George Haynes, 2018. Art Collective WA.
George Haynes, 2018. Art Collective WA.

Our next artist monograph is about the prolific and influential 60-year career of artist George Haynes. Help Art Collective WA to publish it!

We are delighted and excited to announce that the next monograph in our publishing series will focus on the illustrious art career of George Haynes.

This will be the first major book about George Haynes’s art and his contribution to Australia, as a painter, teacher, and mentor. And it will be the fifth monograph produced by Art Collective WA, telling the story of a leading Western Australian artist.

George Haynes’ paintings are characteristically drenched in colour and are a keen observation of everyday Australian life and landscape, as well as a reflection of his jovial, bright personality. He is a master of light, creating harmonious paintings of colour, tone, and temperature, with a flair for composition that imbues a musical quality to his works.

At the heart of George’s paintings and drawings is an unworldly beauty. Not prettiness, not cuteness, but a deep and profound beauty - lyrical, elegant, and emotionally restrained. [Bela Kotai, 2010]

Featuring essays by eminent arts writers John McDonald (Art Critic, Sydney Morning Herald) and Sally Quin (Curator, University of Western Australia Art Collection), the book will illustrate George’s art journey with over 150 colour photographs and plates. Designed and printed in WA, the monograph will be launched in celebration of George’s career and his 85th birthday with a survey exhibition of his new and previous works, in November 2023 at our gallery in Cathedral Square, Perth.

Help us do justice to this exceptional artist’s career by donating to our Book Club
– the publishing program at Art Collective WA, supported through the Australian Cultural Foundation.

George Haynes was born in Kenya, studied at Chelsea School of Art in London, and arrived in Western Australia in 1962. A prolific artist whose work resides in the most prestigious private and public collections, he is also highly respected as an adored teacher and founding member of several artist groups.

Despite his exceptional standing within the arts and culture sector of Western Australia and his works achieving high values in the primary and secondary art market, there is little published or written about George’s career.  Art Collective WA seeks to address this gap by researching and producing a volume that does justice to his contribution to the arts of Australia in the 20th and 21st century.

When George received the Artsource Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, friend and fellow artist Bela Kotai said:

George Haynes was born to be an artist. He is a person with an immense and searching intellect. An intellect located just behind the eye, and oh! What an eye. An eye with perfect pitch, an eye that can read light like a composer following notes on a music score - parts distinct – rhythms clear – everything observed.

But not just an eye. Where observation is concerned, chance favours the prepared mind - and his mind is always active, always studying, always ready. He composes and improvises in that space behind the eye, then lets the hand take over and lay down the structure and harmonies with authority and wit.

By its sheer quantity and quality George’s work defies logic. To get close to the great truths about George’s work we must dig deeper. At the heart is an unworldly beauty. Not prettiness, not cuteness, but a deep and profound beauty - lyrical, elegant and emotionally restrained. [Bela Kotai, 2010]

Our publishing program (Book Club) aims to firmly place significant Western Australian artists in the wider Australian and international art context and record their work for posterity.

We invite you to join us in this important mission. Donate now to help us publish this timely and deserved book.

Our goal is to raise $10,000 by 30 September 2022 to support the production costs of publishing a scholarly and informative monograph. All donations over $2 through the Australian Cultural Foundation are tax deductible.

By adding your shoulder to the wheel, together we can make sure our contemporary artists are not lost in history. 

Our Book Club has previously supported these artist monographs:
Trevor VickersJeremy Kirwan-Ward,  Eveline Kotai and Olga Cironis.
Add them to your bookshelf.

Scroll down for more info. Contact us if you have any queries.

DO YOU HAVE A GEORGE IN YOUR COLLECTION?

Do you have a work by George Haynes in your Collection, like this one below from the Janet Holmes à Court Collection? We would love to hear from you, as we collate the records and images for the book. Please contact us.

ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN CULTURAL FUND & YOUR DONATIONS

The Australian Cultural Fund (ACF) is a fundraising platform for Australian artists. It is managed by Creative Partnerships Australia to encourage donations to the arts. By funding an ACF project, donors connect with artists whose work they believe in and inspire others to do the same.

All donations over $2 are tax deductible, but please note we are unable to provide a copy of the book in gratitude for your donation due to taxation laws.
Individual donations over $250 will be acknowledged in the book by name, unless you prefer to be anonymous.

Corporation and institutional contributions from $2500 and above will be acknowledged in the book. Contact us for more info.

Read more about the ACF, donations and Frequently Asked Questions. And support the George Haynes monograph campaign.

THANK YOU.