Artist, former director of the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Australia.
Born in England, Sayers came to Australia with his parents at the age of six. He grew up in the Hawkesbury region. A keen artist and observer of nature from boyhood, he formed a precocious determination to become an art historian and in 1979 graduated with honours in Art History from the University of Sydney. Having been Registrar of Collections at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, in 1981 he became Assistant Director at the Newcastle Region Art Gallery. In 1985 he moved to Canberra to take up the position of Curator of Australian Drawings and then Assistant Director (Collections) at the National Gallery of Australia. In 1989 he published ‘Drawing in Australia’, and in 1994 ‘Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century’, an important, ground-breaking work of scholarship for which Andrew received the H.E. Stanner Award of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
Andrew Sayers was appointed inaugural Director of the new National Portrait Gallery in April 1998. Sayers envisioned a National Portrait Gallery that not only told the story of Australia through portraits of its most eminent citizens, but also pushed at the very boundaries of the genre of portraiture itself. In his first year at the Gallery – whilst writing, in the very early mornings, ‘Australian Art’ for the ‘Oxford History of Art’ series – he established policies, made press appearances, commissioned new works of art, conceived exhibitions, wrote acquisition proposals for individual works and researched, wrote and edited text for display in the Gallery. Sayers, along with advisory boards and successive chairs, established a framework for this brand new institution, set its agenda, and caused it to flourish.
In 2010, after eleven years at the National Portrait Gallery, he left to take up the position of Director of the National Museum of Australia, serving in that capacity until, in 2013 he decided to devote himself full-time to painting in the studio. An accomplished portrait of his close friend Professor Tim Bonyhady was selected for inclusion in this year’s ‘Archibald Prize’ exhibition at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, the institution where Andrew began his career.
Survived by his wife Perry, their daughters Ianthe, Hana and Ella, and their grandchild Asher, Sayers died far too soon, after fighting pancreatic cancer, but achieved many great things. His fine books will long continue to inspire future generations of scholars of Australian art.
Courtesy the National Portrait Gallery’s Chairman, Dr Helen Nugent AO, and Director, Angus Trumble
Mark Mohell, Andrew Sayers, 2012, selenium toned gelatin silver photograph
Collection: National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2013
