Tony Woods
Tony Woods was born in Hobart in 1940 (d. 2017) and achieved a reputation as one of
Australia’s most dynamic figurative artists. He began exhibiting in Hobart in the early 1960s,
and by the middle of that decade was being shown at various mainland galleries, such as the
Australian Galleries in Melbourne, Kym Bonython in Adelaide and Sydney and later at
Gallery A, also in Melbourne. He caught the attention of the artist Albert Tucker, the art
historian Bernard Smith and critic Patrick McCaughey, the American collector Harold Merz,
the architect Robin Boyd and Lord Milo Talbot of Malahide, who had moved from Ireland to
Tasmania in the early 1960s. Regarded as a rare talent, James Mollison encouraged Woods
to enter major art prizes and in 1968, having hosted the American art critic Clement
Greenberg on his Tasmanian visit, Woods was awarded the prestigious American Harkness
Fellowship.
Tony Woods was an articulate and probing artist interested in literature and music of all
cultures and periods, and he had a strong fascination for contemporary American
expressionism. He successfully combined a vigorous gesturalism and figuration with British
and American Pop influences, evident in his strong linear and skilful drawing and a highly
charged colour palette, which often incorporated collage and the ready-made. With a
profound belief in his own intuitive integrity as an artist Woods’ exploration of the self
remained a crucial preoccupation as he sought to reveal the undisclosed rather than the
obvious. What he produced was often the perfect paradox, and for this reason he can be
seen as exemplary in his artistic pursuit of modernism’s pluralism as well as a metaphysical
romanticism. He also adhered to the belief that ‘the artist was the historian of the future
because he used the unified possibilities of the present’. Tony Woods is attracting renewed
interest and this small exhibition is timely in reconstituting this Tasmanian artist’s profile
into the contemporary canon.
Dr Sheridan Palmer
Art historian and curator
Guest Editor of ANZJA
Honorary Fellow, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne
Research Fellow, Centre of Visual Art, VCA and University of Melbourne |
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Born Hobart Tasmania (1940 – 2017)
Artist, super-8 filmmaker, video/mdv & field recordings
Studies under J.Carington Smith, Dorothy Stoner, George Davis F.A.D. Hobart 1963 |
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Solo Exhibitions |
| 2007 |
Mahoneys Galleries Melbourne |
| 2005 |
Fox Gallery, Queensland
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| 2002 |
Honeyeaters Gallery Melbourne |
| 2000 |
5opt Studio/Gallery Hong Kong
A.R.T. Gallery Eden Melbourne |
| 1995 |
Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne |
| 1991 |
Elaine Gallerie Melbourne |
| 1990 |
Tony Woods at ACCA: 28 year retrospective ACCA Melbourne |
| 1989 |
Girgis & Klym Gallery Fitzroy Melbourne |
| 1989-86 |
Rhumbarellas Gallery Melbourne |
| 1984 |
Bolitho Gallery Canberra |
| 1982 |
Quentin Gallery Perth |
| 1982-81 |
Axiom Gallery Melbourne |
| 1980 |
Tolarno Print Gallery Melbourne
Hogarth Gallery Sydney |
| 1980-63 |
Commercial galleries Tasmania |
| 1978 |
S.Gerstman Gallery Melbourne |
| 1975, 73, 71, 70, 68, 67, 63 |
Australian Galleries Melbourne |
| 1975-73 |
Saddlers Court Gallery Richmond Tasmania |
| 1972, 67 |
Devonport Gallery and Art Centre Tasmania |
| 1971, 69, 66 |
Bonython Galleries Adelaide |
| 1970, 68 |
Bonython Sydney |
| 1966 |
Art Centre Gallery Hobart |
| 1965 |
Adult Education Board Gallery Hobart |
| 1962 |
Hobart, sponsored by English Speaking Union |
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Two Person/ Artist Exhibitions |
| 2003 |
with John Bartlett, Geelong Victoria |
| 2000 |
with John Aslandis Melbourne
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| 1976 |
with John Williams Hogarth Galleries Sydney |
| 1971 |
with Brett Whiteley, Festival of Perth WA |
| 1968 |
with Bea Maddock Q.V.Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston |
| 1965 |
with David Warren Hobart |
| 1964 |
with Margaret Roxbourgh Hobart |
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Major Group Exhibitions |
| 2008 |
Personal Perspectives: artists & their portraits Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
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| 2000 |
Project 2/2000 Biennale of Sydney Sydney University
Art by 4 (Johns,Bartlett,Proebsting,Woods) D.A.A>G. House Melbourne
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| 1990 |
Portraits of the 20 th Century Monash University Gallery Melbourne
Art with Text Monash University Gallery Melbourne |
| 1986 |
Six Contemporary Artists Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery |
| 1981 |
Tasmanians in Exile – Bea Maddock, T.Bridley-Bucknell, K.Lincoln and T.Woods Harrington St
Gallery Hobart |
| 1980 |
Victorian Printmakers Group travelling exhibition of lithographs, etchings and relief prints |
| 1979 |
Drawings 1979 Stuart Gerstman Galleries Melbourne |
| 1975 |
The Australian Image – Work of living Australian artists Arts Victoria
The Blue Gum Festival od Tasmania Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery |
| 1971 |
Bonsai show Australian Galleries Melbourne
Mini Documenta Bonython Gallery & National Gallery of Victoria
John Kaldor Art Project 2 – Harold Szeemann in Australia
First Leasing Art Prize National Gallery of Victoria |
| 1970 |
Bonsai show Yellow House Sydney |
| 1968 |
Tasmanian Drawing Prize QV Museum & Art Gallery |
| 1968-60 |
Tasmanian Watercolour Society; Tasmanian Group of Painters; Tasmanian Contemporary
Art Society |
| 1966-67 |
The Australian Painters 1964-66 Contemporary Australian Paintings from the Mertz
Collection Adelaide Festival of Arts AGSA, the Corcoran Gallery Washington and toured USA |
| 1967 |
Harkness Invitation Exhibition |
| 1966 |
Helena Rubinstein Scholarship Exhibition Adelaide |
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Awards |
| 1969 |
Power Fund Studio Fellowship France |
| 1968 |
Harkness Fellowship (21 months painting) New York |
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Collections |
Artbank
Australian National University Canberra
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Gary Catalano Collection
Burnie Regional Art Gallery
Chelsea Hotel New York USA
Devonport Regional Art Gallery
Flinders University South Australia
D.Ardean Collection London UK
Mertz Collection USA (now dispersed by auction in Australia)
National Gallery of Australia Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria
Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery
Reserve Bank of Australia
Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
Tasmanian University Art Collection
University of Texas USA
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Selected Bibliography |
| 2004 |
David King Metro Magazine |
| 1998 |
Sue Backhouse Tasmanian Artists of the 20th Century
Vikki Riley Photophile Sydney issue no53
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| 1988 |
Alan McCulloch & Susan McCulloch Encyclopaedia of Australian Art |
| 1986 |
SBackhouse, HKolenberg Six Contemporary Artists Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery |
| 1984 |
Max Germaine Artists & Galleries in Australia Craftsman House Sydney |
| 1983 |
Jean Campbell Australian Watercolour Painters 1880-1980 Rigby SA |
| 1981 |
Gary Catalano ‘Tony Woods and the Remembered Image’ Art and Australia vol 18 no 3 |
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