Gestural Abstraction in Australian Art 1947 – 1963: Repositioning the Work of Albert Tucker

Volume Two

Carol Ann Gilchrist

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Art History School of Humanities Faculty of Arts University of Adelaide South Australia

October 2015

ILLUSTRATIONS

Chapter One Fig. 1.1 Mark Rothko, Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea, 1944

Chapter Two Fig. 2.1 Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43

Fig. 2.2 Mark Rothko, Archaic Idol, 1945

Fig. 2.3 Jean Fautrier, Swirls, 1958

Fig. 2.4 Jean Fautrier, Swirls, 1958, detail

Chapter Three Fig. 3.1 Mark Tobey, Edge of August, 1953

Chapter Four Fig. 4.1 Cubism and Abstract Art, Museum of Modern Art, 1936

Fig. 4.2 Grace Crowley, Painting, 1951

Fig. 4.3 Victor Vasarely, Yllam, 1949-52

Fig. 4.4 Roberto Matta, The Spherical Roof Around our Tribe (Revolvers), 1952

Fig. 4.5 Jackson Pollock, Shimmering Substance, 1946

Fig. 4.6 Willem de Kooning, Woman 1, 1950-52

Fig. 4.7 Asger Jorn, Ballet immobile, 1957

Fig. 4.8 Bradley Walker Tomlin, Number 9: In Praise of Gertrude Stein 1950

Fig. 4.9 Peter Upward, June celebration 1960

Fig. 4.10 Carl Plate, Up, outwards, 1962

Fig. 4.11 Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting 1957

Fig. 4.12 Mark Rothko, No. 5/No. 24 , 1948

Fig. 4.13 Jean Dubuffet, Le Chasseur (‘The Hunter’), 1949

Chapter Five Fig. 5.1 Wols, Composition Jaune, 1947

Fig. 5.2 Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait of Van Gogh VI, 1957

Fig. 5.3 Jackson Pollock, Gothic, 1944

Chapter Six

Fig. 6.1 Karel Appel, Amsterdam, 1951

Fig. 6.2 CoBrA painters Constant, Appel and Jorn, Gallery van Lier, 1951

Fig. 6.3 Cover of Reflex group exhibition catalogue

Fig. 6.4 Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille and Erik Nyholm, CoBrA modification of a work by Richard Mortensen, 1949 Fig. 6.5 Karel Appel, Twee, 1953

Fig. 6.6 Karel Appel, Ontmoeting (Encounter), 1951

Fig. 6.7 Constant (Constant A. Nieuwenhuys), After Us, Liberty, 1949

Fig. 6.8 Albert Tucker, Paris Night, 1948

Fig. 6.9 Albert Tucker, Macro [sic] of Place Pigalle, 1949

Fig. 6.10 Jean Dubuffet, The Man with a Rose, 1949

Fig. 6.11 Albert Tucker, Man with Flower, 1950

Fig. 6.12 Albert Tucker, Girl, 1950

Fig. 6.13 Albert Tucker, Female, 1950

Fig. 6.14 Albert Tucker, Female, 1950

Fig. 6.15 Albert Tucker, The old Eve, 1951

Fig. 6.16 Albert Tucker, Night beasts, 1951

Fig. 6.17 Paul Klee, Demonic Puppets, 1929

Fig. 6.18 Joan Miró, Women and Bird in the Moonlight (Femmes, oiseau au clair de lune), 1949 Fig. 6.19 Constant, Mating of Moons, 1949

Fig. 6.20 Karel Appel, Little Moon Me, 1946

Fig. 6.21 Corneille, Entrelacement de Fleurs, 1948

Fig. 6.22 Constant, Barricade, 1949

Fig. 6.23 Constant, Personnage-de-nuit, 1949

Fig. 6.24 Karel Appel, l'homme, 1953

Fig. 6.25 Constant, Vogels, 1948

Fig. 6.26 Constant, Scorched Earth, 1951

Fig. 6.27 Albert Tucker, Head, 1948

Fig. 6.28 Albert Tucker, Sunday Reed and John Perceval, 1943

Fig. 6.29 Albert Tucker, Mask, 1943

Fig. 6.30 Graham Sutherland, The Crucifixion, 1947

Fig. 6.31 Graham Sutherland, Thorn Head, 1947

Fig. 6.32 Graham Sutherland, Thorn Tree, 1945

Fig. 6.33 Albert Tucker, Christ Head, 1954

Fig. 6.34 Albert Tucker, O Absalom, 1953-4

Fig. 6.35 Francis Bacon, A study for a figure at the base of a crucifixion, 1943-44

