Robinson held his first solo exhibition at the Design Arts Centre, Brisbane in 1967. He rose to international prominence as a part of the exhibitions Australian Perspecta in
1983 and The Sixth Bienniale of
Sydney in
1986. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art has several of his works in their collection, as does the
National Gallery of Australia, the
Art Gallery of Western Australia and several smaller Australian galleries. He has won the
Archibald Prize for
portraiture twice: first in
1987 for
Equestrian self portrait, then in
1995 for
Self-portrait with stunned mullet. He has also won the
Wynne Prize for
landscape painting in 1990 (
The rainforest) and
1996 (
Creation landscape – earth and sea). Robinson released a solo exhibition,
Landscapes, which consisted of oil paintings showing fragments of the
Australian bush in various
perspectives. In 2009, The William Robinson Gallery was opened at Old Government House, Brisbane, part of
Queensland University of Technology. Robinson was the subject of a documentary by filmmaker
Catherine Hunter. "William Robinson: A Painter’s Journey" traces the places that have inspired the artist, from his early farmyard paintings to the 'Creation Landscape' series and the quiet still life paintings inspired by the intimate surroundings of his Brisbane house and garden. In 2011, The
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Art Museum curated a major retrospective exhibition
William Robinson: The Transfigured Landscape which was opened by then-Australian Governor General
Quentin Bryce. There is an art gallery within
Old Government House on the QUT's
Garden Point campus devoted to Robinson's art, featuring many of his artworks, including some of his very first. The monograph
William Robinson: The Transfigured Landscape was published by Piper Press with QUT in 2011 to coincide with the exhibition of the same name, and included essays by notable scholars and curators Deborah Hart, David Malouf, Desmond MacAulay and Bettina MacAulay, Hannah Fink and Michael Brand. He was a two-time winner of both the Archibald Portrait Prize and the Wynne Prize for landscapes. In 2016, Robinson was interviewed in a digital story and oral history for
State Library of Queensland's James C Sourris AM Collection. In the interview Robinson talks to Vanessa Van Ooyen, Director of the
QUT Art Museum about his art, his success at winning the Archibald Prize and his busy life as both a teacher and an artist. ==Death==