Biographical note

Peter Timms is a well-known and highly respected Australian author, critic and essayist.

Born and educated in Melbourne, he currently lives in Hobart, Tasmania.

He began his career in public art galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of NSW, Manly Art Gallery and Museum and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. As Director of Shepparton Art Gallery from 1973 to 1980, he developed a collection of ceramics which is now one of the major collections of its kind in Australia. He maintains an enthusiastic interest in ceramic art.

In 1984, he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for study in Europe, and received an Australia Council Senior Writers’ Fellowship in 1994.

Since 1988 he has been a freelance journalist and author, contributing articles and essays to many publications within Australia and in Britain, Europe and the USA. He was Editor of Art Monthly Australia from 1993 to 1998 and art critic for The Age from 1997 to 2001.

Peter maintains a lively interest in the natural environment, and is a long-term supporter of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Bush Heritage and the Tasmanian Land Conservancy. With his partner, the author Robert Dessaix, he owns and maintains an extensive conservation-covenanted property on Tasmania’s east coast.