Fig. 6.36 Jean Dubuffet, Woman Sitting Next to the Blinds, 1943

Fig. 6.37 Georges Rouault, Face of Christ, 1938

Fig. 6.38 Georges Rouault, Pierrette, 1939

Fig. 6.39 Jean Dubuffet, Corps de Dame - Château d'Étoupe, 1950

Fig. 6.40 Albert Tucker, Thames, 1957

Fig. 6.41 Jackson Pollock, Pasiphae, 1944

Fig. 6.42 Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, Attese 58 T 2 (Spatial Concept, Expectation 58 T 2), 1958 Fig. 6.43 Henry Moore, Reclining Figure, 1951, detail

Fig. 6.44 Henry Moore, Two Piece Reclining Figure No.2, 1960

Fig. 6.45 Albert Tucker, Wounded Man, 1958

Fig. 6.46 Albert Tucker, The Bogong High Plains, 1956-57

Fig. 6.47 Graham Sutherland, Head III, 1953

Fig. 6.48 Albert Tucker, Seated faun, 1956

Fig. 6.49 F.N. Souza, Head, 1958

Fig. 6.50 Albert Tucker, Cratered Head, 1958

Fig. 6.51 Albert Tucker, Lunar Landscape,1957

Fig. 6.52 Antoni Tàpies, Painting, 1957

Fig. 6.53 Merlyn Evans, The Chess Players, 1940

Fig. 6.54 Albert Tucker, Australian Gothic, 1958

Fig. 6.55 Albert Tucker, Antipodean head II , 1959

Fig. 6.56 Albert Tucker, Explorers: Burke and Wills, 1960

Fig. 6.57 Albert Tucker, Marilyn Monroe looking for her father, 1956

Fig. 6.58 Albert Tucker, Female totem, 1957

Fig. 6.59 Jean Dubuffet, Paesaggio con tre alberi, (landscape with three trees),1959

Fig. 6.60 Albert Tucker, Bushfire Landscape, 1960

Fig. 6.61 Albert Tucker, Wren in Scrub, 1963

Fig. 6.62 Albert Tucker, Ascension, 1962

Fig. 6.63 Albert Tucker, The Futile City, 1940

Fig. 6.64 Mark Rothko, Entrance to Subway, 1938

Fig. 6.65 Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1939

Fig. 6.66 Pablo Picasso, Massacre en Corée, 1951

Fig. 6.67 Albert Tucker, The Giftbearers, 1955 .

Fig. 6.68 Albert Tucker, Encounter, c. 1956-57

Chapter Seven Fig. 7.1 Paul Klee, Runner at the Goal, 1921

Fig. 7.2 Max Beckmann, Rugby Players, 1929

Fig. 7.3 Giacometti, Head of a Man on a Rod, 1947

Fig. 7.4 Jean Dubuffet, Personnage Hilaire (Portrait de Francis Ponge), 1947

Fig. 7.5 Jackson Pollock, Going West, 1934-35

Fig. 7.6 Jackson Pollock, Bird, 1941

Fig. 7.7 Albert Tucker, Judas, 1955

Fig. 7.8 Joy Hester, Fun Fair, 1946

Fig. 7.9 Albert Tucker, Antipodean Head, 1959

Chapter Eight Fig. 8.1 Albert Tucker, Sunbathers, 1944

Fig. 8.2 Jean Dubuffet, Large Black Landscape /Grand Paysage noir, 1946.

Fig. 8.3 Albert Tucker, Primeval 1, 1962.

Contents

Volume Two Appendices List of Illustrations …………………………………………………………………………….. 2 Appendix A: Illustrations ……………………………………………………………………… 8 Appendix B: List of Exhibitions ……………………………………………………………….. 38 Appendix C: Terms Used in this Thesis …………………….………………………………. 42

Appendix A: Illustrations

Fig. 1.1 Mark Rothko, Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea, 1944, Oil on canvas, (191.4 x 215.2 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York, image: the author.

Fig. 2.1 Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43, Oil on canvas, (127 x 127 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Fig. 2.2 Mark Rothko, Archaic Idol, 1945, Ink and gouache on paper, (55.6 x 76.2 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Joan and Lester Avnet Collection; Copyright: © 2014 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Fig. 2.3 Jean Fautrier, Swirls, 1958, Oil and tempera on paper on canvas, (81 x 130.5 cm). Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Image: the author.

Fig. 2.4 Jean Fautrier, Swirls, 1958, Oil and tempera on paper on canvas, (81 x 130.5 cm). Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Detail, side view, in frame. Image: the author.

