TUCK, RUTH (1914-1994)

"Roses" (c.1960)
watercolour
cm
signed lower right
*Estate of Jonathan Hardy (Breaker Morant, Mad Max)
 
Ruth Edith Tuck O.A.M was an important, award-winning Australian Modernist & Instructor. She was the first cousin (once removed) of pioneering Australian Modernist, Marie Tuck. She studied painting under Dorrit Black and exhibited regularly with the Royal South Australian Society of Arts and was a foundation member of the Contemporary Art Society. She met Mervyn Smith in 1943 and married him on 15 October the same year; they lived in Adelaide, then Mervyn moved to Newcastle, New South Wales in 1949, where he was employed as a County Council planning officer; she joined him few years later. In 1953 they returned to Adelaide, where they remained and held numerous joint exhibitions of their watercolors, both modernist in outlook with Mervyn's work being generally characterised as the more ambitious. Ruth established the Ruth Tuck Art School in 1955; it continues to this day in Burnside, South Australia. She was awarded the Order of Australia medal in 1981 for services to art. Her works are represented in most Major Galleries in Australia. This stunning watercolour comes from the estate of legendary New Zealand-born Screenwriter, Jonathan Hardy (Breaker Morant, Devil's Playground, Mad Max, etc.)!!.