Richard Larter

Life & Legacy

Richard Larter (19 May 1929 – 25 July 2014) was an Australian painter, often identified as one of Australia's few highly recognisable pop artists. Larter also frequently painted in a Pointillist style. He took advantage of unusual techniques with painting: using a syringe filled with paint to create his early works, and juxtaposing multiple images on to a canvas. Many of his works are brightly coloured and draw on popular culture for source materials, reproducing news photographs, film stills, and images from pornography. He was married to Pat Larter, an artist who was involved in the Mail art movement, then performance art and finally painting in a brightly coloured style similar to Richard's. The Larters emigrated to Australia in 1962. Richard Larter's pop art was less ironic than his American and English counterparts. In this Larter is similar to other noted Australian pop artists, such as, Mike Brown and Martin Sharp.