Fig. 3.1 Mark Tobey, Edge of August, 1953, Casein on composition board, (121.9 x 71.1 cm). Museum of Modern Art, New York. 9

Fig. 4.1 Cubism and Abstract Art, Museum of Modern Art, 1936.

Fig. 4.2 Grace Crowley, Painting, 1951, oil on composition board, (58.4 x 70.6 cm). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 4.4 Roberto Matta, The Spherical Roof Around our Tribe (Revolvers), 1952, tempera on canvas, (199.7 x 294.5 cm). Museum of Modern Art, New York. Copyright:© 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Fig. 4.5 Jackson Pollock, Shimmering Substance, 1946, oil on canvas, (76.3 x 61.6 in.). Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: the author.

Fig. 4.6 Willem de Kooning, Woman 1, 1950-52, oil on canvas, (192.7 x 147.3 cm.). Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: the author.

Fig. 4.7 Asger Jorn, Ballet immobile, 1957, oil on canvas, (162 x 130 cm.). Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Image: the author. 12

Fig. 4.8 Bradley Walker Tomlin, Number 9: In Praise of Gertrude Stein,1950, oil on canvas, (124.5 x 259.8 cm.). Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: the author.

Fig. 4.9 Peter Upward, June celebration 1960, synthetic polymer paint on composition board; three panels, (213.5 x 411.5 cm). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 4.10 Carl Plate, Up, outwards, 1962, Synthetic polymer paint on hardboard, (122 x 92 cm.). Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Image: the author.

Fig. 4.11 Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting, 1957, oil on canvas, (274.3 x 101.5 cm). Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: the author.

Fig. 4.12 Mark Rothko, No. 5/No. 24 , 1948, oil on canvas, (86.1 x 127.6 cm). Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: the author.

4.13 Jean Dubuffet, Le Chasseur (‘The Hunter’), 1949, Oil on canvas with jute, (88.8 x 116.4 cm.). Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Image: the author. 14

Fig. 5.1 Wols, Composition Jaune, 1947, oil on canvas, (73 x 92 cm). Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Image: the author.

Fig. 5.2 Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait of Van Gogh VI, 1957, oil and sand on canvas, (198 x 142 cm). Arts Council Collection. © The Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS London 2013.

Fig. 5.3 Jackson Pollock, Gothic, 1944, oil on canvas, (215.5 x 142.1 cm). Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Fig. 6.1 Fig. 6.2 Karel Appel, Amsterdam, 1951 CoBrA painters Constant, Appel and Jorn, Gallery van Lier, 1951

Fig, 6.3 Cover of Reflex group exhibition catalogue. The Dutch Reflex group, formed in 1948, later merged into CoBrA (1948-1951). Note the shapes making up the figure.

Fig. 6.4 Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille and Erik Nyholm, CoBrA modification of a work by Richard Mortensen, 1949.

Fig. 6.5 Karel Appel, Twee, 1953, Stedelijk Museum. 16

Fig. 6.6 Karel Appel, Ontmoeting (Encounter), 1951, oil on canvas, (130 x 97.5 cm).

Fig. 6.7 Constant (Constant A. Nieuwenhuys), After Us, Liberty, 1949.

Fig. 6.8 Albert Tucker, Paris night, 1948, oil on canvas on composition board, (38.5 x 46.5 cm ). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.9 Albert Tucker, Macro [sic] of Place Pigalle, 1949, oil on canvas on cardboard, (74.0 x 63.6 cm), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Fig. 6.10 Jean Dubuffet, The Man with a Rose, 1949, Distemper on canvas, (45 ½ x 34 inches).

Fig. 6.11 Albert Tucker, Man with Flower, 1950, Gouache, touched with graphite, on cardboard, (44.2 x 29.6 cm). The British Museum, London. 18

Fig. 6.12 Albert Tucker, Girl, 1950, Watercolour, pastel and gouache on paper, (31.0 x 23.8 cm). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.13 Albert Tucker, Female, 1950, Watercolour: gouache on cardboard, (31.7 x 24.0 cm). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.14 Albert Tucker, Female, 1950, Drawing, Watercolour, gouache, brush and ink, varnish on cardboard, (41.4 x 32.1 cm). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 19

Fig. 6.15 Albert Tucker, The old Eve 1951, Oil and enamel on plywood (60.8 x 45.8 cm). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.16 Albert Tucker, Night beasts, 1951, Oil on plywood, (61.0 x 91.0 cm). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.17 Paul Klee, Demonic Puppets, 1929, Fig. 6.18 Joan Miró, Women and Bird gouache and pen on linen on card in the Moonlight (Femmes, oiseau au (36.83 X 25.08 cm). clair de lune), 1949, Oil on Canvas, ( 81.3 x 66.0 cm). Tate, London.

