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Tony Tuckson

Small Figurative works paper, cardboard and canvas

In the years after he left art school (1949) and until he fully embraced abstract art (1964), Tony Tuckson did hundreds of small figurative paintings and drawings which he kept carefully, lugging them from one studio to the next.  He valued these small works.  Any selection from that great accumulation turns out,in its own way, to be rewarding. This selection of thirty eight works is no exception.  These small works can rarely be seen as investigations into contemporary art; sometimes they are ideas for larger works but mainly they seem to be very much just themselves, the progeny of a fertile mind.

In this selection are thirteen paintings done on the back of surplus invitations to a “Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June, 1961”.  Tuckson must have enjoyed having these cards ready to hand and, perhaps, a feeling for the exhibition as a whole may be found in discussion of these 13 paintings.
First must come TD10746. This is Margaret Tuckson.  This is Tony’s hieroglyph for her.  It symbolizes Margaret and is to be found all over the place in paintings of the 1949-1964 period.
Next to be considered are three small paintings from the large number of “Woman with flowers” works TD10739, TD107481 & TD10740).  To appreciate these, the most rewarding way is to understand the flowers are a metaphor for all that Margaret contributed to Tony’s enjoyment of their home life.  That is why bowls of flowers without the woman are rare in Tuckson’s work.
Another group of three is “Women with Hats”. In many of Tuckson’s paintings are to be found women with extraordinary hats of his invention.  He enjoyed hats.  In the Tuckson book page 74 is to be found such a hat as adorns the three women (TD2126, TD5045 & TD5047). In each of these paintings an unusual amount of care has gone into the backgrounds (not common in the small works) and he hasn’t given any of their faces’ features. This is very unusual.
Have the hats rendered their faces featureless?
While on the subject of faces we should look at TD480, which is a twice selected painting for it is also in the Tuckson book, page 172.  It is not essential to know that the eyes in the grid are 3 down from the hairline and 5 up from the chin, the same proportions as in Tuckson’s self portrait that is the frontispiece for the Tuckson book.  Whatever, this is a strangely stimulating small work.
Two explorations into child art (TD4947 and TD4949) are also very stimulating.  Both can be interpreted as close-ups of a face or head.  It is probably an accident that we can see TD4949 as clenching a rose in her/his teeth.
Even more perplexing but equally enjoyable is TD5081.  It is rather far-fetched but not impossible to see it also as the close-up of a face but it is more acceptable   as two people sitting at a table.
The two paintings remaining in our group of thirteen are bold black oilwash works.  TD5749 must have pleased Tuckson because whether it is a figurative work given vitality by its abstract qualities or an abstract work acquiring energy from figurative implications is hard to know. But either way it is wonderfully successful.
Lastly we have TD5071 and the brush still loaded with black oilwash.  A mother and child walk into their future rendered benevolent by yellow splodges.

Geoffrey Legge

2022

TD5439                    SOLD

gouache on card     15.2 x 4.7 cm

TD8714                    SOLD

ballpoint pen ink on paper     10.4 x 15 cm

TD10746                    SOLD

gouache and pencil on card     15.2 x 11.5 cm

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD5749                    SOLD

oilwash on card     11.5 x 15.2 cm

c1951-52?

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD3609                    $1, 000

ballpoint pen ink on paper     10.3 x 13.9 cm

TD5079                    SOLD

oilwash on card     11.5 x 15.2 cm

c1951-52?

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD5081                    SOLD

oilwash on card     11.5 x 15.2 cm

c1951-52?

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD10739                    SOLD

gouache on card     11.5 x 15.2 cm

c1951-52?

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD10741                    SOLD

gouache on card     11.5 x 15.2 cm

c1951-52?

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD10740                    SOLD

gouache on card     11.5 x 15.2 cm

c1951-52?

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD5997                    $1, 200

pencil and red pencil on paper     17.5 x 10.5 cm

TD5043                    $1, 100

watercolour on paper     14.5 x 10.3 cm

TD7315                    SOLD

pencil on paper     15.3 x 10 cm

TD5035                    SOLD

watercolour on paper     16 x 11.4 cm

TD9816                    SOLD

watercolour on paper     16 x 11.4 cm

TD5036                    $1, 100

watercolour on paper     14.2 x 10.3 cm

TD5038                    $1, 100

watercolour on paper     14.2 x 10.3 cm

TD2125                    SOLD

gouache on paper      14.2 x 10.3 cm

TD4949                    SOLD

oilwash on card     11.5 x 15.2 cm

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD2126                    SOLD

oilwash on card     15.2 x 11.5 cm

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD4947                    SOLD

oilwash on card     11.5 x 15.2 cm

c1951-52

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD5045                    SOLD

gouache on card      15.2 x 11.5 cm

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD5028                    $1, 100

watercolour on paper     10.2 x 14.2 cm

TD5047                    SOLD

gouache on card     15.2 x 11.5 cm

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD8275                    $1, 100

pencil on paper     10.1 x 14.8 cm

TD5041                    SOLD

watercolour on paper     14.2 x 10.2 cm

TD480 (Head No.1)                    SOLD

red pencil on paper     17 x 10.5 cm

illustrated Tony Tuckson, Craftsman House, p172, fig.58

TD6804                    SOLD

gouache on card     20 x 15.6 cm

(German Modern Graphic Art 1956)

TD5042                    $1, 500

gouache on card     15.2 x 11.5 cm

c1951-52

(official invite for Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art, June 1951)

TD10744                    SOLD

gouache on paper     14.2 x 10.3 cm

TD9877                    SOLD

gouache on card     20 x 15.6 cm

(German Modern Graphic Art 1956)

TD10748                    SOLD

gouache on paper     16 x 11.4 cm

TD6805                    SOLD

gouache on card     20 x 15.6 cm

(German Modern Graphic Art 1956)

TD5034                    SOLD

coloured pencils on paper     15 x 10.4 cm

TD9105                    SOLD

pencil on paper     16.5 x 10.2 cm

TD5037                     SOLD

watercolour and pencil on paper     14.2 x 10.2 cm

TD9347                    $1, 200

red pencil on paper     17 x 10.1 cm

TD9607                    $1, 100

watercolour on paper     15.2 x 9.5 cm

TP637 (portrait of Margaret Tuckson)                    $30, 000

oil on cardboard     76.3 x 63.6 cm

c1949

Tp310 (Head)                    $30, 000

oil on canvas     60.5 x 71.5 cm

c1949

Jubilee Invite Card     15.2 x 11.5 cm