artists

artists

Lloyd Rees

SELECTED WORKS

 Lloyd Rees
1895 Born Brisbane
1913 Draughtsman, painter and printmaker

 

1913 His original ambition to become an architect was frustrated by his weakness in maths, and in 1913 he was appointed as a junior artist in the Government Printing Office in Brisbane where he made his first print - a lithograph of the Printing Office.

 

1912 When he was 17 he became seriously ill, and during his recovery he was able to study art full-time at the Brisbane Technical College. He developed a style in pen, pencil and watercolour which captured the light and tone of Brisbane. 
1912 His work was first shown publicly in Brisbane and after that he exhibited in Australia  and overseas in many one-man and group shows. 
1917 It was some of these Brisbane drawings that attracted the attention of Sydney Ure Smith, publisher of the influential magazine, Art in Australia, and in 1917 he was offered a job as a  commercial artist in the Smith & Julius Studio in Sydney.
1931 Married Marjory Pollard, and they went to live at Northwood, on the Lane Cove River. At the  time he was concentrating on pencil drawings of Sydney, the harbour and the suburbs, and these detailed, yet idealized works assured his reputation as one of Australia’s finest draughtsmen.
1937 He gained significant international recognition when he was awarded the Silver Medal for Drawing at the 1937 Paris International Exposition.
1937 It was not until the late 1930s that he also began to be known for his oil paintings. He said that he realized then that he was starting to paint with his pencil, and that it was time to seriously devote himself to oils. However, drawing always remained an integral part of his work, either as finished works or as notes for paintings.
1942 The first of four major retrospective exhibitions of his work, organised by the Art Gallery of NSW was presented.
1950 He won the Wynne Prize for Landscape.
1951 He won the Commonwealth Jubilee Art Prize.
1969 The second of four major retrospective exhibitions of his work, organised by the Art Gallery of NSW was presented.
1969 He wrote ‘The Small Treasures of a Lifetime’. 
1970 The University of Sydney awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Letters.
1975 He was first introduced to the technique of soft-ground etching, and then to lithography.  He became very interested in the medium and, working with printers such as Max Miller and Fred Genis, he made over 100 prints.
1977 He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (C.M.G.).
1981 The third of four major retrospective exhibitions of his work, organized by the University Gallery, Melbourne was presented.
1982 He won the Wynne Prize for Landscape.
1984 The University of Tasmania awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Letters.
1985 He was made Companion of the Order of Australia (A.C.). 
1985 He wrote ‘Peaks and Valleys’ 
1987 The City of Paris awarded him the Medaille de la Ville de Paris (Echelon Vermeil) in recognition of his international standing as an artist.
1987 He won the inaugural Jack Manton Prize.
1987 He wrote ‘An Artist Remembers’
1988 He was included in the Australian Bicentennial Authority’s ‘Two Hundred People who made Australia Great’.
1988 Lloyd Rees died on 2nd December 1988 in Hobart.
1990 Wrote with Renée Free, ‘Lloyd Rees: the last twenty years’. (published in 1990)
1995 The fourth retrospective exhibition of his drawings was presented to mark the centenary of his birth, organized by the Art Gallery of NSW.
2002 An exhibition, ‘Lloyd Rees European Sketchbooks and related works’, was shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (touring exhibition).

Group Exhibitions

2006'50th Anniversary Exhibition', Australian Galleries, Melbourne
'Fine Australian Prints and Drawings', Australian Galleries, Melbourne

Special Notes


Lloyd Rees is represented in all state galleries, the Australian National Gallery, and in several overseas collections.



Copyright of all works by Lloyd Rees exhibited on the Australian Galleries website rests with Alan and Jan Rees, care of Australian Galleries.

Photograph courtesy of Michel Lawrence 

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