Fig. 6.19 Constant, Mating of Moons, 1949.

Fig. 6.20 Karel Appel, Little Moon Me, 1946, (medium unknown to Karel Appel Foundation), (100 x 75 cm).

Fig. 21 Corneille, Entrelacement de Fleurs, 1948. Stedelijk Museum. 21

Fig. 22. Constant, Barricade, 1949, Fig. 23 Constant , Personnage-de-nuit, 1949. Stedelijk Museum.

Fig. 24 Karel Appel, l'homme, 1953, Stedelijk Museum.

Fig. 25 Constant, Vogels, 1948. Fig. 26 Constant, Scorched Earth, 1951. Stedelijk Museum Stedelijk Museum 22

Fig. 6.27 Albert Tucker, Head, 1948, Watercolour: gouache, collage on cardboard, (34.3 x 26.7 cm) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.28 Sunday Reed and John Perceval, 1943 Fig. 6.29 Mask, 1943, Watercolour Watercolour: gouache on paper, (21.0 x 27.4 cm) . gouache, ink on paper, (28 x 21.8 cm). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.30 Graham Sutherland, The Crucifixion, 1947, Oil on board.

Fig. 6.31 Graham Sutherland, Thorn Head, 1947, Fig. 6.32 Graham Sutherland, Thorn Tree, 1945. Oil on board.

Fig. 6.33 Albert Tucker, Christ Head, 1954, Oil on paper, (28 x 22.4 cm), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.34 Albert Tucker, O Absalom, 1953-4, Image/ illustration published in Australian Post, Jan. 2, 1954, p. 28. State Library of Victoria. (The title references a Longfellow poem.) 24

Fig. 6.35 Francis Bacon, A study for a figure at the base of a crucifixion, 1943-44.

Fig. 6.36 Jean Dubuffet, Woman Sitting Next to the Blinds, 1943.

Fig. 6.37 Georges Rouault, Face of Christ, 1938. Fig. 6.38 Georges Rouault, Pierrette, 1939.

Fig. 6.39 Jean Dubuffet, Corps de Dame - Château d'Étoupe, 1950, Oil on canvas (114.4 x 87.5 cm)

Fig. 6.40 Albert Tucker, Thames, 1957, oil on hardboard, (92.0 x 123.0 cm). Art Gallery of New South Wales

Fig. 6.41 Jackson Pollock, Pasiphae, 1944, Oil on canvas, (142.6 x 243.8 cm). Museum of Modern Art, New York

Fig. 6.42 Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, Attese 58 T 2 (Spatial Concept, Expectation 58 T 2), 1958 26

Fig. 6.43 Page from Herbert Read’s Art of Sculpture, Pantheon Books, New York, 1956, reproduced in Getsy (2011); Lower image: Henry Moore, Reclining Figure, 1951, detail.

Fig. 6.44 Henry Moore, Two Piece Reclining Figure No.2, 1960, bronze edition 0 of 7 + 1 (length 259 cm), The Henry Moore Foundation.

Fig. 6.45 Albert Tucker, Wounded Man, 1958, polyvinyl acetate and cement on board, (91.5 x 122 cm).

Fig. 6.46 Albert Tucker, The Bogong High Plains, 1956-57 (from reproduction in Commonwealth Calling February 1958).

Fig. 6.47 Graham Sutherland, Head III, 1953, Oil on canvas.

Fig. 6.48 Albert Tucker, Seated faun, 1956, Drawing, resin on cardboard, (33.3 x 23.3 cm)

Fig. 6.49 F.N. Souza, Head, 1958 (reproduced in The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Oct. 11, 1959

Fig. 6.50 Albert Tucker, Cratered Head, 1958 Oil on composition board, (128.4 x 94.6 cm). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Fig. 6.51 Albert Tucker, Lunar Landscape,1957, Synthetic polymer paint on composition board, (95.6 x 130.3 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Fig. 6.52 Antoni Tàpies, Painting, 1957, Latex paint with marble dust and sand on canvas, (145.7 x 88.8 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Fig. 6.53 Merlyn Evans, The Chess Players, 1940, Watercolour and ink drawing on paper, Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Wales, UK (published in Herbert Read, Contemporary British Art, [1951] 1964.)

