Design and Art Australia Online

Aubrey Gerald Guy Dodd, known as Peter, was the second son of Goulburn publican Edward Clarence Dodd and his wife Kathleen Evelyn (Katie) nee Aubrey. Edward held the license for the Great Southern Hotel in Goulburn until 1916; in 1920 he took over the Great Western Hotel in Orange(1) and by 1921 the family had moved to Cootamundra when he took over the Albion Hotel license(2).

By 1929 Dodd was receiving instruction at the Sydney Commercial Art School; that year he exhibited ‘meritorious’ trade advertisements and a ‘pleasant little design with fish as the leading motive’(3). By 1934 he is reported as the Commercial Art School’s Vice-Principal, and took up the role of Principal after the retirement of Maude Russell in 1935(4). Around this time Dodd adopted the name Peter and began to be recognised for his participation in Sydney’s artistic circles. In 1936 he was Secretary and spokesperson for the newly-founded Sydney Students’ Art Service which advocated for the interests of emerging artists, and in 1938 he presented a discussion with photographer Max Dupain titled ‘The photographic approach to art’ to an audience from the Industrial Arts Society (5). Photographs by Max Dupain and Olive Cotton evidence Dodd’s acquaintance with them and their wider circle during the 1930s (6). In June 1939 Dodd married Una Hannah Cecilia Merkel, their first child, a girl, followed in May 1940 (7). The couple were estranged by the late-1940s.

Dodd enlisted with the Australian Military Forces on 25 June 1941 and was called up for service on 8 July. Appointed to the Royal Australian Engineers as a Camouflage Officer at Lieutenant rank, Dodd was later seconded to the Australian Army Junior Tactical School as an instructor, and the School of Military Engineering as a Research and Training Officer. In July 1943 he was deployed for a short tour to New Guinea; upon his return in August was promoted to the rank of Captain. He continued service until his demobilisation in October 1945 (8).

Further evidence of Dodd’s relationships within Sydney’s arts community is observed in a 1948 newspaper article which identified him as a-then executor for the estate of Lithgow artist Heliodore Hawthorne, who ambitiously advocated for an art gallery to be built in Lithgow (9). On 10 January 1948 Dodd and painter Justin O’Brien departed Sydney aboard the SS Largs Bay, arriving in London on 27 February. This year-long European sojourn included a painting expedition to Paris in December 1948. Returning to Australia, Dodd designed and painted the frames for works in O’Brien’s solo exhibition at Macquarie Galleries in May 1950(10).

From 1950 Dodd was teaching painting at the National Art School, Sydney. In the early years of the decade he furnished exhibition reviews for Sydney tabloid The Sun, and less frequently the Bulletin, as well as presenting public lectures, and exhibiting work in the 1952 Blake Prize, and the 1955 Contemporary Art Society exhibition. Dodd sat on the board of the Contemporary Art Society Board in 1954–55, and later contributed to the Society’s lecture series (11). He died in Sydney in 1962.

At 2025, few examples of Dodd’s mature work are known. In 1937 an address presented to retiring Gocup postmistress and telephonist Moina McEvoy included a frontispiece of the Gocup firefighters drawn by Dodd (12). The following year, ‘highly original’ watercolours and oils by Dodd and Douglas Annand were displayed in David Jones Art Gallery alongside the first exhibition of the Contemporary Camera Group (13). Dodd’s contribution to the 1947 Contemporary Art Society exhibition, titled ‘Annunciation’, was backhandedly described as ‘possibly the best work Justin O’Brien never painted’(14); and his contribution to the 1952 Blake Prize depicting Joan of Arc and the Sacred Heart criticised Dodd for having 'changed little and that he is absorbed in technical exactitude and devotion to preferred form’ (15). Dodd’s interest in Jay Hambidge’s principles of dynamic symmetry was particularly reflected in the formal styling of his compositions during the 1940s. Brian Dunlop attributes the underlying geometry of Justin O’Brien’s 'Virgin enthroned’(1951, National Gallery of Victoria) as being 'mapped’ by Dodd (16).

Works by Dodd have been observed in oil on board and watercolour on paper. They may be identified by the inscription 'Peter Dodd’ or 'AG Dodd’.

(1) ‘General News’, National Advocate (Bathurst), Monday 26 July 1920, p. 2.
(2) ‘Local and General’, The Gundagai Times and Tumut, Adelong and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser, Tuesday 27 September 1921, p. 2.
(3) ‘Commercial Art Students’, Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 23 November 1929, p. 12; ‘Youthful Artists’, The Sun (Sydney), Sunday 24 November 1929, p. 5.
(4) ‘Gay Costumes’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Wednesday 29 August 1934, p. 11.
(5) ’Giving Art Away’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Friday 14 August 1936, p. 2; “Rally to Free Art Plan’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Saturday 15 August 1936, p. 2; ‘Art Students. Move to Approach Public’, Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 15 August 1936, p. 23; ‘Students to Meet in Park’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Thursday 10 September 1936, p. 8; ‘Art Tour Scheme’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Saturday 21 November 1936, p. 4; ‘Art with a Small “A”’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Tuesday 24 November 1936, p.6; ‘Young Artists. Stimulating Exhibition’, Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 24 November 1936, p. 3; ‘Art Students’, Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 18 December 1936, p. 8; ‘Photography and Art’, Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 8 June 1938, p. 9; ‘Gossipy Bits’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Thursday 9 June 1938, p. 10.
(6) State Library of New South Wales, ON 609/Box 08/nos. 600-601; PXA 28; PXA 2164/Folder 48/Items 2-4 (Dupain); National Library of Australia, PIC Drawer PM 1886 #PIC/P1664/E (Cotton).
(7) State Records of New South Wales Marriage registration 8121/1939.
(8) National Archives of Australia Military service Record B883, NX174950.
(9) 'Lithgow Artist Will Give Her All To Establish Art Gallery’, Lithgow Mercury, Wednesday 18 February 1948, p. 4.
(10) ‘Hat Colours Match Those in Paintings’, Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 18 May 1950, p. 10.
(11) Denise Whitehouse, The Contemporary Art Society of NSW and the Theory and Production of Contemporary Abstraction in Australia
1947-1961, Doctoral Thesis, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, 1999.
(12) ‘Eulogy and Presentation’, Tumut and Adelong Times, Tuesday 20 July 1937, p. 1.
(13) 'Camera Art. Contemporary Group. Exhibition Opened’, Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 22 November 1938, p. 2.
(14) 'Contemporary Art Society Show’, Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 18 April 1947, p. 8.
(15) 'Blake Prize reviewed’, Catholic Weekly (Sydney), Thursday 20 March 1957, p. 4.
(16) Steven Miller, Interview with Ruth Faerber, Art Gallery of New South Wales Archives, 13 August, 3 September, 29 October 2013 and 25 March 2014; Brian Dunlop, Justin O’Brien: Composition, Art and Australia, v. 18, no. 4 (1981), p. 368.

Writers:

Timothy Roberts

Date written:

2025

Last updated:

2026