Pro Hart; Independent obituary (Australian artist)
Hyfler/Rosner
The Independent
Rebecca Hossack
31 March 2006
Pro Hart has a good claim to be the best-known and most
popular artist in Australia. His works, closely observed
depictions of the scrubby bush landscape and the small-town
life of rural New South Wales, painted in a richly coloured
if slightly naïve style, have a wide and ready appeal. It
was an appeal enhanced by Hart's generous, outgoing
character and by the fact that he sold most of his work from
his own gallery - the Pro Hart Family Gallery - in his
native Broken Hill, New South Wales. His fame was only
enhanced by his starring, between 1988 and 2003, in a series
of television advertisements for a brand of easy-to-clean
carpet.
Kevin Charles Hart was born in the mining town of Broken
Hill in 1928. His first years were spent on the family sheep
property nearby. He showed an early interest in drawing,
painting and in making things, but - like most of his
contemporaries - began his working life in the mines.
Nevertheless he persevered with his art. Although largely
self-taught, he made drawings of his work experiences and
began to paint them. (His wife - whom he married in 1960 -
touted them around stores in the town.)
He received some local encouragement, along with the
nickname "Professor", soon shortened to "Pro". Having begun
painting full-time in 1958, Pro Hart had his first one-man
exhibition in 1962 at the innovative Kim Bonython gallery in
Adelaide. It was an immediate success.
Despite a rapidly growing reputation across Australia, Hart
preferred to spend his time and his energy at Broken Hill.
He opened his own gallery there. The town and the
surrounding bush country remained the abiding theme of his
art. And it was his proud boast that he had won the Broken
Hill Art Prize on five occasions. He drew other artists of a
similar outlook to the area, and helped to foster something
of an Australian Outback Painting Movement.
During the 1960s and 1970s he exhibited internationally - in
London (where the Duke of Edinburgh acquired two of his
works), France, Egypt and America. One of his pictures is in
the White House collection, another was bought by Arnold
Schwarzenegger. His exhibition in Tel Aviv in 1977 was the
first show by an Australian artist in Israel.
His artistic energy was prodigious. He made large sculptures
out of welded steel and (on the occasion of one of his
Adelaide gallery openings) out of ice. He also illustrated
numerous books, including a collection of poems by the
popular Bush poet Henry Lawson, a venture that gave full
range to both his love of the Australian landscape and his
sense of humour. Amongst the few images that he made not of
the Australian scene was a series of large-scale paintings
depicting the horrors of the Gallilpoli campaign.
He had no time for what he called the "art mafia" - the
metropolitan critics and public gallery curators - and they
had little time for him. Nevertheless his fame and success
secured him a place in the history of Australian art, and
examples of his work have now been acquired by the
Australian state and national galleries.
Hart was appointed MBE in 1976. It was only one of several
accolades. He received an Australian Citizen of the Year
award in 1983 and a Centenary Medal in 2003. Broken Hill
town council honoured him by declaring 2004 the "Year of Pro
Hart". His studio-gallery by then had become a major tourist
attraction, the home not only of an impressive collection of
Australian and European art but also of a huge Rodgers
Electric Pipe Organ.
Hart counted organ playing amongst his favourite pastimes,
along with body-building, vintage cars and pistol shooting.
He was a man of strong and sometimes colourful views. He had
a great appetite for right-wing conspiracy theories. But
this went hand in hand with his generous charity work and
his strong Christian beliefs. He was a member of the
Gideons, and often surprised acquaintances by presenting
them with hand-decorated copies of the New Testament.
Such was Hart's commercial success that, towards the end of
his life, he became concerned about the growing market for
forgeries of his work. To counter this danger he developed a
method of tagging each of his pictures with a trace of his
own DNA - taken with a swab from the inside of his cheek.
Kevin Charles ("Pro") Hart, artist: born Broken Hill, New
South Wales 30 May 1928; MBE 1976; married 1960 Raylee
Tonkin (three sons, two daughters); died Broken Hill 28
March 2006.