Fig. 6.54 Australian Women’s Weekly article, 1 October, 1958, Reproduction of Tucker’s work Australian Gothic, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

Fig. 6.55 Antipodean head II , 1959, synthetic polymer paint, oil on hardboard, (122.0 x 101.5 cm ) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

Fig. 6.56 Tucker, Explorers Burke and Wills, 1960, Oil and sand on canvas, (122.1 x 156.1 cm) Museum of Modern Art, New York. 30

Fig. 6.57 Albert Tucker, Marilyn Monroe looking for her father, 1956, Drawing: watercolour, collage of magazine illustrations, pen and ink on cardboard, (14.5 x 19.3 cm), National Gallery of Australia.

Fig. 6.58 Albert Tucker, Female totem, 1957, Drawing, Watercolour: gouache, brush and ink, white crayon, (42.7 x 31.0 cm), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 6.59 Jean Dubuffet, Paesaggio con tre alberi, (landscape with three trees),1959.

Fig. 6.60 Albert Tucker, Bushfire Landscape, 1960, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, (92 x 126.5 cm).

Fig. 6.61 Albert Tucker, Wren in Scrub, 1963, synthetic polymer paint on composition board, (45.5 x 61 cm).

Fig. 6.62 Albert Tucker, Ascension, 1962, oil and mixed media on composition board, (129.2 x 95.2 cm), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Fig. 6.63 Albert Tucker, The Futile City, 1940, oil on cardboard, (45 x 54.5 cm), Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, VIC. 32

Fig. 6.64 Mark Rothko, Entrance to Subway, 1938.

Fig. 6.65 Mark Rothko, Untitled , 1939.

Fig. 6.66 Pablo Picasso, Massacre en Corée, 1951, reproduced in the Salon de Mai 1951 catalogue on the front page (lower image) Library, Museum of Modern Art, archives, New York; and Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris. (Original work , 110.0 x 201.0 cm.)

Fig. 6.67 Albert Tucker, The Giftbearers, 1955, Oil on hardboard, (89 x 97 cm.), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. 33

Fig. 6.68 Albert Tucker, Encounter, c. 1956-57, colour screenprint, (23.8 x 35.6 cm), The British Museum, London.

Fig. 7.1 Paul Klee, Runner at the Goal, 1921.

Fig. 7. 2 Max Beckmann, Rugby Players, 1929. Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg.

Fig. 7.3 Alberto Giacometti, Head of a Man on a Rod, 1947, Plaster, (50 x 12.5 x 17 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York. 34

Fig. 7.4 Jean Dubuffet, Personnage Hilaire (Portrait de Francis Ponge), 1947, Stedelijk Museum.

Fig. 7.5 Jackson Pollock, Going West, 1934-35

Fig. 7.6 Jackson Pollock, Bird, 1941.

Fig. 7.7 Albert Tucker, Judas, 1955, oil on hardboard, (96.5 x 130.0 cm), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Fig. 7.8 Joy Hester, Fun Fair, 1946, Watercolour and gouache, (25.1 x 31.6 cm), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 7.9 Albert Tucker, Antipodean Head, 1959, (48 x 36 in.), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Fig. 8.1 Albert Tucker, Sunbathers, 1944, oil on cardboard, (59.2 x 86 cm), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Fig. 8.2 Jean Dubuffet, Large Black Landscape /Grand Paysage noir, 1946, Oil paint on hardboard, (155.1 x 118.6 cm).

Fig. 8.3 Albert Tucker, Primeval 1, 1962, synthetic polymer paint on board (61 x 81.2 cm).

Appendix B: Selected Exhibition List, Albert Tucker

This list highlights selected exhibitions of Tucker’s work from the 1940s to the present referenced in this thesis in date order.

8-18 December 1942 – Contemporary Art Society (CAS) Anti-Fascist Exhibition, Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne; also shown in Adelaide. (Ch. 4, 6, and 7.)

1946 – Rowden White Library, University of Melbourne – joint exhibition with Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd. (Chapter 7.)

1951 – Kunstzaal van Lier, Amsterdam – solo exhibition (Ch. 6).

1952 – Galerie Huit, Paris – solo exhibition (Ch. 6).

April 1953 – Galleria ai Quattro Venti, Rome – solo exhibition – (Ch. 6).

20-31 May 1954 – Mostra dei pittori australiani: Albert Tucker e Sidney Nolan – Foreign Press Club, Rome – joint exhibition with Sidney Nolan – (Ch. 6).

1956 – XXVIII Biennale, Venice – Tucker exhibited as a foreign artist resident in Italy (Ch. 6).

April 1957 – Imperial Institute, Kensington, London – solo exhibition, (Ch. 6).

