Godfrey Miller
a summary by Peter Bellew (Paris 1965)

Godfrey Miller hid from what we call the world. He avoided the social contacts which are so necessary for the average man - he shunned publicity and public gatherings entirely and avoided his fellow artists with almost the same deliberation.

Because he chose to live alone, so frugally as to give the appearance of poverty, and encouraged few, even those who felt themselves his intimates, to visit him, he was looked upon as an eccentric, a misanthrope, who would withdraw from the world completely.

Until shortly before his death, he generally resisted efforts to persuade him to exhibit his work. He painted slowly and his entire output amounts to only a fraction of that of the average painter.

He remained misunderstood except by a minority of the small circle who knew him and was dismissed as "out-of-line," if not ignored, by the vast majority of the art-interested public.

But Godfrey Miller was not an average painter, and he was "out of line". Above all, he was not "typical" of his generation, his fellow painters, Australia, or anything else that would-be patrons so often and erroneously demand. And here lies his importance as an artist and the value of his contribution to the development and history of art in Australia.

The work of creative artists are not "typical". By definition, they are unique, and therefore non-average and "out-of-line". Godfrey Miller had complete confidence in himself and his approach. He set his own course and neither sought nor required the counsel of others.

In his canvases he fought to eliminate the superficial, the irrelevant, the decorative, and to achieve absolute simplicity - basic truth.

In his way of living he attempted a parallel road which he felt essential if he were to reach his goal. He stripped himself of all but the minimum of worldly goods, but he did so without the pretension of most modern would-be saints.

He was an affinity with the early mystics, and, like them, although he chose a dedicated and solitary way of life, he was never alone.

He had his self-appointed God and found complete communion.

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