— Biography of Godfrey Miller

Godfrey Miller

From Alan & Susan McCulloch, The New Encyclopedia of Australian Art, The Miegunyah Press, (all eds), p. 840 

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, 1893; died in Sydney, 1964 

Initial studies were in architecture, (aged 17, at the Otago School of Art and Design) which had included art and photography.  At the outbreak of World War I he cut short his studies and enlisted in the Light Horse, and by early 1915 was in Egypt where became interested in ancient Egyptian art and architecture. He was badly wounded in action at Gallipoli, returned to New Zealand and was discharged in 1916. He renewed his painting studies at the School of Art in Dunedin while completing his apprenticeship as an architect.

Miller was financially independent and throughout his life.  Though he lived frugally he was able to study, travel and work as he chose. He moved to Melbourne in 1918 and enrolled at the National Gallery School, attending drawing classes under W.B. McInnes. From 1919-20 he lived in the Philippines, China and Japan and by 1922 he had returned to Melbourne, living at Warrandyte for the next few years.

From 1925 to 1938 he was based in London.  He studied at the Slade School and made frequent trips to the continent to visit galleries and museums – being highly impressed by two significant exhibitions in 1936: the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London, and the Cezanne retrospective in Paris. Other destinations included Southern Spain and Turkey.

He returned to Australia in 1938, settling in Sydney the following year.  In 1948 he began teaching at East Sydney Technical College where he gave drawing classes intermittently until his death in 1964.

His output of paintings was small and he rarely exhibited – his first solo show being at Macquarie Galleries in 1957 (he was 63), the next, posthumously, at Darlinghurst Galleries in 1965.  Though living quietly and alone, he was well known and widely respected in art circles.  He was included in important touring exhibitions and in 1961 the Tate Gallery purchased a major work from the exhibition Recent Australian Painting, at the Whitechapel Gallery. By the time he died in 1964 he had established a reputation as one of the leading modernist artists of his generation – a reputation that has been re-affirmed over the ensuing decades.  His characteristic paintings – with their intricate, small geometric divisions, with their underlying structure of the picture plane, all with a restricted palette – are expressions of his life-long interest in mathematics and geometry, in philosophy, and in spiritual and scientific systems, from cosmology to anthroposophy.

Retrospectives have been held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1958 and at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (also shown at the NGV) in 1996. His work is represented in all major public galleries in Australia and New Zealand, and in numerous significant private collections.

Introduction to 2010 Exhibition by Charles Nodrum

2004 Exhibition Introduction by Charles Nodrum

2004 Exhibition Introduction by John Henshaw

2013 Exhibition Introduction by Charles Nodrum

Godfrey Miller Art Gallery of NSW

Macqueen Mary. 22Artists Choice No. 32 Godfrey Miller 22Still Life with Musical Instruments22.22 Art and Australia 25 no. 1 1987

McCulloch Allan In memorian Godfrey Miller. Art and Australia. Vol 2 No 2 Winter 1964. 100 105pdf

Triptych with Figures Godfrey Miller c.194450 Tate