Lloyd Rees Retrospective

“It has been the policy of the Trustees of the State Art Galleries within the Commonwealth to hold from time to time retrospective exhibitions of the work of distinguished Australian artists. We have the pleasure in presenting this retrospective exhibition of the paintings and drawings of Lloyd Rees.

In 1942 a loan exhibition was shown in the Art Gallery of New South Wales consisting of 46 paintings and 69 drawings. The Exhibition now on view covers the whole range of subjects and media of Lloyd Rees’s work dating from 1913 up to 1969. We believe that all people in this Country interested in art, whatever their particular bias may be, will agree that Lloyd Rees is an artist worthy of this honour. He has exhibited widely throughout the Commonwealth, New Zealand and overseas, has won many important prizes and contributed greatly to the development of art here.

This exhibition confirms that from the beginning up to the present Lloyd Rees has always been a Romantic, a Romantic in the sense that imagination has triumphed over reason. This does not imply that deep thought has not been given to the organisation of his paintings as it is obvious that he has studied deeply the science of picture making and is a craftsman of high order. The meticulous pen and ink drawings are not weakened by their minute detail as they always retain a unity of tone and are skilfully composed. His landscapes are usually muted in colour and often dark-toned. One would regard him as a harmonist rather than a colourist in the modern sense of the world. Although tolerant and interested in modern movements — his many visits overseas have given him the opportunity of studying these at first hand — he has not, to any extent, been influenced by them and has not given way to fashion in order to gain popularity.”

Excerpt from Lloyd Rees Retrospective: Souvenir Catalogue 1969, foreword by Erik Langker, Kt., O.B.E