Bill Leak (1956-2017), portrait painter and caricaturist, trained at the Julian Ashton art school in the mid-1970s, and began his career painting landscapes. In 1978 he left Australia to travel and study in Europe. He returned to Australia in 1982, exhibited in Sydney and worked as a cartoonist at the Bulletin. In 1985 he began a ten-year stint as an illustrator for the Sydney Morning Herald; ten years later he took on the role of chief political illustrator for the Australian. As well as his nine Walkley awards for journalism, and nineteen Stanley Awards from the Australian Black and White Artists' Society (eight of them Gold Awards for Artist of the Year), he has been an Archibald Prize finalist twelve times. The National Portrait Gallery has painted portraits by Leak of Don Bradman, Richard Woolcott and Robert Hughes, as well as a cartoon of Mark Taylor. It is indicative of Leak's popularity that Josonia Palaitis's portrait of him won the Archibald People's Choice Award in 1995 and Esther Erlich's portrait of him won the same award in 2000. To widespread public dismay, Leak required cranial surgery and long recuperation after a fall from a balcony in late 2008.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Wayne Williams 2011
© phra ajahn ekaggata fka terry milligan
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.
