VICTOR RUBIN
Sydney, Australia | Born 1950 | Lives & works in Melbourne.
Victor Rubin is an Australian painter and draughtsman whose career has spanned more than five decades. Born in Sydney in 1950, Rubin's early artistic development included study with Ken Unsworth before, at the age of sixteen, he joined the influential Bakery Art School established by John Olsen. There he studied under Olsen, Bill Rose and Janet Dawson, an experience that helped foster the expressive and highly individual approach that would become characteristic of his work.
From 1970 to 1973 Rubin studied at the National Art School, then East Sydney Technical College, and Alexander Mackie Teachers College, where he was awarded a Diploma of Art Education. He subsequently combined painting with teaching and lecturing, while establishing an extensive exhibition career. In 1990 he was awarded an artist residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and since 1993 has lived and worked in Melbourne.
Rubin's paintings are characterised by their restless energy and remarkable diversity. Figurative imagery, portraiture, interiors, still life and abstraction coexist within a practice informed by art history, personal experience and imagination. His compositions can move from recognisable figures and domestic scenes to densely layered passages of line, colour and fragmented form. Rubin himself has acknowledged the importance of art history to his practice, drawing inspiration from artistic traditions extending from Impressionism and Cubism to Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and beyond.
Rubin has been selected as a finalist for major Australian art prizes, including the Archibald Prize, Sir John Sulman Prize and Blake Prize. His portrait of his former teacher and mentor John Olsen was exhibited in the 2010 Archibald Prize. His work has also appeared in significant exhibitions including Australian Perspecta in 1983 and 1985.
His work is held in major Australian and international collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Heide Museum of Modern Art and Auckland Art Gallery. The NGV alone holds three works by Rubin in its collection.
Rubin continues to paint and exhibit. His long career is distinguished by continual experimentation, moving between representation and abstraction while retaining the expressive energy and individuality that have characterised his work since the 1970s.
