ...