Tony Tuckson, Untitled (Diamond, Small Shapes), c.1962-1965. Oil on masonite, 122 x 122cm. Hassall/Milson Collection. Courtesy: the Tuckson Estate and Delmar Gallery, Sydney.

Delmar Gallery presents a major exhibition from the ANU Drill Hall Gallery, curated by its former director, Terence Maloon and current acting director, Tony Oates.

Since his death in 1973 at the age of 52, Tony Tuckson’s stature in Australian art has grown exponentially. His prolific output over a mere 25 years has been gradually uncovered and continuously re-estimated. Synergy: Tony Tuckson – drawing into painting reveals Tuckson as a source of inexhaustible creative improvisation.

Delving into the Tuckson Estate archives, Maloon and Oates discovered a wealth of never-exhibited works on paper replete with artistic surprises. Over 30 of these works are presented in this exhibition along with key paintings, spanning the remarkable adventure of Tuckson’s life’s work from his diploma painting at the National Art School in 1949 to his sublime abstract expressionist paintings of 1970 – 1973.

“Tuckson’s art is a classic example of transvaluation, where mess turns into articulate composition, roughness into delicacy, accident into design, clumsiness into grace, chaos into cosmos, matter into ‘mind’”, says Maloon, exhibition co-curator.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 108pp catalogue.

Opening Event: Sunday 30 June, from 2pm, launched by artist James Drinkwater.

Discussion on Tuckson: Sunday 14 July, 2 – 3pm, artist Tony Twigg in conversation with Terence Maloon and Tony Oates.

Lecture: Saturday 27 July, from 3pm, Terence Maloon will be giving a free public lecture on Tony Tuckson and Ian Fairweather.

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