John Beard

artist

John Beard (* 1943) is an Australian artist of Welsh descent who has long been active in Great Britain, Australia, and Europe. His work focuses primarily on portraiture, landscape, and the relationship between the image, memory and vision. His paintings are often based on a specific model, which he transforms into a blurred, almost ghostly form through repeated overpainting, layering, and wiping. Rather than a precise record, he is interested in the moment when the image begins to disappear, reveal itself, or transform into an indistinct vestige. His work has been exhibited at institutions such as Tate St Ives, Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian in Lisbon, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2006 he won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting, and in 2007 the Archibald Prize for portraiture. His work is currently featured in the exhibition Argus & Medusa at DOX.