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BiographyTony Tuckson is one of Australia’s few abstract expressionists. Duringhis lifetime Tuckson held only two solo exhibitions and participatedin few group exhibitions. Yet no account of 20th century Australian artwould be complete without his work, and he is heralded as Australia’smost impressive abstract expressionist.

Tony Tuckson was born in Egypt in 1921, the son of a Suez Canalpilot. He spent his childhood in Egypt and England, where he went toschool, and first attended an art school. During the war he served inthe Royal Air Service and was posted to Sydney in 1942, where he metand married his wife, Margaret. After a period back in England hereturned to Australia and was discharged from the airforce in 1946.Throughout the war Tuckson had continued to draw and paint, andunder the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme for ex-servicemen, he attended East Sydney Technical School. While therehe encountered the modernists Grace Crowley and Ralph Balsonwho taught an abstract painting class and who had the greatest influ-ence upon his attitudes to modern art.

In 1950, Tuckson obtained a job as an attendant at the Art Galleryof New South Wales, and later that year as Assistant to the Director,Hal Missingham. His work was mostly curatorial; cataloguing acqui-sitions, helping to prepare and install exhibitions, both temporaryand permanent. He also travelled and lectured with the Gallery’sTravelling Art Exhibitions Service as it toured country New SouthWales. During this period Tuckson was painting, and in 1952 he tookfour months leave to prepare for the New South Wales Travelling ArtScholarship. During the 1950s Tuckson showed eight paintings in fiveof Sydney’s annual art exhibitions.

Appointed Deputy Director in 1957, Tuckson was an active memberof Sydney’s contemporary art scene and he is thought to haverefrained from exhibiting in deference to the professional ethics of hisposition. While involved in acquiring contemporary art for the Galleryhe believed it improper to be seen in competition with his fellowartists. Another reason may have been that, like many perfectionists,he believed the next paintings would be the best and therefore thoseto exhibit. But that time came much later than he might have thought.

In the late 1950s Tuckson accompanied Dr Stuart Scougall toMelville Island, in the Northern Territory, to observe the carving andpainting of a group of grave-posts which were to be Scougall’s gift tothe Art Gallery of New South Wales. This trip ignited Tuckson’s desireto form a collection of Aboriginal art at the Gallery. With Tuckson’senthusiasm and Scougall’s patronage, the collection quickly devel-oped. In 1960-61 Tuckson curated the exhibition, Australian AboriginalArt, which toured Australian state galleries. In 1963 he began toacquire Melanesian work for the collection. This resulted in the exhi-bition Melanesian Art in 1966. Tuckson’s belief in the importance ofAboriginal and Melanesian art within the context of an art museumcame to fruition in 1973 when a permanent gallery in the Art Galleryof New South Wales was devoted to the collection. It was the firstsuch display in an Australian art museum.

The late 1960s were a time when Tuckson had great bureaucraticresponsibility at the Gallery. After an exhaustive trip looking at artmuseums overseas he prepared a report on the Gallery’s future direc-tion, including its rebuilding. During its renovation and expansionTuckson worked closely with the architect, and coordinated theGallery’s activities until its re-opening in May 1972.

Like most artists who teach or work as administrators in museums,Tuckson had little time for painting. But during this extraordinarilybusy period he began painting again and organised his first solo exhi-bition at Watters Gallery in May 1970. The exhibition consisted of 64paintings dating from about 1958 to around 1965, and one paintingfrom 1970. He held his second solo exhibition of new paintings inApril 1973, and died, of cancer, in November that year.

Tony Tuckson, White Lines (vertical) on Ultramarine, 1970-73. Acrylic on hardboard 213 x 244 cm. COURTESY: WATTERS GALLERY

Tony Tuckson, White and Red on Newspaper, 1960. Oil and newspaper (dated 1959) collageon hardboard, 122 x 91.5 cm. COURTESY: WATTERS GALLERY

COLLECTOR’S DOSSIER

TONY TUCKSON JOHN MCPHEE PROFILES THE LATE, GREAT SYDNEY ABSTRACT PAINTER WHOSE POSTHUMOUS

REPUTATION IS GROWING IN THE WAKE OF A MAJOR TOURING RETROSPECTIVE…

During his lifetime Tuckson held only two soloexhibitions yet he is heralded as Australia’smost impressive abstract expressionist.

MODESTY’S BLAZE

First published in Australian Art Collector, Issue 16 April-June 2001

hand and mind of the artist. These are some of the most personal paintings in contemporary

Australian art. On boards never taller than Tuckson could reach,the strokes of his brush are vigorous but gentle. There is anurgency about these works, as if he knew he had a lot to say andlittle time in which to say it. Gradually they became more abbrevi-ated until a surface might be disturbed by very few lines –sometimes scratched through the paint layer. At this time he alsocreated the Zen-like charcoal drawings in which the barest mini-

mum of black lines on white paper expressed a sense of frustrationand achievement. Some soar up and off the paper and suggest theendless possibilities towards which most art can only hint.

The best works and where to find themThere have been two major exhibitions of Tuckson’s work. In 1976the Art Gallery of New South Wales mounted a memorial exhibi-tion which brought his work to national prominence. Currently theNational Gallery of Australia is touring its exhibition aroundAustralia: Painting forever: Tony Tuckson. Anyone interested inTuckson’s work should see the wide variety of work that this exhi-bition presents.

