Bill Boustead Explained

Bill Boustead
Birth Name:	William Morris Boustead
Birth Date:	3 January 1912
Birth Place:	Gloucester, NSW, Australia
Death Place:	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.

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

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

• Building the first vacuum hot table in Australia
• 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^[6]
• Pioneering processes to conserve art works from tropical regions especially Bark Paintings^[7]
• Performed the initial conservation assessment of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles in 1974 following its purchase by the Whitlam Government^[8]

External links

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

Notes and References

1. http://www.aiccm.org.au/docs/AICCMNewsletters/NationalNewsletter_73_Dec1999.pdf National Newsletter
2. Web site: FORT STREET HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ALUMNI. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304004136/http://www.fortstreet.nsw.edu.au/PageFiles/11152/Fort%20Street%20High%20School.pdf. 4 March 2016.
3. http://www.nma.gov.au/research/understanding-museums/ICook_etal_2011.html Understanding Museums – Conservation in Australian museums
4. http://nga.gov.au/Conservation/essay.cfm Collection Conservation
5. Web site: Lyall . Jan . Jun 2016 . Obituary for Colin Pearson . 28 Nov 2023 . Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material.
6. http://aiccm.org.au/docs/Bulletin1977/Cook_Boustead_Bulletin_1977_Vol3No2.pdf Bill Boustead
7. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/sic.1966.023?journalCode=ysic20 Preserving Aboriginal Art
8. Web site: 28 Nov 2023 . James Mollison and Peter Laverty watching conservator William Boustead examining 'Blue Poles' 1952 by Jackson Pollock 1974 . 28 Nov 2023 . Art Gallery of NSW.