Edwin Russell Tanner Australia, 1920-80
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Where to buy or sell art works by Edwin Tanner
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About Edwin Tanner
Edwin Tanner was born in Wales in 1920, the son of a miner. His family migrated to Australia in 1923. As a student he excelled at higher mathematics, going on to study structural and civil engineering, as well as training in carpentry and as a civil pilot. In the 1950s he moved to Hobart, working for the Hydro-Electric Commission, later moving to Melbourne where, in 1960, he set up in private practice as a consulting engineer. After this point he maintained the two professions, while also studying philosophy. His paintings show the influence of his earlier career. Tanner has been described as a 'mathematical expressionist' due to his use of geometric lines and depiction of technical forms, sometimes compared by the critics to Paul Klee. In 1954 to public outcry, the National Gallery of Victoria purchased his work The Civil Servant, an image of a grey office with no one at work, just an empty desk. This was followed by a series of works influenced by the world around him; shipyards and factories, all depicted with incomprehensible machinery and the humans reduced to mere cyphers. Tanner's work was regularly exhibited in both Sydney and Melbourne. Ten years after his death, in 1980, a retrospective exhibition was organised at the Monash University Gallery.
Our database records art auction sales of works by Edwin Tanner from 1973 and in total 101 works by the artist have been offered for sale, of which 77 (76%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $78,000 for Man in Office sold by Deutscher and Hackett in November 2012. This year one work has been offered for sale. Works by Edwin Tanner are held by the National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art and a further eight major public national galleries (see list below).
Edwin Tanner is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 936
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 371
- Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, an online resource for biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators.
- Australian Prints + Printmaking, a database listing printmaking artists from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region based on the print collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
Artists' Resale Royalty
Could the second and subsequent works by this artist sold after June 9, 2010 for over $1,000 be liable for the Artists' Resale Royalty? More info…
Yes, eligible, subject to the artist satisfying the residency test. The artist is alive or has been deceased for less than 70 years. Contact the Copyright Agency for information on the residency test.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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