Clifton Pugh

Early life

Pugh was born in Richmond, Victoria, one of three, to English-born Thomas Owen Pugh, an assistant mechanical engineer, and Adelaide born wife Violet Odgen (née Cook). Both Pugh's parents were amateur painters, and as a young man during the 1940s Pugh attended evening classes at the Swinburne Technical College to study cartoon drawing. Two years later, whilst living in Adelaide, he took evening classes in life drawing at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts.

Pugh served with the Australian Imperial Force in New Guinea during World War II and with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan after the war. A group of Japanese soldiers surrendered to the unit with which Pugh was fighting during a lull in fighting. On receiving orders to proceed, Pugh (and possibly others) tortured, shot and killed them. This incident and the guilt he felt affected his attitude to war (he became a pacifist) and his painting.

Career

After serving in World War II, with the financial support of the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme, Pugh returned to Melbourne and enrolled in the National Gallery of Victoria Art School.

Pugh was heavily influenced by German Expressionism. He read Sheldon Cheney's The Story of Modern Art (1941) while recuperating in hospital in New Guinea during World War II. Pugh's primary influence was Wassily Kandinsky: "I can see Kandinsky in everything I do." His training at the National Gallery School gave him a strong foundation in drawing and he learned the tonal painting technique, but when he took his teacher William (Bill) Dargie to see Sidney Nolan's Kelly and Dargie's attitude was dismissive, Pugh left the school to develop his own ideas.

In 1951 Pugh bought 15 acres (61,000 m2) of bushland near Cottles Bridge, 50 kilometres (31 mi) northeast of Melbourne, which he named Dunmoochin. Pugh at first camped on the site, then built a wattle-and-daub shack.

Artists, potters and others also settled at the site. In order to protect and jointly control the area they formed the Dunmoochin Artists Co-operative with a constitution of 13 articles. It was not a commune in any sense of the word except that the titles were communally held.

When the co-operative eventually disbanded each member took a section of the land. Artists who worked or resided at Dunmoochin have included

Rick Amor,

Frank Hodgkinson,

John Howley,

Helen Laycock,

Peter Laycock,

Mirka Mora,

Kevin Nolan,

John Olsen,

John Perceval,

Printmaker

Pugh worked with the printmaker Stanley Hayter for three months in Paris in 1970. He brought Hayter’s oil viscosity printing technique back to Australia the same year. Pugh and John Olsen purchased an etching press and operated it at Dunmoochin. In 1971 Pugh invited Frank Hodgkinson to move to Dunmoochin and Pugh's "enthusiasm proved to be a major stimulus for Hodgkinson's printmaking."

Politics and art

Pugh chaired the Victorian ALP Arts Policy Committee from 1971, and Gough Whitlam appointed Pugh to the Australia Council for the Arts in 1973. Pugh made public his disagreements with Council chairman H C "Nugget" Coombes who refused to implement the policy Pugh and his fellow committee members had crafted and then taken through the processes of the Victorian and Federal ALP conferences to become official ALP arts policy. Pugh resigned from the Council in 1974.

In 1981 as Whitlam launched Pugh's biography at Realities Gallery, he joked about having to make his speech in front of his nemesis Sir John Kerr in a controversial portrait painted by Pugh in 1975; "I'll have you know I had nothing to do with the placing of the exhibit."

Protanope colour vision deficiency

Pugh's brother and grandnephew had protanope colour vision deficiency and it is probable that he did on biographical, gene pedigree inheritance and other grounds (such as failing the colour vision test when endeavouring to enlist in the Navy).

Personal life

Pugh married three times: to June Byford, Marlene Harvey and Judith Ley. Pugh had two sons with Marlene, Shane and Dailan.

Pugh became a pacifist during World War II, while on active service, and retained this position during the Vietnam War. He joined the Labor Party to campaign for the end of Australia's involvement in that War.

The marriage to Marlene ended in 1969, they divorced in 1971. In 1970 Pugh met Judith. He became very well known, as he and Judith used his status as a painter to improve that of the ALP. They did this in order to ensure the election of the ALP as Pugh was an anti war activist. They separated in 1980 and divorced in 1981. He lived for some years with Adriane Strampp, who trained as a painter.

Death and legacy

Pugh returned to painting full-time after his experience with the Australia Council, and despite suffering three heart attacks and minor ischaemic episodes, continued to paint and make prints until his fatal heart attack in 1990. Pugh established the Dunmoochin Foundation which now forms part of his legacy, and provides residences for artists in his bush property.

Pugh also donated Dunmoochin land to the Victorian Conservation Trust (now Trust for Nature) in 1989. Two plants of national significance have been recorded on this land.

Archibald Prize winning works

1965 – R A Henderson

1971 – Sir John McEwen

1972 – The Hon E.G. Whitlam

Documentary films featuring Clifton Pugh

Painting People (Commonwealth Film Unit, directed by Tim Burstall)

Bird and Animal (Eltham Films)

Four Painters (ATV Channel 0, Melbourne)

See It My Way (ABC Channel 2, Sydney)

The Diamantina (De Montignie Media Productions)

A Fragile Country

Australian Story: Children of the Brush Part 1 (ABC Channel 2, Sydney )