John Brack was born in Melbourne in 1920. He attended Melbourne Grammar School and went on to study at the National Gallery School from 1940–1949, following his service with the Australian Army during the Second World War. His artistic training coincided with a period of intense cultural transformation in Australia, and Brack emerged from this milieu as a keen observer of modern society.
Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Brack became synonymous with a new, urban realism that captured the shifting social landscape of post-war Australia. In works such as Men’s Wear (1953) and The Bar (1954), he turned a critical eye to the rituals of daily life, depicting office workers, dancers, and suburban scenes with a detached, yet deeply humane sensibility.
From 1959 to 1968, Brack served as Head of Painting at the National Gallery School in Melbourne, influencing a generation of artists. In the 1970s and ’80s, his work took on a more symbolic and allegorical dimension, particularly in his still lifes, which employed everyday objects—pencils, cutlery, playing cards—as metaphors for human behaviour and philosophical inquiry.
Brack continued to paint until his death in 1999. Posthumously, his reputation has only grown, with major retrospectives held at the National Gallery of Victoria and sustained demand for his work at auction. His unique visual lexicon and acute social observations have earned him an enduring place in the canon of modern Australian art.