David Aspden (1935-2005), artist, came to Australia from England in 1950. After working for twelve years as a painter and signwriter in Port Kembla, he moved to Sydney, where he had his first solo exhibition at Watters Gallery in 1965. With two more solo shows soon after, Aspden found himself in the vanguard of Australia's formal colour abstractionists; two of his works were included in the seminal National Gallery of Victoria exhibition The field in 1968. The command of colour that the self-taught artist refined in the 1960s became the hallmark of his painting over the ensuing decades. As early as 1970 he was described as 'Australia's leading colour-painter' and in 1971 he was awarded a gold medal at the Sao Paulo biennale. Over time, the hard edges of his interlocking colour blocks softened under the increasing influence of landscape, nature and music. He exhibited in sixteen Wynne prizes between 1977 and 1998, winning in 1995. He is represented the National Gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Queensland Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. A retrospective, David Aspden: The colour of music and place will show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from July 2011.