December 1957 – Imperial Institute, Kensington, London – Australian Artists Association group exhibition (Ch. 6)

1958 – Poindexter Gallery, New York – private viewing from gallery stockroom works by Alfred H. Barr Jr., director of MOMA. Tucker’s work Lunar Landscape,1957, had been sent to New York following its exhibition in the 1957 ICA exhibition above, where it was viewed by Barr. (Ch. 6).

1958 Group exhibitions: Transferences, Recent Paintings by Commonwealth Artists working in Europe, Zwemmer Gallery, London; Waddington Galleries, London; Redfern Galleries, London; Irish Living Art, Dublin and Belfast; Woodstock Gallery, London.

February 1959 – Sydney – Group show mounted by John Reed featuring contemporary Australian painting including artists Lawlor, Fairweather, Nolan, Tucker, Boyd, Perceval, Gleeson, Counihan and Vassilieff and early works of Atyeo.

1959 – Transferences Exhibition, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, travelling to two other states; Recent Acquisitions Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1960 – Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York – solo exhibition – Alfred Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York purchase of Tucker’s Explorers: Burke and Wills for MOMA’s permanent collection. A further work was purchased for the Guggenheim by J.J. Sweeney

1960 - Melbourne Museum of Modern Art and touring exhibition – solo exhibition organised by John Reed.

17 October to 14 November, 1961 – The Formative Years: 1940-1945 – Museum of Modern Art of Australia, Melbourne –– group exhibition featuring works of other Heide circle artists including Perceval and Nolan, coordinated by John Reed.

1961 – Recent Australian Painting – Whitechapel Gallery, London.

August – September 1962 – Rebels and Precursors: Aspects of Painting in Melbourne 1937- 1947 – National Gallery of Victoria; later shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Queensland Art Gallery. This exhibition included 39 works by Tucker among the 180 presented as well as works by Nolan, Perceval, Boyd and Vassilieff.

1962 – 1964 – Australian Galleries, Melbourne – solo exhibitions.

1963 – Australian Painting Today: A Survey of the Past Ten Years (‘Australian Painting Today’) – touring the major state galleries of Australia. Also included were Boyd, Dobell, Fairweather, Passmore, among others (Ch. 4); Australian Painting: Colonial, Impressionist, Contemporary – Tate Gallery, London and National Gallery, Ottawa. (The exhibition had previewed in Adelaide in 1962 at the Festival of Arts.)

1963 – VII Bienale de Sao Paolo, Museum of modern Art, Sao Paolo, Brazil.

1965 – Dominion Art Gallery, Sydney – solo exhibition.

1966 – Bonython Art Gallery, Adelaide and Australian Galleries, Melbourne – solo exhibitions.

1967 – Australian Painters 1964-1966 – Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Australian Pavilion, Expo ’67, Montreal; Contemporary Australian Painting, India.

1967-1968 – Mertz Collection – group exhibition touring USA.

1969 – solo exhibitions in New York, Mexico City and Sydney.

1971 – solo exhibitions in Manila, Seoul, Pei San, Otsu City, Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei.

1972 – Night Images (Images of Modern Evil) 1943-1947 – Sweeney Reed Galleries, Melbourne. This exhibition included new bronze sculptures by Tucker, as well as the familiar Images of Modern Evil series; Solo exhibition at Skinner Galleries, Perth..

1978 – Albert Tucker: Works on Paper (1928-1978) – Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne. Included were watercolours and drawings, many shown for the first time, numbering 215 in total.

1979 – Works on paper – Coventry Gallery, Sydney.

1982 – Albert Tucker Paintings 1945-1960 – Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne. This exhibition coincided with the release of a book, Albert Tucker, by Mollison and Bonham.

1984 – Aspects of Australian Figurative Painting 1942 – 1962: Dreams, Fears and Desires, Power Institute of Fine Arts, University of Sydney in association with the Biennale of Sydney, catalogue by Christine Dixon and Terry Smith, with introduction by Virginia Spate. 1984-1985 – Art and social commitment: an end to the city of dreams 1931-1948 – Charles Merewether curator, shown at four state galleries. Tucker’s work was included alongside other artists of the 1940s.

April – May 1985 – Albert Tucker: Faces I Have Met – Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne. Fifty five portraits by Tucker were presented together with watercolours and drawings. A subset of this series is now displayed in the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

19 May – 14 August 1988 – Hayward Gallery, London – Angry Penguins and Realist Painting in Melbourne in the 1940s – This exhibition featured works by Nolan, Tucker, Boyd, Perceval and Hester in the Angry Penguin category, and by the realist group favoured by Bernard Smith including Counihan, Bergner and O’Connor.

