Rex Wood

Rex Wood (6 April 1906 – 1970) was a South Australian artist who lived for many years in Portugal.

For the Toronto, Canada artist, see Rex Woods (artist).

History

Thomas Percy Reginald Wood (known as Rex Wood) was born in Laura, South Australia on 6 April 1906. His birth was registered at Clare, South Australia. He was the eldest of four boys born to Rev. Tom Percy Wood (1880-1957) and Fannie née Newbury (1880-1969). He was brother to Jack Newbury Wood (8 November 1907 - 1989), Dean Charlton Wood (8 July 1910 - 27 February 1998) and Noel Herbert Wood (1 February 1912 - 10 November 2001). Noel Wood was also an artist. Their grandfather Thomas Percy Wood (14 April 1855 - 12 November 1937) was an Anglican Minister in South Australia and an accomplished watercolourist.

Rex Wood studied painting at the South Australian School of Art under Mary Packer Harris (1891–1978), and was soon recognised as a pre-eminent realist in a wide variety of mediums. He was represented in a number of exhibitions alongside such luminaries as Ivor Hele and Hans Heysen. He began acting as art critic for The News in 1934, and his one-man exhibition in 1935 was well received.[1] He had another exhibition in 1937,[2] at the eve of his departure for England and the Continent. He studied at the Anglo-French Art Centre at St Johns 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.[3] He visited Australia in the mid-1950s[4] then went back to Portugal,[5] where he died in Estoril around 24 January 1970. He was missing for 3 weeks before his drowned body was recovered from the sea. A Portuguese manservant, 24, was charged with murder by pushing Rex Wood off a cliff.

Works

• A painting by Rex Wood was held by the Art Gallery of South Australia.
• The Wind, a painting by Rex Wood, is held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales
• A drawing Flowers is held by the University of New South Wales Art Gallery.
• 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.[6]
• These Little Things, a book of poems by Patricia Hackett, contained five illustrations by Wood.
• 17 prints by Rex Wood are held in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
• Royal Australian South Australian Society of Arts History. 1855-2016 - Rex Wood.

References

1. "Exhibition Of Works Of Rex Wood". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 26 June 1935. p. 16. Retrieved 31 August 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
2. "Arresting Work by Rex Wood". The News (Adelaide). XXIX, (4, 461). South Australia. 9 November 1937. p. 9. Retrieved 31 August 2016 – via National Library of Australia.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
3. ""Nude," New London Purchase, At Gallery Soon". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 14 June 1946. p. 12. Retrieved 31 August 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "Rex Wood". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
5. Alan McCulloch, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, first edition 1968; Hutchinson of London
6. "Josephine Piazza". State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 31 August 2016.