Lenton Parr


Lenton Parr was an Australian sculptor and teacher.

Sculptor

Born in East Coburg, Victoria Lenton Parr spent eight years in the Royal Australian Air Force before enrolling to study sculpture at the Royal Melbourne Technical College, then worked in England 1955–57 as an assistant to Henry Moore. There he was influenced by Reg Butler and Eduardo Paolozzi to work with enamelled steel structures, which was to become his lifelong specialty. After his return to Melbourne he showed at Peter Bray Gallery in 1957, and embarked on a career in art education.

Art educator

Parr was Head of Sculpture at RMIT, then Head of Prahran College of Technology in a $1.5 million building completed as he arrived. He appointed staff who became influential Australian art and was held in high esteem by staff, but his fine art philosophy clashed with the vocationally-oriented aims of the College Principal Alan Warren, who acted unsuccessfully to have him removed by advertising his job, prompting an inquiry by the Minister. Though his appointment at Prahran was upheld, he left, effective January 31, 1969, to take up the role of Principal at the National Gallery School, leading to his appointment as director of the Victorian College of the Arts when it replaced the Gallery School

Recognition

He was a member of the Victorian Sculptors' Society and its seventh president. Around 1960 he joined with Clifford Last, Inge King, Vincas Jomantas and Teisutis Zikaras to form a splinter group which exhibited together as the 'Centre Five'. In 1967 the group split from the Society, which never recovered from the departure of so many of its prominent members.
In 1977 he was invested with the Order of Australia for his services to sculpture and the arts. He was awarded Honorary Doctorate in Arts in 1992. A major monograph on his work was published in 1999. The Lenton Parr Library of the University of Melbourne was named for him.

Selected exhibitions

Represented in most State Gallery and other Public Collections and in various Institutional and Private Collections including: