Arch Cuthbertson was born in Geelong, Victoria and studied fine arts at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
He held about 30 solo exhibitions between 1961 – 2000 in Melbourne, Geelong, Adelaide and Sydney. These included six with Barry Stern in Sydney and three with Eastgate & Holst (1992, 1996 and 2000) in Melbourne.
In 1964 he won the Geelong Prize for watercolour, and in 1988 the Watercolour Australia Prize, Swan Hill Art Gallery.
His work is represented at the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Parliament House, Canberra, and the regional galleries of Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo, Hamilton, Swan Hill and Warrnambool.