Rex Wood (6 April 1906 – 1970) was a South Australian pre and post-war artist who lived for many years in Portugal.

Biography

Early life

He was born Thomas Percy Reginald Wood in Laura, South Australia, the eldest of four boys born to Rev. Tom Percy Wood, who was the rector at St. John’s Church of England Church in Laura, and Fannie née Newbury. He was brother to Jack Newbury Wood, Dean Charlton Wood and Noel Herbert Wood who was also an artist. Their grandfather Thomas Percy Wood, also an Anglican minister in South Australia, was an accomplished watercolorist.

Education

Wood grew up at Laura and then Currency Creek where his father became the minister at the English Church at Finniss. He later attended St Peter’s College. He studied painting at the

South Australian School of Art The South Australian School of Art, originally the South Australian School of Design, is now part school the University of South Australia. it is part of UniSA Creative, which includes the disciplines of architecture and planning; art and desig ...

under

Mary Packer Harris Mary Packer Harris D.A. (Edin.) (30 July 1891 – 26 August 1978) was a Scottish artist and art teacher with a considerable career in South Australia. Early life and training Mary was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire the only daughter of music ...

(1891–1978), and was soon recognised as a realist in a variety of mediums. In 1932 he won a prize for a holiday poster and in 1934 he won equal first prize in the Elizabeth Armstrong Memorial for Still Life Painting at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts

Career

Rex Wood was an Associate member of the

South Australian Society of Arts The South Australian Society of Arts was a society for artists in South Australia, later with a royal warrant renamed The Royal South Australian Society of Arts in 1935. History A meeting of persons interested in the formation of a society for th ...

(SASA later the Royal South Australian Society of Arts) from 1932 until 1939. He exhibited in group exhibitions from the SASA Spring exhibition of 1932 until 1937 with two solo exhibitions in 1935 and 1937. Before his departure for England Rex Wood’s final solo exhibition of paintings and lino-cut prints at the RSASA Gallery was opened by Lady Bonython in November 1937 and the exhibition was favourably reviewed by ''The Advertiser’''s art critic H.E. Fuller. Wood was represented in a number of exhibitions alongside fellow artists including

Ivor Hele Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele, CBE (13 June 1912 – 1 December 1993) was an Australian artist noted for portraiture. He was Australia's longest serving war artist and completed more commissioned works than anyone else in the history of Aust ...

and

Hans Heysen Sir Hans Heysen (8 October 18772 July 1968) was an Australian artist. One of Australia's best known landscape painters, Heysen became a household name during his lifetime for his watercolours and oil paintings of the Australian bush, in pa ...

Wood worked as an art critic for the ''News'' newspaper from about March 1934 until 1937. He reviewed, for example, Kathleen Sauerbier’s first solo exhibition at the SASA Gallery in June 1934 for the ''News''. Then in January 1938 he departed for England and the Continent. He studied at the

Anglo-French Art Centre The Anglo-French Art Centre (or Anglo-French Art School, previously the St John's Wood Art School, was an art school at 29 Elm Tree Road in St John's Wood, north London, England. The centre was founded in 1946 by Alfred Rozelaar Green, who stu ...

St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the Civil Parish#An ...

and the Southampton Row School of Art. He spent much of the war years in Portugal, maintaining some contact with Australia, sending the occasional column to ''The News'', and purchasing some works for the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

. He visited Australia in the mid-1950s, and then returned to Portugal, where he died in Lisbon in 1970.

Works

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

*The Hamilton Gallery of

Hamilton, Victoria Hamilton is a city in south-western Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway. The Hamilton Highway connects it to Geelong. Hamilton is in the Australian House of Representatives, ...

has a portrait ''Vera Van Ry'' by Rex Wood *The

State Library of South Australia The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research li ...

has a photograph and oil painting (1964) of Josephine Piazza "Madame Josephine", both by Rex Wood. *

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, Canberra.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Rex Australian artists 1906 births 1970 deaths Artists from South Australia