B. 1940

Born in Sydney, Ken Done is an icon of Australian culture. He left school at fourteen to study at the National Art School and after completing his studies, relocated to work in London and New York at the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. In 1969 however, he returned to pursue painting full time, spurred by a chance encounter with a Matisse exhibition in London. 

Done’s designs are synonymous with a tenet of the Australian spirit. He has completed commissions for the 1988 World Exposition held in Brisbane and the 2000 Sydney Olympics, his bright, flat designs adorning t-shirts and tea towels through his design company, “Done Art and Design”, run with his wife Judy Done. 

Despite his success in design, as art critic John MacDonald has observed “Anybody who has anything to do with [Done] realises he is a very serious artist.” Having shown in the Archibald, Wynne, Sulman and Dobell art prizes and been honoured with a major retrospective at the Powerhouse Museum, Done is a unique and exuberant figure in Australia’s collective imagination.