Nigel Thomson was born 1945 in Sydney, Australia, and died in Sydney in 2001. He studied at the Julian Ashton School of Art, Sydney (1963-1966). He was represented by the Treadwell Gallery during his years in Europe, from 1973-1980. The Gallery gave him a one man exhibition at the Basel Art Fair in 1977, and a three man exhibition at the London Gallery in 1979 with the comparative painters, Austrian, Gottfried Helnwein and French based Hungarian, Ettienne Sandorfi. On returning to Australia, he won the prestigious, Archibald Prize and in 2003 the Manly Museum presented a posthumous exhibition of his work. In nick treadwell`s view, Nigel did his most controversial, challenging and unique work whilst working with his gallery… the work he recalls most vividly was “Blind”, a painting of a dinner party of blind people, struggling and miserably failing to eat their food(including peas) and pour each other wine. Nigel had painted a film of white paint over the surface of the picture so it wasn`t quite clear and he insisted that the title, adjoining the picture and in the catalogue was printed upside down. Those who complained about the cruelty and insensitivity of the painting, and plenty did, missed Nigel`s point and the compassion which the picture encouraged.
