Born: Western Australia 1923
John de Burgh Perceval was born Linwood Robert Stevens South at Bruce
Rock, Western Australia, on 1 February 1923, the second child of Bob and
Dorothy South. His parents separated in 1925 and he remained at his
father's farm, until reunited with his mother in Melbourne in 1935. He
called himself John and adopted his stepfather's surname de Burgh
Perceval. In 1938 Perceval contracted polio and was hospitalised, during
which time he developed his skills at drawing and painting.
Enlisting in
the army in 1941, Perceval met Arthur Boyd, and later his sister Mary,
whom he married in 1944. Although showing regularly with the
Contemporary Art Society, Perceval held his first solo exhibition at the
Melbourne Book Club in 1948. Between 1949 and 1955 he concentrated on
producing earthenware ceramics at the Boyd's home at Murrumbeena.
In 1956 Perceval returned to painting with a series of images of
Williamstown and Gaffney's Creek.
John Perceval aged 2 with his uncle at Iilamurta, Western Australia, 1925
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John Perceval painting with Arthur Boyd, c.1968, photo by Mark Strizic
In 1963 Perceval moved to England,
held solo exhibitions in London, and travelled to Europe, before
returning to Australia in 1965 to take up the first Australian National
University Creative Fellowship. John Perceval, a major retrospective
exhibition, was held at Albert Hall, Canberra in 1966 and Margaret
Plant's monograph John Perceval, was published in 1971. In 1974 Perceval
committed himself to the psychiatric hospital Larundel, Melbourne, where
he remained until 1981. John Perceval: A Retrospective
Exhibition of Paintings was held at Heide Park and Art Gallery in 1984. Perceval
was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1991, and in the
following year the National Gallery of Victoria organised John Perceval:
A Retrospective.
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