35 Facts About Grahame King

Grahame Edwin King was a master Australian printmaker, who has been called the "patron saint of contemporary Australian printmaking".

Grahame King was responsible for the revival of print making in Australia in the 1960s.

Grahame King helped set up the Print Council of Australia, of which he was the first Honorary Secretary and was later President.

Grahame King taught printmaking at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology from 1966 to 1988.

Grahame King was a skilled photographer and used his photography both in his teaching and in his practice.

Grahame Edwin King was born in Melbourne on 23 February 1915.

Grahame King left school when he was about fifteen and went to work.

Grahame King was able to make use of this expertise for the rest of his career.

In 1939, the year of the highly influential exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art in Melbourne sponsored by the Melbourne Herald, Grahame King started attending night classes at the art school of the National Gallery of Victoria, which he continued for three years.

Grahame King was based in Melbourne, so he was able to attend Saturday afternoon art classes with George Bell.

Grahame King later said that Bell "opened our eyes to modern art and it was a tremendous experience".

Grahame King's painting at this time shows the influence of George Bell's style of early modernism.

In 1945, Grahame King joined the Victorian Artists Society and soon became its secretary and exhibitions manager.

In late 1947, like many young Australians at that time, Grahame King went to Europe.

Grahame King based himself in England at The Abbey Arts Centre in Hertfordshire.

Grahame King studied drawing with Bernard Meninsky and attended print-making classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.

In Europe, Grahame King saw the work of Cubists, Surrealists and other abstract artists such as Paul Klee.

Grahame King responded to the "modernist modes involving the flattening and fragmentation of the image and the use of free-flowing line to express movement and rhythm" and particularly to the work of Georges Braque.

Grahame King had been trained in Berlin and Glasgow, but had spent some time in New York City, where she encountered American Abstract Expressionism.

In 1961, Vic Greenhouse, head of the art department at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology invited Grahame King to join the group of printmakers, which included Fred Williams and Hertha Kluge-Pott, who were allowed to use its printing facilities on one day per week.

Grahame King continued to work with the Print Council for many years, becoming one of the most prominent and active promoters of printing as an art.

Grahame King was associated with the Australian Print Workshop from its inception in 1981.

In 1966, Grahame King was appointed Lecturer in Painting, Drawing and Lithography at RMIT.

Grahame King was an important influence on two generations of Melbourne's printmakers.

In 1969, Grahame King received a British Council grant for a study tour of printmaking facilities in England.

Grahame King visited France, Switzerland, Italy and America, where he visited the Pratt Graphics Centre in New York.

Grahame King was able to study Japanese printmaking and papermaking techniques.

Grahame King noted later that this experience had been important for his work.

In 1991, Grahame King was awarded an AM for services to art education.

Grahame King continued to exhibit until a few years before his death in 2008.

Grahame King's work is represented in a number of major collections including that of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

Grahame King was able to draw well, and continued to draw throughout his life.

Grahame King did not do detailed preliminary drawings for his lithographs.

An important influence on Grahame King's work were his trips to Japan in 1974 and subsequently.

Grahame King said of this work that: "These paintings have evolved from a lifetime's response to the study of form and colour in nature and are an attempt to express the perpetual excitement of new visual experience".