1920 Born in Elsternwick, Victoria
1937 Attended the National Gallery School, Melbourne
1938 Met Albert Tucker. Attended life drawing classes at the Victorian Artists’ Society and the George Bell School.
1939 Exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society, Melbourne. Met art patrons John and Sunday Reed
1941 Married Albert Tucker, lived in a corrugated iron shed near ‘Heide’. Spent much time with the Reeds
1942 Painted her first ‘psychological’ portraits.
1945 Son Sweeney born
1947 Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. Left Sweeney with John and Sunday Reed, who later adopted him, and moved to Sydney with Gray Smith.
1948 Returned to Melbourne, lived briefly at ‘Heide’. Moved to a property at Hurstbridge with Smith
1951 Son Peregrine born
1952 Moved to a property in the Dandenongs
1954 Daughter Fern born
1956 Moved to Box Hill
1959 Divorce from Albert Tucker finalised. Married Gray Smith
1960 Died in Victoria
1939-46 Contemporary Art Society annual exhibitions
1950 Melbourne Bookclub Gallery
1954-57 Contemporary Art Society annual exhibitions
1955 Mirka’s Café, Melbourne
1957 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1963 ‘Joy Hester: Commemorative exhibition’, Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
1966 ‘Drawings by Joy Hester’, South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne
1970 ‘Joy Hester Graphics’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1976 Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
1977 Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
1980 Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
1981 ‘Joy Hester Retrospective’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1982 Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
2001 ‘Joy Hester and Friends’, retrospective exhibition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
2001 ‘Leave No Space for Yearning: The Art of Joy Hester’, retrospective exhibition, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Awards
1938 Prize for drawing the head from life, National Gallery School, Melbourne
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane
Numerous private collections throughout Australia and overseas
Sources:
Janine Burke, ‘Joy Hester’, Greenhouse Publications, Richmond, 1983
click here to close this window
click here to return to eva breuer art dealer home