Peter Benjamin Graham

Peter Graham
Peter Graham, Sydney, 1953
Born	4 June 1925 Melbourne, Australia
Died	15 April 1987 Melbourne, Australia

Peter Benjamin Graham (4 June 1925 – 15 April 1987), was an Australian visual artist, printer, and art theorist.

In 1954, Graham began to explore native Australian wildlife (notably Kangaroos) and themes associated with Aboriginal culture, using the visual languages of European figurative Modernism and later geometric abstraction.

He began developing a new form of visual geometry related to Chaos Theory from 1960, eventually called Thematic Orchestration. This new visual language enabled the 2D deconstruction and synthesis of an observed subject, in a way fundamentally different from traditional abstraction. Thematic Orchestration allows the artist to 'grow' an image, producing almost infinite conscious invention.

In 1964 Graham began developing what he called a high level visual notation system for pure visual imagery, which he first named Notation Painting and later New Epoch Art.

Graham became a pioneer of the Australian artist run initiative movement, running The Queensberry Street Gallery in association with Victorian Printmakers' Group from 1973 until 1978.

In 2006 Peter Graham's 1945 painting Peter Lalor Addressing the Miners Before Eureka featured in a major Australian travelling exhibition celebrating the 150 anniversary of the This painting is also featured in Riot or Revolution, a dramatised history documentary on the Eureka Stockade directed by Don Parham and produced by Parham Media Productions in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2005.

Peter Graham was born 4 June 1925 and raised in the Melbourne suburb of Hartwell. He was awarded scholarship to Melbourne Technical College Art School for one year in 1939. He studied Hand Lithography with Ross McClintock Studios (Colour separation from artists' originals, drawn as lithographic plates - 24 sheet positives, etc.) between 1940 and 1941. Peter transferred his indenture to PhotoGravures Pty Ltd. in 1941. There he was trained by master craftsmen in facsimile reproduction and pre-press Rotogravure techniques during war years. He received his Certificate of Completion of apprenticeship in 1946.