Bill Boustead

Bill Boustead
Bill Boustead Art Conservator
Born	William Morris Boustead 3 January 1912 Gloucester, NSW, Australia
Died	15 October 1999(1999-10-15) (aged 87) Sydney, NSW, Australia

William Morris Boustead (3 January 1912 – 15 October 1999) was an Australian Art conservator. He was conservator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1954 until 1977.[1]

Biography

Boustead was born in Gloucester, New South Wales and educated at Fort Street High School.[2] His first job after leaving school was working in a metallurgical and chemical laboratory while studying at technical college.[1]

After spending most of the 1930s in the Pacific he served with the Royal Australian Engineers during World War II.[1] Following his discharge in 1945 Boustead began studying at the National Art School in Sydney.[1] In 1946 he was appointed to the conservation workshop of the Art Gallery of New South Wales then appointed as gallery conservator in 1954.[1]

Boustead's achievements during his time as conservator at the AGNSW included:

• Building the first vacuum hot table in Australia[1]
• Setting up the first program in Australia to train conservators[3][4]
• Regarded as the Grandfather of the Conservation Profession in Australia [5]
• Leading the Australian team as part of the International response to the flooding of Florence in 1966[1][6]
• Pioneering processes to conserve art works from tropical regions especially Bark Paintings[6][7]
• Performed the initial conservation assessment of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles in 1974 following its purchase by the Whitlam Government[8]

References

1. National Newsletter Archived 22 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine AICCM December 1999
2. "FORT STREET HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ALUMNI" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
3. Understanding Museums – Conservation in Australian museums
4. Collection Conservation National Gallery of Australia
5. Lyall, Jan (June 2016). "Obituary for Colin Pearson". Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
6. Bill Boustead Archived 26 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine National Library, Canberra
7. Preserving Aboriginal Art Taylor & Francis Online
8. "James Mollison and Peter Laverty watching conservator William Boustead examining 'Blue Poles' 1952 by Jackson Pollock 1974". Art Gallery of NSW. 28 November 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2023.

External links

• Biographical cuttings on William Boustead, conservator, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals