Pro Hart

Art, Kevin Charles Hart said, was the only thing that kept him sane over the two decades that he worked long, dark shifts down the Broken Hill mines. He’d sketch endlessly during dinner breaks in the crib cuddy where meals were eaten underground, entertaining his work mates not just with his talent, but also his wit and his vast knowledge of just about any subject under discussion, from geology to history.

It was requisite for Broken Hill miners to have a nickname, and Kevin became Pro – short for professor. His talent for both knowledge and drawing were evident long before his mining years.

As a boy, growing up on the vast Menindee sheep station his father managed 130 km east of Broken Hill, Kevin already had a reputation for being smart and inquisitive. He had a sharp eye for the angle of the light and for reimagining his desert surroundings. He channeled the spirit of the outback and its people, especially the characters and the places of Broken Hill, whose stories reappeared in paintings, drawings and sculptures throughout his life.

His talent finally caught the eye of a gallery owner in Adelaide in 1962, but it was another six years before Pro Hart became successful enough to quit the mines and became a full-time artist, with the time and freedom to trial-run printing and ceramics, to experiment with steel, silver and bronze. He was endlessly imaginative, although he’s best known for his ‘naive’ and luminous paintings in oil and acrylic.

Pro Hart was driven by multiple passions: his family, his spiritual conviction, politics, and the nature of truth. Amongst his many talents was the art for reflecting comedy and pathos in everyday life. His vision was often experimental and unexpected, and his work told stories of mining, war, politics and religion against the backdrop of the harshness and beauty of the outback.

In recognition of his contribution as an artist and a social commentator, Pro Hart was awarded an MBE in 1972 and became Australian citizen of the Year in 1983. His work is in art galleries and private collections around the world. In Broken Hill he was also known and much-loved for his unaffected and generous nature, and was a valued member of the community.

A recurring motif in Pro Hart’s drawings and paintings is the dragonfly that, for him, represented the freedom of life above-ground. A giant dragonfly graces his resting place in Broken Hill Cemetery, a reminder that his extraordinary body of work was a celebration of life and freedom.

Audio transcript available.