Rodney Armour "Rod" Milgate was an Australian painter and playwright. He was a Professor of the Visual Arts School of the City Art Institute, University of NSW and newsreader. Milgate was considered one of Australia's most influential artists, especially during the 60s and 70s. His work is represented in major collections around the world and he had many solo exhibitions and awards for his work, including the Blake Prize for Religious Art three times. His play, A Refined Look at existence, first presented in February 1968, was described as "An ironic comedy drama which reworks Euripides' The Bacchae, set in a NSW country town. Daring in form, this was possibly the earliest play to capture the emotional turbulence that characterised the 1960s." In 1960, he married Australian actress Dinah Shearing and the couple had two sons. Milgate retired to the Central Coast, north of Sydney, where he died on Friday, 19 September 2014.
Selected work
Awards
1964 John Fairfax Human Image Prize
1966 Blake Prize for Religious Art
1968 Harkness Fellowship, two-year tenure
1970 D' Arcy Morris Memorial Prize
1972 Gold Coast Purchase Prize
1975 Blake Prize for Religious Art
1977 Blake Prize for Religious Art
1978 Six month Residency, Owen Tooth Memorial Cottage, The Karolyi Foundation, Vence, France
2002 Journey into self, Gosford Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2012 Allograph, Gosford Regional Art Gallery, NSW
Productions and writings
1966 A Refined Look at Existence, produced at Jane Street Theatre, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney by Robin Lovejoy
1968 At Least You Get Something Out of That, play commissioned by New South Wales Drama Foundation, produced at Old Tote Theatre Season of Australian plays
1977 Grass Up to Your Ears and Buckets with Holes in Them
1978 Incident at Novala Beach
1979 A Golden Pathway Through Europe selected for workshop production presentation at National Playwrights' Conference, Australian National University, Canberra
1980 A Golden Pathway Through Europe produced at Ensemble Theatre, Milsons Point, Sydney
1983 'Work in Progress', ABC telefilm, The Creative Eye, series on Australian artists
1984 Triage or the Fortunates adapted for radio and accepted for production ABC Radio, Sydney
Wrote Archibald Prize
1985 Anniversary Waltz Workshop reading of Intruders at Hunter Valley Theatre Company, Newcastle, NSW
1991 Workshop reading of Anniversary Waltz, Iron €ove Theatre, Sydney
1992 The Search for Meaning – Fourteen Stations of the Cross subject of monograph for ABC National Radio, presented by Caroline Jones, produced by Stephen Godley; poems recorded by Ron Haddrick and Dinah Shearing, Catholic Broadcasting Services, Sydney, * * 1992
1993 Incident at Novala Beach Published by College of Fine Arts, NSW University.
