The Tucker portraits

Albert Tucker (1914–99) is one of Australia’s most well-known and renowned artists, and a key exponent of Australian modernism. He was primarily a figurative painter who critically responded to the world around him. In 1939 Tucker acquired his first camera. From that moment on he began documenting his life and the people and places that meant so much to him. His archive of photographs range from studies of people that he used as source material for his paintings through to incredibly rare and intimate portraits of his family and friends who today are recognised as leading protagonists in Australian modernism and the Heide circle. The Tucker portraits explores how Tucker used photography within his practice – from inspiration and source material for his paintings through to capturing unique and intimate documents that explore the social, cultural and political life in Australia.