1990 – Albert Tucker: A Retrospective – National Gallery of Victoria – curated by James Mollison and Jan Minchin. Concurrently the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, mounted the exhibition The Drawings of Albert Tucker, curated by Andrew Sayers.

18 July – 5 November 2006 – Meeting a Dream: Albert Tucker in Paris 1948-1952 – inaugural exhibition at the Albert and Barbara Tucker Gallery at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Victoria – curated by Lesley Harding.

18 November 2006 – 20 May 2007 – A link and a trust: Albert Tucker and Sidney Nolan’s Rome Exhibition – Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, VIC – A re-creation of the exhibition held in Rome in 1954 including twenty three of the twenty eight paintings originally exhibited.

26 May – 28 October 2007 – The Goddess grins: Albert Tucker and the female image – Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, VIC – Guest curated by Dr Sheridan Palmer.

September 2009 – The Intruder: The Perfect Allegory – Brenalla Art Gallery and Ararat Regional Art Gallery – an exhibition of Tucker’s work of the 1960s on bush themes following his return to Australia and settling in Hurstbridge, Victoria.

6 May – 24 July 2011 – Inner Worlds: Portraits and Psychology – National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Subsequently touring Brisbane (University of Queensland Art Museum, 13 August- 23 October) and Melbourne. Curator Dr Christopher Chapman. Group exhibition around a theme of the psychological in art.

17 August – 2 October 2011 – Contemporary Portraiture – Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria – featuring portraits by Melbourne artists Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, John Perceval, Charles Blackman and Fred Williams.

26 May – 11 September 2011 – Out of Australia: Prints and Drawings from Sidney Nolan to Rover Thomas. Curator Stephen Coppel. This recent exhibition presented 126 works by sixty artists in a chronologically moving from modernism to contemporary and, interestingly, began with Albert Tucker.

Appendix C: Terms Used in this Thesis

Term Definition

Action Painting Term coined by art critic Harold Rosenberg for gestural painting which focused on the process of painting.

Aesthetic properties include balance, tension, coherence, lyricism, and energy.

American Abstract I find Gibson (1997) useful in defining which artists were included in this Expressionists group. The ‘essential 8’ were: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Ad Rienhardt, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Clyfford Still. Sometimes included are: William Baziotes, Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Hans Hofmann, and Fritz Kline. Occasionally included are also Richard Pousette-Dart, Mark Tobey, and Bradley Walker Tomlin. Note: few studies have expanded the reach of this tendency or movement beyond this group. (Gibson p. xxix.) 8,12, or 15 artists is the typical size of the group in most accounts. Non-canonical artists are typically said to be ‘derivative’. As argued in this thesis, Australian usage of the term Abstract Expressionism is a misnomer. Gestural abstraction is a term which encompasses the stylistic variations evidenced in the work of artists of the period with the sub- categorisations as identified in Chapter 4 (4.5). Even among this group there was a wide variation of styles and degrees of figuration retained in the abstract work ranging from geometric abstraction to semi-abstract gestural modes.

Angry Penguins Art Journal first published in 1940 by author Max Harris and John Reed, stated the political attitudes of the Heide artist circle. Included poetry, essays, art work.

Antipodeans A group of Melbourne based artists including Charles Blackman, John Brack, Clifton Pugh, David Boyd, and John Percival and Sydney artist, Robert Dickerson, working in a figurative and landscape style who formed around critic and art historian Bernard Smith author of their 1959 ‘Antipodean Manifesto’. The group largely opposed abstractionist tendencies including geometric and gestural abstraction, tachisme, abstract expressionism, and action painting.

Art critical The context of utterances by key agents in the field which serves to discourse contextualise the artist or art work – what has been said or recorded is implicated in the social construction of meaning for an artwork.

Category Perceptually distinguishable and for painting includes genre and style or tendency. Well known categories are often described as stylistic tendencies in art critical and historical discourse.

(Sydney) Charm A term which implied less serious art such as intimisme or Romantic painting, School marginal to the main innovations of the time. ‘The Sydney Group’ included J Bellette, W Cardamatis, W Dobell, J O’Brien, D Strachan, W Thornton, E Wilson; 1st exhibition David jones Art Gallery from 7 Aug 1945.

CoBrA group Artists from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam who were opposed to geometric abstraction and favoured spontaneous gestural abstraction drawing on sources from Surrealism, Expressionism, ethnic and folk art.

