Andrew Sayers

1957 - 2015

Biography

Andrew Sayers was an art historian and artist based in Melbourne.

From 2010 until 2013 he was Director of the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. He was the inaugural Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (1998-2010) and prior to taking up that role was a Curator and Assistant Director (Collections) at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (1985-1998).

His principal publications are Drawing in Australia, 1989; Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century, 1994; Sidney Nolan; The Ned Kelly Story, 1994 and Australian Art in The Oxford History of Art, 2001.

In 2010 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to arts administration.

From 2013 onwards he focussed on his career as an artist and was a finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2014. Following a small exhibition of his works on the South Coast of New South Wales in 2014, his first major solo exhibition. Nature Through the Glass of Time, was shown at Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne (2 May – 27 June 2015).

 

 

Katrina Strickland, ‘Former National Portrait Gallery Director Andrew Sayers moves behind the easel’, Australian Financial Review, 26 February 2015

Mark Hawthorne, ‘Portrait of an artist. Life turns full circle for Andrew Sayers, The Age, Saturday 2 May, 2015, p.12

Christopher Allen, ‘Brushes with Nature’, The Weekend Australian Review, 13-14 June 2015, pp.12-13

Ramon Martinez Mendoza, ‘Andrew Sayers – Nature Through the Glass of Time, ArtsHub, 2 June 2015, online review

Exhibitions

The Trembling Bridge, Mister Jones Open Studio and Cafe, Bermagui NSW, 19 September - 3 October 2015.

Nature Through the Glass of Time, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, 2 May – 27 June 2015.

A Lens of Clear Air, Beaver Galleries, Canberra, 5 - 29 November 2015