Centre for Australian Art

Australian Prints + Printmaking

Fred Genis

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Name

Fred Genis

Culture

Australian | Dutch

Gender

Male

Birth date

5 January 1934

Birth place

Amersfoort. Netherlands View on map Close map

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Death date

22 August 2022

Death Place

New South Wales, Australia View on map Close map

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Movements

Australia 1950s, United States 1965-1972, 1973-78 Holland, Australia from 1979

Occupations

Print publisher | Printer (editioning) | Printer (lithographic)

Summary

Worked: Holland, USA, Australia (NSW). Lithographs

NGA IRN

15700

Context

Australia

Biography

Fred Genis, a Dutchman, was the first celebrity printer in Australia. Born in the Netherlands in 1934, he worked for print publisher Gemini GEL in Los Angeles in 1965, was master printer at Universal Limited Art Editions in New York (ULAE) from 1967 to 1969 and joined Hollander Workshop in New York in 1969. After moving to Australia he set up his own workshop at Kenthurst, Sydney, New South Wales, in 1979 before relocating to the inner Sydney suburb of Glebe in 1994 and in 1999 to the Byron Bay Shire. Genis retired in 2006 and his equipment was acquired by Julie Chambers who installed it in her print workshop The Art Vault, in Mildura, Victoria.

Genis printed and published the prints of many prominent Australian artists including John Olsen, Colin Lanceley, Tim Storrier and Lloyd Rees and worked for publishers including Port Jackson Press. In 1994 Sherman Genis Graphics was formed as a collaboration between Genis and Sherman Galleries in Sydney. The publishing venture, which was centred on gallery artists, was launched at the Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne, in 1994. Genis was also a committed teacher lecturing at the Sydney College of the Arts, 1980-82, TAFE, Surrey Hills 1982-92 (part-time) and was Head of Printmaking at the National Art School, Sydney, 1997-98.

The National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, have each presented major exhibitions of work he printed. Fred Genis died in 2022. [Roger Butler, Printed images by Australian artists 1942-2020, Canberra: NGA, 2021].