Roy De Maistre (1894 – 1968)
Roy De Maistre was born in Maryvale, Bowral in 1894. He studied at the Royal Art Society and at Julian Ashton Art School.
After serving in the first Australian Imperial Force and the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1916, he worked with Adrian Verbrugghen and Roland Wakelin to devise a Colour/Music theory. He was the first Australian artist to use pure abstractionism and his later work had Cubist influences.
Between 1923 and 1925 he used a Society of Artists’ scholarship to travel to England, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Holland then in 1930 he moved permanently to England where he participated in exhibitions at Tate Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts and the Whitechapel Gallery.
Examples of his works are held in many collections including National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Arts Council of Great Britain and Tate Gallery, London.
