Ray Crooke

AM
Born
Ray Austin Crooke

(1922-07-12)12 July 1922
Auburn, Victoria, Australia
Died5 December 2015(2015-12-05) (aged 93)
Palm Cove, Queensland, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Alma materSwinburne University of Technology
Spouse
June Bethel
​
​
(m. 1951; died 2013)​
AwardsArchibald Prize
1969 George Johnston

Ray Austin Crooke AM (12 July 1922 – 5 December 2015) was an Australian artist known for his landscapes. He won the Archibald Prize in 1969 with a portrait of George Johnston.

Early life

Ray Crooke was born in Auburn, Victoria in 1922.[1] He spent time in Townsville, Cape York and other parts of northern Australia joining the Australian Army during World War II, service number VX88344[2] between August 1941-July 1946.

Career

After the war, he enrolled in Art School at Swinburne University of Technology and later travelled to New Guinea, Tahiti and Fiji. In 1949 he travelled to the Torres Strait, returning to Melbourne in 1951 to marry June Bethell.[3] A diary of his time in the Torres Strait is held by the State Library of Queensland.[4]

His portrait of the novelist George Johnston won the Archibald Prize in 1969, and the University of Queensland owns three of Ray Crooke's portrait paintings: Portrait of Xavier Herbert (1977), Portrait of Professor Emeritus Sir Zelman Cowen, (1919–2011), Vice-Chancellor 1970–1977 (1977) and Portrait of Sadie Herbert (1980).[5] However, he is not known usually for portrait painting. He is known for serene views of Islander people and ocean landscapes, many of which are based on the art of Paul Gauguin. He was responsible for the dust-jacket for Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert.[6]

During the sixties, the Crooks lived in Sydney and Melbourne, making regular trips to Thursday Island, New Guinea, Cape York and Fiji. He frequently exhibited his work at the Johnstone gallery in Brisbane and the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney. For Crooke, the Johnstone Gallery was pivotal to his success, beginning with his first solo exhibition there in 1960, and continuing, largely unabated, ever since. His Island Journal [4] is dedicated "to the memory of Brian and Marjorie Johnstone", an indication of their influence on his life as an artist.[3]

His painting The Offering (1971) is in the Vatican Museum collection. Many of his works are in Australian galleries.

"North of Capricorn" was an Australian touring retrospective exhibition in 1997 organised by the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery (Townsville), initiated and curated by Grafico Topico's writer and curator Sue Smith.

He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 1993 Australia Day Honours, "in recognition of service to the arts, particularly as a landscape artist".[7]

Crooke died on 5 December 2015 at the age of 93.[8][9][10][11][12]

References

  1. ↑ Dobson, Rosemary (1971). Focus on Ray Crooke. University of Queensland Press. p. 13. ISBN 0702207020.
  2. ↑ "Crooke, Ray Austin. World War II Service Record". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  3. 1 2 Ray Crooke Diary 1949 [catalogue record], State Library of Queensland
  4. 1 2 Crooke, Ray (2000). Ray Crooke Diary 1949 (also titled Island Journal). West End, Qld: Bede Publishing. ISBN 0646393839.
  5. ↑ Hergenhan, Laurie (July 2013). "A tale of three portrait" (PDF). Fryer Folios. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Crooke, Ray (1970), Preliminary design for the dustjacket of Xavier Herbert's Poor fellow my country, retrieved 3 December 2014
  7. ↑ "CROOKE, Ray Austin". It's an Honour. Australian Government. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  8. ↑ "Artist Ray Crooke, champion of the tropics, dies at 93". The Australian.
  9. ↑ "Vale: Ray Crooke AO". Queensland Art Gallery. 9 December 2015. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "Ray Austin Crooke's Obituary on The Sydney Morning Herald". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  11. ↑ de Silva, Greg (1 January 2016). "Artist captured the carefree people of Australia's tropical north". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  12. ↑ "Ray Crooke captured Australia's tropical north on canvas as no one else has done". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 January 2016. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2018.


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