Bio
James Vandeleur Wigley Bio
James is an Australian painter known for his sensitive depictions of aboriginal camp scenes and desert landscapes James studied at the School of Fine Arts in North Adelaide with F. Millward Grey during 1939 he spent time with his old school friend the anthropologist Ronald Berndt at Murray Bridge where he completed a series of portrait drawings of local people he moved to Melbourne in 1941 where he joined an army survey regiment then a unit making relief maps and model aeroplanes used to train officers James exhibited in the 1942 Anti-Fascist exhibition held in Melbourne where he became friends with Noel Counihan and other social realist painters and writers after his discharge from the army in 1943 he travelled to the Northern Territory to join Ronald Berndt at Daly River during this time he completed a number of drawings of outback camp life following his return to Melbourne and two years of art study at the National Gallery School in an army rehabilitation course James travelled to Europe with fellow artist Yosl Bergner James exhibited in Paris at the Galerie Gentil Hommiere and in London before returning to Melbourne in 1953 in 1956 James went to Port Hedland in the North West to work with Donald McLeod and the Aborigines of the region in an Aboriginal workers’ co-operative living independently by mining and pearl shell gathering During 1974 the group purchased a sheep station in the Pilbara and established an independent school whilst developing this school James worked the offset press to print all material needed for a multi-lingual school and illustrated and designed the readers’ books in 1979 James returned to Melbourne to paint and draw in 1991 he returned to the Northern Territory for a short period where his son Julian was working with Aboriginal communities a survey of his work was held at the Niagara Galleries in 1992 James continued to paint until his death in 1999
