Rex Wood
{{Short description|South Australian artist (1906–1970)}}
{{For|the Toronto, Canada artist|Rex Woods (artist)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}
{{infobox artist
|name=Rex Wood
|birth_name=Thomas Percy Reginald Wood{{cite book|title=Registry of BD&M |publisher=SA Government |page=763/287}}
|birth_date= {{birth date |1906|04|06|df=y}}
|birth_place=Laura, South Australia,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55714428 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |volume=LXXI |issue=18,533 |location=South Australia |date=7 April 1906 |accessdate=1 March 2021 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} Australia
|death_date={{death year|1970}}{{cite web|url=https://www.aasd.com.au/index.cfm/list-all-works/?concat=woodrex+t&direction=0&order=0&show=25 |title=Rex Thomas Percy Reginald Wood Australia, Britain, 1908-70 |publisher=Art Sales Digest |access-date=2 March 2021}}
|death_place=Lisbon,{{cite book |last1=Tannock |first1=Michael |title=Portuguese 20th Century Artists: A Biographical Dictionary |year=1978 |publisher=Phillimore |isbn=978-0-85033-312-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xbs0AQAAIAAJ&q=lisbon+rex+wood+1970 |language=en}} Portugal
}}
Rex Wood (6 April 1906 – 1970) was a South Australian pre and post-war artist who lived for many years in Portugal.{{Cite book |last=Benko |first=Nancy |title=Art and Artists of South Australia |publisher=Lidums |year=1969 |location=Adelaide |pages=156 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Jean |title=Australian Watercolour Painters 1780-1980 |publisher=Rigby |year=1980 |isbn=0727017381 |location=Adelaide |pages=340 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Jan |title=Australian Artists’ Index |publisher=Arts Libraries Society |year=1986 |isbn=0947101004 |location=Sydney |pages=417 |language=en}}
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.{{Cite news |date=27 November 1913 |title=Country Intelligence |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96975452 |access-date=29 Dec 2024 |work=Southern Argus (Port Elliot S.A.) |pages=3}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/noel-wood/biography/ |title=Noel Wood b. 1912 |author=Glenn R. Cooke |publisher=Design and Art Australia On-line |access-date=1 March 2021}}
= 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.{{Cite news |date=27 November 1919 |title=LOCAL |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96997206 |access-date=29 December 2024 |work=Southern Argus (Port Elliot, S.A.) |pages=3}} He studied painting at the South Australian School of Art{{cite book |last1=Galleries |first1=Deutsher |last2=Butler |first2=Roger |last3=Witt |first3=Dixie |title=A Survey of Australian Relief Prints, 1900/1950 |year=1978 |publisher=Deutsher Galleries |isbn=978-0-908180-00-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bILsAAAAMAAJ&q=%22rex+wood%22+1970 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=21 December 1928 |title=SCHOOL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article73730749 |access-date=27 December 2024 |work=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |pages=6}} under Mary Packer Harris (1891–1978), and was soon recognised as a realist in a variety of mediums.{{cn|date=March 2021}}{{Cite news |date=20 June 1934 |title=Good work in Color |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128433864 |access-date=20 June 2024 |work=News (Adelaide) |pages=7}} 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{{Cite news |date=10 June 1932 |title=SOCIAL AND PERSONAL |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96681251 |access-date=27 Dec 2024 |work=Bunyip (Gawler, SA) |pages=6}}{{Cite news |date=24 May 1934 |title=Distribution Of Prizes |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74104641 |access-date=27 Dec 2024 |work=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |pages=8}}
= Career =
Rex Wood was an Associate member of the South Australian Society of Arts (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{{Cite news |date=30 June 1937 |title=Group Show By S.A. Artists |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130936497 |access-date=29 December 2024 |work=The News (Adelaide) |pages=10}} with two solo exhibitions in 1935{{cite news |date=26 June 1935 |title=Exhibition Of Works Of Rex Wood |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article40054950 |accessdate=31 August 2016 |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}} and 1937.{{cite news |date=9 November 1937 |title=Arresting Work by Rex Wood |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131563764 |accessdate=31 August 2016 |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=XXIX |issue=4,461}} 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.{{Cite news |last=Fuller |first=H.E. |date=4 November 1937 |title=Colorful Pictures By Rex Wood |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36384371 |archive-date= |access-date=29 Dec 2024 |work=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |pages=14}} Wood was represented in a number of exhibitions alongside fellow artists including Ivor Hele and Hans Heysen
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.{{Cite news |last=Wood |first=Rex |date=20 June 1934 |title=Good work in Color |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128433864 |access-date=20 June 2024 |work=News (Adelaide) |pages=7}}{{Cite news |last=Wood |first=Rex |title=GERTRUDE BRITTEN'S PAINTINGS |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74104641 |access-date=27 December 2024 |work=News (Adelaide) |pages=3}} Then in January 1938 he departed for England and the Continent.{{Cite news |date=8 January 1938 |title=THE AMATEUR THEATRE |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131907342 |access-date=7 January 2025 |work=News (Adelaide) |pages=6}} He studied at the Anglo-French Art Centre at St John's Wood 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.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35699601 |title="Nude," New London Purchase, At Gallery Soon |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |date=14 June 1946 |accessdate=31 August 2016 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} He visited Australia in the mid-1950s,{{cite web|url=http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/28.1990/|title=Rex Wood|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|accessdate=31 August 2016}} and then returned to Portugal,Alan McCulloch, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, first edition 1968; Hutchinson of London where he died in Lisbon in 1970.
Works
- Art Gallery of New South Wales
- The Hamilton Gallery of Hamilton, Victoria has a portrait Vera Van Ry by Rex Wood
- The State Library of South Australia has a photograph and oil painting (1964) of Josephine Piazza "Madame Josephine", both by Rex Wood.{{cite web|url=http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=973&c=8711|title=Josephine Piazza|publisher=State Library of South Australia|accessdate=31 August 2016}}
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.{{cite web |last1=Wood |first1=Rex |title=not titled [Woman on a chaise lounge]. |url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=33311 |website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia}}
References
{{Reflist}}
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