We are proud to present John Martono’s inaugural exhibition with us, and cordially invite you and your guest… Continue reading
Continue readingGouache on Paper
41 x 46 cm Framed Under Glass
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Conte and Oil Wash on Paper
76 x 100 cm Framed Under Glass / Image Size 47 x 71 cm
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Oil on Canvas
152 x 102 cm
A$18,000 Buy Now
Ink on Paper
71 x 60 cm Framed Under Glass / Image Size 29 x 19 cm
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Bronze
46 x 56 cm
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BORN 1922 Melbourne
His lifelong passion for nature developed as a boy and early on he entertained the idea of becoming a natural history illustrator. At 15 however he joined a Melbourne advertising agency and at night attended classes at Swinburne Technical College. The agency job ended with the outbreak of war and Crooke went on to study art full time at Swinburne before enlisting in the army. His service years saw him in Western Australia, North Queensland, Borneo and Thursday Island, places that would feature dramatically in his later work. After the war Crooke completed his art studies at Swinburne and held his first solo exhibition in 1948 at Melbourne’s Kosminsky Gallery.
Crooke returned to Thursday Island in 1949 and worked as a trochus diver. In 1951 he married June Bethel and the couple settled in Cairns before moving back to Thursday Island where Crooke worked for the Anglican Diocese, an experience that was crucial to his subsequent development as a painter. The cool, Gauguin-like portrayal of island life that emerged in his work soon won him wide acclaim.
Crooke returned to Melbourne in 1955 and in 1959 held a successful solo exhibition at Australian Galleries Melbourne. Now, highly sought after by major galleries, he returned to Cairns and with the picturesque Yorkey’s Knob as his base, travelled the tropics, the Gulf country, central Queensland, Fiji and Tahiti, creating some of the major pictures of his career. The experience of life in the tropics became a key element in his work.
Ray Crooke’s work is in the National Gallery of Australia, all state and many regional galleries. His murals grace Australia House in London and his Painting “The offering” 1971, is in the Vatican Museum collection. Ray Crooke won the Archibald prize in 1969 with a portrait of his friend, the writer George Johnston. In 1993 he was made a member of the Order of Australia for services to the visual arts.
COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Australia
ACT Art Gallery of New South Wales
NSW National Gallery of Victoria, Vic
Queensland Art Gallery
Qld.
Art Gallery of Western Australia
WA
Art Gallery of South Australia, SA
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Tas
Newcastle Regional Art Gallery
NSW University Art Museum
University of Queensland, Qld
Reserve Bank of Australia Fairfax Collection
Vatican Collection, Italy
Harvey Galleries was founded by the Harvey family in 1994 with an eye to establish a dynamic and inclusive contemporary art space on the North Shore of Sydney. For almost three decades we have expanded our reach to over three gallery locations and an ever expanding stable of the best artists Australia has to offer.
Harvey Galleries acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which our galleries stand. The Guringai people (Seaforth), the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation (Sydney), and the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation (Melbourne).
We pay our respect to Elders past and present.
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