B. 1893 – 1964

New Zealand born artist Godfrey Miller was a visionary. Moving between abstraction and figuration, his paintings could take up to a decade to complete, each a document of his view that the universe was a shimmering, kaleidoscopic entity. He began his career in architecture, studying at the Otago School of Art and Design before, at the outbreak of World War One, enlisting in the New Zealand army. 

Wounded in action, Miller was discharged in 1916 and returned to New Zealand. In 1918 he moved to Melbourne, Australia, and enrolled at the National Gallery School, studying antique drawing under WB McInnes. Between the 1920s and 1930s he travelled extensively, studying at the Slade School of Art in London and absorbing the work of Cezanne. 

A reticent and cerebral man, Miller eschewed attention, coming to notoriety only in the last decades of his life. Yet, his legacy is far-reaching: he was one of the twelve artists selected to participate in the Whitechapel exhibition Recent Australian Painting; was honoured with retrospectives at the National Gallery of Australia (1958) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (1996); and inspired a generation of Sydney artists, including John Olsen, Ken Unsworth and Ross Mellick.

 
To read a more in-depth biography of the artist, click here.