[1] Balson was a leading figure in the modernist movement and is credited with holding the first solo exhibition of abstract work in Australia.
Introduced to works of Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, and Piet Mondrian, Balson began teaching abstract painting in 1949 and committed full-time to art in 1955.
In 1932, when Grace Crowley and Rah Fizelle established the Crowely-Fizelle School in George Street, Sydney Balson assisted by painting the premises.
The artists Eleonore Lange and Frank Hinder were responsible for introducing Balson to the work of Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger and Piet Mondrian.
[8] Eighteen of his works are in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, including his Girl in pink (1937)[9] and examples of his pointillist style, Abstract (1956)[10] and Painting no 9 (1959).