Year Of Birth

1936

Year Of Death

2025

Biography

William Robinson AO was regarded as one of Australia's most important contemporary painters, celebrated for his visionary landscapes. After graduating from Brisbane's Central Technical College in 1962—an early predecessor of Queensland University of Technology's Gardens Point campus—he embarked on a distinguished career as both an artist and educator, teaching at several of the institution's predecessor colleges before leaving academia in 1989 to devote himself entirely to painting. Robinson's work quickly achieved national prominence through its highly personal reinterpretation of the Australian landscape, characterised by shifting perspectives, immersive viewpoints and an expressive, almost spiritual engagement with the natural world. His portraits likewise reveal an acute sensitivity to character, often depicting fellow artists, family and cultural figures with remarkable psychological depth. Robinson is one of the few artists to have won both of Australia's most prestigious painting prizes multiple times, receiving the Archibald Prize for portraiture in 1987 and 1995 and the Wynne Prize for landscape painting in 1990 and 1996. Appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1994 for services to art, his work is held in every major Australian public collection, including the National Gallery of Australia and the state galleries. Revered for transforming the conventions of Australian landscape painting into a profoundly original visual language, Robinson remains one of the defining figures of post-war Australian art