Del Kathryn Barton


Del Kathryn Barton is an Australian artist, who won the 2008 and 2013 Archibald Prizes.

Early life

Barton grew up in the bushland of the lower Blue Mountains, drawing obsessively from an early age. Her subjects included fairies, animals, nature, and maps. She also drew the female form, occasionally using her mother to pose for her nude works, other times copying work from published magazines.
In 1990, she entered into the Sydney College of Fine Arts, as an already accomplished artist with a wide repertoire of subjects. Her tutor during this time, whom she recalled as a “fantastic teacher”, was Michael Esson. After graduating, she was employed at CoFA from 1994-96.

Career

Barton studied at the College of Fine Arts of the University of New South Wales, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1993. She was later employed at the College as a lecturer. She has held numerous solo exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne since her first in 1995.
Her solo exhibitions include: The Nightingale and the Rose, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia ; the highway is a disco, ARNDT, Singapore ; Electro Orchid, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney ; The Nightingale and the Rose, Heide Museum of Modern Art ; the stars eat your body, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney ; the whole of everything, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne and thank you for loving me, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne.
On 7 March 2008, it was announced that Barton had won the 2008 Archibald Prize for portraiture, for You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella, a self-portrait with her two children. Barton said of the portrait: "This painting celebrates the love I have for my two children and how my relationship with them has radically informed and indeed transformed my understanding of who I am". A key inspiration for Barton is her experience of motherhood. In 2013, she won the Archibald Prize for her portrait of actor Hugo Weaving. Of portraiture generally, she says: "I really value the discipline" that it brings.
She was also an Archibald Prize finalist in 2008, 2013 and 2018.
She is represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney.
Del Kathryn Barton has participated in group exhibitions that include: Like-ness, Albertz Benda, New York, USA ; Express Yourself: Romance Was Born for Kids, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne ; Dark Heart, Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Adelaide ; Theatre of the World, Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania ; Lightness and Gravity, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland ; Freehand: Recent Australia Drawing, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne ; 2009 Wynne Prize for Landscape, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney ; Half a World Away: Drawings from Glasgow, Sao Paulo and Sydney, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, New York.
Barton produced the animated film Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose, which celebrated its world premiere at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in 2015 and was shown at the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival. The movie won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film.
Barton is represented in the National Gallery of Australia's collection with four prints in her series 'that's when I was another tree' from 2007.

Artistic Practice

Barton begins a work by making a drawing, perhaps of an emotion, gesture or image from a dream. She then develops the drawings into a highly patterned paintings, working on more than one painting at a time. Each work takes several months to complete.

Publications

Images

  • Video