Ray Austin Crooke Australia, 1922-2015

Painter and printmaker, Ray Austin Crooke was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1922. He studied at Swinburne Technical College, under Roger James and Allan Jordan, from 1946-48. His preliminary studies at Swinburne were interrupted by army service in 1939 and he started painting during his service in Borneo and the islands north of Australia. After the war he worked at various occupations which included two years on Thursday Island, an experience that was crucial to his subsequent development as a painter. The cool, Gaugin-like portrayal of island life that emerged soon won him wide popularity. Over the years his paintings, inspired by his time in the South West Pacific area, have been widely shown throughout Australia and in London at the 'Australian Art' Exhibition, Tate Gallery 1963 and a solo show at Leicester Galleries 1974. He lived in Melbourne between 1955 and 1958 and taught art but moved back to North Queensland. For the next eight years he travelled constantly in the north, Western Australia, Fiji, Tahiti and New Guinea. He served as an official war artist in Vietnam from 1966 and returned to live in Sydney in 1969, in which year he won Archibald Prize for his portrait of George Johnston. Ray Crooke is also known as a printmaker and has proved to be one of Australia's most popular and best loved artists..

Ray Crooke is one of the most prolific of the artists listed in our database, with the number of works offered for sale by auction since 1969 of 4,900, of which 3,507 (72%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $439,200 for The Morning Catch, Fiji Island, 1969-71 sold by Bonhams in September 2019. This year 21 works have been offered for sale. Works by Ray Crooke are held by the National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery and a further seven major public national galleries (see list below).