In 1989 Craftsmen House, Sydney, published an excellent book,Tony Tuckson, with text by Daniel Thomas, Renee Free andGeoffrey Legge. It is essential reading for anyone seriously inter-ested in the artist.

Watters Gallery, Sydney, acts as agent for the Tuckson estate. Itregularly mounts commercial exhibitions and publishes smallcatalogues devoted to various aspects of Tuckson’s oeuvre. Thecatalogues for these exhibitions are enormously helpful in gain-ing an understanding of many aspects of the artist’s working life

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The works: influences and genesisTuckson’s oeuvre consists of about 450 paintings and about 10,000drawings. Most are undated and establishing a chronology hasbeen the task of his wife, and those who saw his work during hislifetime. Most works are given an open time span of a few yearsand are dated on the basis of style and his preference for particu-lar colours.

Tuckson’s earliest paintings reflect his awareness of the Schoolof Paris modernism. Art books and magazines would have beenhis primary source of knowledge about modern art although in1953 the exhibition French Painting Today was shown in Sydney. Theexhibition included the work of Braque, Leger, Matisse, Miró andPicasso, as well as work by Buffet, da Silva, de Stael, Hartung, andSoulages. The influence on his work of the semi-abstraction ofartists such as Picasso, Matisse, Leger and Braque is manifest.Many works show the influence of Klee, with shapes strongly out-lined. At times the interest that these artists had in ‘primitive’ artfrom Africa, and even child or naive art can be seen to have influ-enced Tuckson’s approach to painting.

Paintings from the 1950s depict Tuckson’s world, his family andfriends, the still lifes of the dining room and kitchen, nudes, andstudio interiors. They are bold and often brightly coloured with apreference for pink and blue but frequently featuring a strong

black line defining objects. Apparently at the same time a series ofabstract paintings began to occur. These became more loose andfree in their execution towards the late 1950s. Many are painted onnewspaper, an inexpensive and readily available surface on whichto work out ideas that were obviously coming thick and fast.

By 1960, Tuckson was experimenting with collage and creatingsome of his most worked surfaces in which the unusually thickpaint was scumbled, scratched and worried into some of the mostbeautiful abstract expressionist works painted in Australia. Thenature of the surfaces of some of these works has made many peo-ple remark upon their similarity to Aboriginal rock engravings.While Tuckson was aware and enthusiastic about Aboriginal art,and its influence cannot be denied, these works also exhibit theextraordinary excitement of an artist finding his power as apainter. The undoubted thrill for Tuckson was that of finding hisown form of expression and of making his own marks.

In the first half of the 1960s Tuckson’s paintings were almostexclusively painted in red, black and white. These totemic colours,the colours of flags and blood and death, were almost violentlyworked over his surfaces. These are very powerful works. They donothing to prepare us for the lyrical beauty of the paintings thatfollowed after the five years in which his bureaucratic responsibil-ities meant that he seldom painted.

Tuckson’s first (and second last) solo exhibition appears to havepropelled him to work in a kind of fury. The large and powerfulpaintings of the last few years of his life possess, at first, the samekind of vigour and violence of expression found in the red, blackand white paintings. Then comes a more gentle relationship withhis materials. Paint is applied more thinly, dribbles and drips andsmudges are left and large areas of his surfaces remain unpainted.The overall effect is more calligraphic and more revealing of the

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Tuckson’s output of about 450 paintings and about10,000 drawings is mostly undated and establishing achronology has fallen to his wife Margaret, and thosewho saw his work during his lifetime.

Tony Tuckson, Swirl, 1962-65. PVA on hardboard, 122 x 183 cm. COURTESY: WATTERS GALLERY

Appointed Deputy Director of the AGNSW in 1957,Tuckson is thought to have refrained from exhibiting indeference to the professional ethics of his position.

Tony Tuckson, Family Group, 1952-56. Gouache on paper, 56 x 76 cm. COURTESY: WATTERS GALLERY

First published in Australian Art Collector, Issue 16 April-June 2001

and more specialised aspects of his paintingsand drawings.

All serious public collections of Australian art inthe national, state and regional galleries includeworks by Tony Tuckson. The National Gallery ofAustralia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales’scollections are the most comprehensive.

Prices and where to start collecting Works by Tuckson occasionally come up for resale, eitherthrough Watters Gallery or the few commercial galleries, such asMartin Brown Fine Art, Sydney, or Niagara Galleries, Melbourne,which specialise in historical contemporary art. In recent yearsthe auction market’s interest in contemporary Australian art hasmeant that a few works have come up for sale at auction.However, the majority of works are still brought back by theirowners for re-sale through Watters Gallery because it representsthe artist’s estate.

Over the past 20 years prices for paintings by Tuckson have risenas the market has gained a better understanding of his impor-tance. In the early 1980s a major painting could be bought fromWatters Gallery for about $2,500. Similar paintings now sell forbetween $85,000 and $200,000. Works on paper which sold forhundreds of dollars in the 1980s today sell for about $5,000.

Tony Tuckson’s paintings are appreciated and collected by anincreasingly large number of people. Their recognition of hisachievement is the measure of the success he might not havesought in his lifetime, but which is undeniably due. n

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Tuckson’s first – and second last – soloexhibition appears to have propelled himto work in a kind of fury… as if heknew he had a lot to say and little timein which to say it.

Tony Tuckson, Untitled, 1965-70. Gouache on paper, 76.6 x 142 cm. COURTESY: WATTERS GALLERY

First published in Australian Art Collector, Issue 16 April-June 2001