Albert Tucker (1914-1999)

Biography

1914 Born in Melbourne
1931 Worked with commercial artist John Vickery
1933-37 Studied life drawing at the Victorian Artists' Society, exhibited regularly in their Spring and Autumn exhibitions
1937 Met Yosl Bergner and Danila Vassilieff
1938 Met Joy Hester. Elected to council of the newly formed Contemporary Art Society
1941 Married Joy Hester, lived in a corrugated iron shed near Heide. Spent much time with art patrons John and Sunday Reed, and also with Arthur Boyd at the Boyd family home in Murrumbeena
1942 Drafted into the army. After five months was sent to Heidelberg Military Hospital to recover from a minor illness. Here he witnessed the suffering and treatment of psychiatric patients. Was forced to draw gas burns and other war wounds for medical records.
1943-44 Involved in art politics and the magazine 'The Angry Penguins'. Moved to East Melbourne, then St Kilda. Began painting the 'Images of Modern Evil' series
1943-47 President of the Contemporary Art Society
1945 Son Sweeney born
1947 Artist correspondent attached to Australian occupation forces in Japan. Returned to Melbourne and separated from Joy Hester.
1948-56 Lived and worked in France, Germany, Italy, England and USA
1954 Met with Sidney Nolan in Rome, who showed him photographs of the 1952 Queensland draught. Began to paint Australia from memory
1958 Received the Australian Women's Weekly Prize
1960 Returned to Australia on Kurt Geiger Endowment (from Museum of Modern Art of Australia) for a series of exhibitions in all state capitals. Divorced Joy Hester, who died later that year
1961 Visited and painted rainforest regions of Queensland
1964 Married Barbara Bilbock
1967-68 Travelled to London, New York, Mexico City and San Francisco
1979 Sweeney Reed, the artist's son, committed suicide
1980 John and Sunday Reed died
1985 Produced a series of paintings 'Faces I have Met'
1999 Died in Melbourne

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1951 Kunstzaal van Lier, Amsterdam
1952 Galerie Huit, Paris
1953 Galeria I Quattro Venti, Rome
1957 Imperial Institute, London
1960 Hirschl Adler Galleries, New York; Waddington Galleries, London
1960-61 Museum of Modern Art of Australia, Melbourne, touring Sydney, Newcastle, Launceston, Brisbane, Perth, Mildura, Hobart, Adelaide
1962-64 Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1965 Dominion Art Gallery, Sydney
1966 Bonython Art Gallery, Adelaide; Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1969 Poindexter Gallery, New York; Instituto Nacional de Belles Artes, Mexico City; Galeria Antonio Souza, Mexico City; Bonython Gallery, Sydney
1971 Cultural Centre, Manila; National Museum of Modern Art, Seoul; Museum of Modern Art, Pei San; Cultural Museum, Otsu City; Shibuya, Tokyo; Hanshui, Osaka; Museum of Taiwan
1972 Images of Modern Evil 1943-47, Sweeney Reed Galleries, Melbourne; Skinner Galleries, Perth
1978 Works on paper, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
1979 Works on paper, Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1982 Paintings 1945-60, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
1985 Faces I have Met, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
1989-90 The Drawings of Albert Tucker, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1990 Albert Tucker: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Selected Group Exhibitions

1935 Albert Tucker and Reuter Hall, Sedon Galleries, Melbourne
1939 Contemporary Art Society, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1942 Anti-Fascist Exhibition, Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne
1946 Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Arthur Boyd, Rowden White Library, University of Melbourne
1954 Mostra dei Pittori Australiani Albert Tucker and Sidney Nolan, Associazione Della Stampa Estera, Rome
1956 XXVIII Biennale, Venice
1958 Transferences, Zwemmer Gallery, London; Waddington Galleries, London; Redfern Galleries, London; Irish Living Art, Dublin and Belfast; Woodstock Gallery, London
1959 Recent Acquisitions Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York; Transferences Exhibition, Smithsonian Institute, New York
1961 Recent Australian Painting, Whitechapel Gallery, London; Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1962 Rebels and Precursors, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1963 VII Bienal de Sao Paulo, Museum of Modern Art, Brazil; Tate Gallery, London; National Gallery, Ottawa
1963-64 De Hedendaagse Schilderkunst in Australie
1967 Australian Painters 1964-66, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC
1967 Expo '67 Montreal, Canada; Contemporary Australian Painting, India
1967-68 Mertz Collection, tour of USA
1988 Angry Penguins and Realist Painting in Melbourne in the 1940s, Haywood Galleries, London
1988 Tate Galleries, Liverpool

Collections

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Museum of Modern Art Of Australia, Melbourne
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York
Numerous private collections in Australia and overseas

Sources:
James Mollison and Jan Minchin, 'Albert Tucker: A Retrospective', National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1990
'Albert Tucker', exhibition catalogue, Museum of Modern Art of Australia, Melbourne, 18 Oct - 4 Nov 1960

KR