Acknowledged as an important exponent of abstraction through his participation in the survey exhibition, The Field at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968, Booth dramatically transformed the subject of his work in 1977, painting a series of haunted, figurative landscapes that captured an existential sense of loneliness and desolation.
Read MoreBooth was born in Sheffield, England, and studied drawing at the Sheffield College of Art (1956-1957). He moved with his family to Australia in 1958, attending the National Gallery School in Melbourne 1965-1969, where he was influenced by tutor, John Brack. From 1969 to 1975, Booth worked at the National Gallery of Victoria, and later recalled the importance of the experience of seeing works by William Blake and Goya. Booth’s abstracted architectural canvases completed up to the 1970s are dominated by black with coloured edges, and have been described as ‘block’ paintings with the austerity of these works remaining fundamental to his practice.
In 1982, Booth was one of two artists who represented Australia at the Venice Biennale. Other select group exhibitions include: Five Decades, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville (2006-2007); Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 – 2002, The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria (2002); Creating Australia: 200 Years of Art 1788 - 1988, Art Gallery of South Australia (1988-1989); Field to Figuration: Australian Art 1960 - 1986, National Gallery of Victoria (1987); An international Survey of Recent Painting & Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1984). Most recently Peter Booth was included in Australia at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2013, organised by the National Gallery of Australia.
Selected public collections include: National Gallery of Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales; National Gallery of Victoria; Art Gallery of South Australia; Queensland Art Gallery, GOMA; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centro Cultural-Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico; Bendigo Art Gallery; City of Port Phillip Art Collection; Geelong Art Gallery; TarraWarra Museum of Art; Monash University Collection; Newcastle Art Gallery; Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston; Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery; and The University of Melbourne Art Collection.
