CENTER, RONALD (1913-1983)

"Landscape With Boat" (c.1950) 
oil on board
25 x 30cm
signed lower right
*Christies, Melbourne, 1989
*private collection, Bowral
 
Ronald Alan Hunt Center is a forgotten Australian Modernist. Little is known about Center. He was a Melbourne-born artist, who studied under the acclaimed painter, George Bell (1878-1966). As part of the George Bell "Group Of Artists", he exhibited alongside contemporaries Russell Drysdale, Sali Herman, Alan Warren, Barbara Brash, Dorothy Braund & Constance Stokes in Melbourne. Known primarily for his "rich tonality" according to The Herald, he specialized in Bell-inspired Still Life's & Landscapes. He exhibited regularly throughout the 1940s & 1950s, mainly in group shows; at the Melbourne Book Club Gallery, Dunlop Art Prize (with Arthur Boyd, John Passmore, Charles Bush & Phyl Waterhouse), Stanley Coe Gallery (with Anne Montgomery & Roma Thompson) & the Johnstone Gallery (with Charles Bush & Kenneth Jack). He taught painting at the Melbourne Technical College, was a member of the Melbourne Contemporary Artists' & Victorian Artists' Society. Currently, he is not represented in any major gallery in Australia.
 
This original painting is thought to have been painted on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Having produced works around Hastings, the scene depicted is likely Western Port Bay. This work was last sold at Christies in 1989.