VEAL, HAYWARD (1913-1968)

"Sunflowers" (c.1940)
oil on canvas
76 x 50cm
signed upper left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Wilfred Hayward Veal was a prominent Australian Tonalist. He studied under Archibald Colquhoun, then Max Meldrum. He joined the Max Meldrum School of Painting in 1932, where he later served as an Instructor. In 1937, Veal held his first solo exhibition at Hogan’s Gallery in Melbourne, subsequently travelling to Sydney in the same year. Veal established an art school in Rowe Street, Sydney, known as The Meldrum School. In 1940 he was made a Fellow & Vice-President of the Royal Art Society NSW. Veal became Vice-President of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, he was appointed to the War Art Council & Southern Buyer for the Queensland Art Gallery. Significantly, in 1944 Veal founded & was the first President of the Encouragement of Art Movement. This movement was a driving force in the artistic education of the Australian working public & later evolved into an organization that eventually became the Arts Council of Australia. Veal quickly gained a reputation on the international art scene, regularly exhibiting at the London exhibition between 1952-59 in the Piccadilly Gallery. He became a regular contributor to the international art magazine The Artist & he also worked as an occasional teacher, lecturer & art critic. As a prominent expatriate of Australia, Veal was elected President of the Australian Artists Association, London, in 1953. He is represented in several prominent collections in Australia & overseas, including the National Gallery of Australia, NGV, AGNSW, Art Gallery of Western Australia, QAGOMA, Geelong Art Gallery, Monmouthshire, UK; Oxford University, Oxford, UK; University of Kansas Museum of Art, Kansas, & Brownsville Museum, Brownsville.