Justin O'Brien

Justin Maurice O'Brien (2 August 1917 – 25 January 1996 ) was an Australian artist and teacher who was known both for religious art and portraiture. His art was heavily influenced by his service in World War II, in which he became a prisoner or war, and the trauma he experienced as a part of this.

He won the inaugural Blake Prize in 1951 and completed many significant pieces of art work at churches throughout Europe and Australia. This was despite no longer holding religious beliefs and identifying as agnostic.

When in secondary school, while attending the Christian Brothers’ College in Waverley, he began being tutored by Edward M Smith who was a respected art teacher and critic. The next year, when only 14 he left school and became Smith's apprentice for the next four years. After completing this apprenticeship he began teaching art classes independently at Catholic Schools around Sydney.

While at the camp O'Brien was a part of the camp's theatre group, facilitated art classes for fellow prisoners and was able to paint with supplies that were sent to them by voluntary aid organisations. While at the camp he also befriended fellow artists Austen Deans and Jesse Martin. One of the pieces of art created during this time was Self-portrait (1941), which is now held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales which is one of his few examples of realism.

In October 1943 he and Martin were a part of a prisoner exchange and, via Barcelona, returned to Sydney where he began working at the 113th Australian General Hospital. In March 1944 he and Martin held a joint exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries which is believed to have been the first exhibition held by returned servicemen in Australia. He remained there until 1948 and he called this period "one of the happiest and most formative of his life". Following winning this award he received numerous commissions for other pieces for Australian churches. In 1962 he was also awarded the Darcy Morris Memorial Prise for his work The Virgin Enthroned. Despite his success as a religious painter O'Brien himself described himself as a 'painter of religious subjects' and he was agnostic.

In 1963, on another period of leave, O'Brien travelled to Europe and spent a number of months in Greece where he lived on Skyros with painters Jeffrey Smart and Brian Dunlop. Together they leased a fisherman's cottage and, after a hugely successful exhibition featuring his art from this time in mid-1965 O'Brien decided to resign from his teaching position and return to Europe to focus on his painting full-time.

He died on 17 January 1996 of bone cancer. the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the University of Sydney

The National Portrait Gallery in Australia holds a number of portraits of O'Brien.

O'Brien is the subject of a 2020 episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation series Compass entitled: Justin O’Brien – The Sacred Music Of Colour.