Contra-standard Atypical features for the category; preclude the work from being a member of the category.

Correct category The one among the various categories a work belongs to, that actually helps to determine a work’s aesthetic character. This construal includes a consideration of artistic intention or purpose (Laetz).

Discernible A sufficient number of other works of the category which display similar variations standard features.

Field The cultural and economic milieu in which the artist and artwork are socially ‘produced’, interact and circulate. Comprises the set of agents (institutions or individuals such as artists) who occupy ‘positions’ in the field, and structures (including norms and practices) within and through which cultural interactions or exchanges take place; these are linked by a set of objective relations. Also called art world or social space, market, or system. Field theory accounts for the dynamics in the field and the process of operation. figural Semi-abstract; neither totally figurative nor totally non-referential or non- objective; may apply to art works which are difficult to classify under existing art historical categories-in-use.

Formal properties Include line, colour, texture, form, and rhythm; and as well as representational or resemblance properties.

Heide circle Included art patrons John Reed, a wealthy solicitor and philanthropist, his wife Sunday, of the prominent Melbourne Baillieu family, and a group of literary and visual artists including Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, Sam Atyeo, Moya Dyring, Arthur Boyd, Max Harris, Adrian Lawlor, and Yosl Bergner.

Independent Group British group Championed by art critic Lawrence Alloway, the IG group (IG) challenged prevailing modernist approaches and were instrumental in bringing the ‘found object’ or objet trouvé aesthetic to Britain. Alloway was the first to coin the term ‘Pop’ art to which this group was a precursor. (Ch 5 and 6.)

‘informel’ Formless art of European artist Wols (born Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) produced after World War II; ‘un art autre’ a similar term for the new art, free of formal aesthetic convention forming a break with the past.

The New Realists In France experimented with alternatives to formalism and artistic gesture and action was literally taken to the streets, out of the studio. The term was coined by French art critic Pierre Restany. New Realists used everyday materials and junk in assemblages combining elements of painting and sculpture.

New York School Term used from the late 1940s to describe the group of artists who were interchangeably known as Abstract Expressionists. The term is sometimes used to describe the second generation of Abstract Expressionists.

Pacific School The ‘Pacific School; was to some extent a French invention, a term made popular by Michel Tapié and Pierre Restany in reference to Jackson Pollock. It was applied to artists from the Pacific Northwest and California.

Perceptual Includes both aesthetic and non-aesthetic ones. Such properties are ‘features’ properties or characteristics of works of art to be perceived.

Position in the Agent, actor, art work, institution or other entity in the art world; agents and cultural field their roles or functions in the art world including the codes of conduct in the artistic milieu. Privileged category That category in which the work is aesthetically active for the viewer. That is, among all the possible categories to which a work could belong, the privileged category is the one in which the work is perceived as being most meaningful.

Reception Involves the individual subject (viewer) in reconstituting a work through systems of observation. These systems include those of display (the gallery), discourse (art history and criticism), education (the university), and commerce (the art market). (Luhmann).

St Ives group of British group of painters said to combine non-figurative theory with the practice British painters of abstraction from objects.

School of Paris Artists working in traditional styles or genres. Also a term for the émigré artists who flocked to Paris to study in the ateliers of the masters. Often used pejoratively to imply a lack of innovation.

Semiotics The study or science of signs based on the work of Charles Saunders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure and advanced by Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco and Julia Kristeva among others.

Socialist Realism The figurative artwork valued by the Socialist states including the Soviet Union and Marxist/Communist parties. Often depicted political ideals, leaders, industrial landscapes or workers toiling together for the common good in paintings, murals or posters and was used as an instrument of propaganda. The term Social Realism is often used interchangeably in older texts, however, this term can also refer to art with a social or moral message such as photographs of people struggling during the Great Depression, poverty or social problems. See Chilvers, Ian, A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Art, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1999, pp. 579-580. In Melbourne the socialist realists, including Noel Counihan and Danila Vassilieff, aligned with art critic and historian Bernard Smith.

‘Standard’ features Those features which qualify a work in belonging to a particular category and which, when absent, tend to disqualify a work from belonging to that category.

Variable features Do not determine membership in the category nor disqualify a work from a category. Such features do however contribute to its expressive or representational ability.

Walton’s four (i) Whether the work displays a large number of features standard to a criteria particular category (and minimises contra-standard features); (ii) which category would lead to its greatest appreciation and significance relative to the art world (such that it is perceived as better, more interesting or pleasing); (iii) the artist’s intentions if known; and (iv) whether the artist’s contemporaries would most likely have categorised it in a given category.