Australian artist Ray Austin Crooke was born in Auburn, Victoria on 12 July 1922. He is known for serene views of Islander people and ocean landscapes, many of which are based on the art of Gauguin. He spent time in Townsville, Cape York and other parts of northern Australia during the WW2. After the War he enrolled in Art School at Swinburne University of Technology and later travelled to New Guinea, Tahiti and Fiji.
- He won the Archibald Prize in 1969 with a portrait of George Johnston.
- Many of his works are in Australian galleries and his painting The Offering (1971) is in the Vatican Museum collection.
Crooke was responsible for the dust-jacket for Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert. He has received an Order of Australia medal (OAM) Australia in the 1993 Australia Day Honours, “in recognition of service to the arts, particularly as a landscape artist” He died on 5 December, 2015 at the age of 93.
- “North of Capricorn” was an Australian touring retrospective exhibition in 1997 organised by the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery (Townsville, Queensland, Australia) initiated and curated by Grafico Topico’s writer and curator Sue Smith.
- Information about the exhibition and tour can be found at Grafico Topico
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