Peter Upward commenced his artistic studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (now RMIT University) in 1951. After brief studies at the East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School), he and fellow student William Rose sought mentorship under John Passmore at the Julian Ashton Art School. In 1955, Upward returned to Melbourne, making his artistic debut in a joint exhibition with friend and fellow artist Clement Meadmore at John and Sunday Reed’s Museum of Modern Art.
Disheartened by the Melbourne art scene, Upward returned to Sydney in 1960, where he was embraced into a circle he found more receptive to his abstract style. While working closely with Meadmore and John Olsen, Upward further honed his artistic vision. Upward found inspiration in diverse artistic and philosophical subjects, such as improvised jazz and the principles of Zen, including Daiestz Teitato Suzuki’s seminal work, Studies in Zen. In 1961, Upward held a major solo exhibition at Macquarie Galleries in Sydney, and Upward’s gestural black and white paintings from the period show the influence of action painting and calligraphy.
Upward moved to London in 1962, where he was to live and create art for the next decade. He first resided with friends in Oxfordshire and became part of the city’s vibrant underground scene. The year after moving abroad, three of Upward’s paintings were included in Australian Painting Today, a touring exhibition throughout Europe and the United Kingdom. It was at this time Upward’s work was acquired by the Mertz Collection of Australian Art.
London’s counterculture and local music scene, as well as the use of psychedelic drugs, were to become Upward’s muse. As a consequence, Upward’s practice underwent a transformative period during his London years. He embraced minimalist restraint, while maintaining a distinctive gestural style. Upward began experimenting with pouring paint directly onto the canvas surface and began to make his own oval and circular canvas shapes. Upward’s last years in London saw the introduction of colour into his work, a significant development from his traditional restricted palette of black and white.
Upward’s return to Australia in 1971 marked the beginning of a teaching career at East Sydney Technical College, where he was recognised as an engaging instructor of painting and drawing. He continued with his own personal artistic practice, blending his signature gestural manner with vivid explorations of colour. Painted shortly after his return to Australia, Pacific, Ocean rider and Io sono are key examples of his artistic evolution, and are an extension of the circular series of work he commenced in London.
Upward’s skill as a colourist is exemplified in Pacific. His bold use of blue is accentuated with his confident application of gestural marks in pale pink and orange – with orange the opposite of blue on the colour wheel – and this combination of colour results in a soothing visual harmony. Pacific was exhibited alongside Ocean rider and Io Sono at Upward’s 1973 solo exhibition at the University of New South Wales.
In 1976, Upward was the subject of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s (AGNSW) exhibition, Project 13. Tragically, Upward’s life was cut short by a sudden heart attack in 1983, at just fifty-one years of age. The following year, the AGNSW mounted a survey exhibition of Upward’s paintings. Upward’s significance in Australian art history is underscored by his unwavering commitment to the abstract expressionist movement, which gained prominence in the United States during the 1950s through the work of artists such as Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Sam Francis.
The NGV extends its heartfelt gratitude to Asia Upward for her generous donation of this work to the NGV Collection. Through this gift, the Gallery celebrates the legacy of Peter Upward, offering a window into the transformative journey of an artist whose unique path from Australia to England and back has left an indelible mark on art history.
Beckett Rozentals is NGV Curator of Australian Art.
This article first appeared in the November–December 2023 edition of NGV Magazine