Name

Robert Jones

Culture

Australian

Gender

Male

Birth date

10 January 1943

Birth place

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia View on map Close map

Occupations

Paper (merchant) | Printer | Printmaker

Summary

Worked: Australia (SA.VIC). Lithographs, relief prints

NGA IRN

22827

Context

Australia

See also

BEEHIVE PRESS

Biography

Beehive Press, specialising in lithography, was established by Robert Jones in Adelaide in April 1978. Jones had studied at the South Australian School of Art from 1963 to 1967 when painter–printmaker Brian Seidel was in charge. He later moved to Italy in 1974 where he pursued his study of lithography with Carlo Ceci and visited and worked at local print workshops. On his return to Adelaide he brought a particular Italian approach to his lithographic printing. His clientele of local artists included Hossein Valamanesh and Barbara Hanrahan, with some occasional printing undertaken for expatriate Jeffrey Smart. Gretchen Albrecht who appreciated the subtlety of his printing travelled from Aotearoa New Zealand to produce a number of prints.

Despite the high quality of his work at Beehive Press, Jones was never able to make a profit and subsidised its operation through teaching. He eventually became the distributor of Magnani papers, produced in Pescia, Italy, and disbanded the workshop in 1988. [Roger Butler, Printed images by Australian artists 1942-2020, Canberra: NGA, 2021].