Brushstrokes of 20th Century Contemporaries: Rigby, Roggenkamp, and de Silva
RQAS Petrie Terrace Gallery, 3/162 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane
4 September 2024 – 22 September 2024. Free Entry Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 3:30pm
Closed Monday and Tuesday
This September, the Royal Queensland Art Society (RQAS) hosts a unique exhibition featuring artworks by John Rigby (1922-2012), Joy Roggenkamp (1928-1999), and Frank de Silva (1913-1981). All three artists enriched the local art scene with their perspectives and talents. Some works, sourced from personal collections of the artists’ families, have not been exhibited for many years.
Visitors will have the opportunity to acquire artworks.
John Rigby
Art & Life
John Thomas Rigby produced fine and commercial art for over 70 years with inspiration from a wide range of sources. We may expect a certain look in the works of an artist. By contrast, the works have varied from subject to subject and period to period. His art has been complimented for a complete mastery of chromatics in their most intense registers.
John Rigby’s story is interwoven with the cultural history of south-east Queensland, particularly that of Brisbane. As a painter, his works rank among the best names in Australian art. Rigby the artist, the teacher and art administrator made an immense contribution to the visual arts and its services.
For those interested in acquiring examples of the late artist’s paintings, the Rigby family is making available for sale some of the artwork from their private collections. Viewings can be arranged by appointment. Please visit this sales link to Art Sales
John Rigby
Art & Life
John Thomas Rigby produced fine and commercial art for over 70 years with inspiration from a wide range of sources. We may expect a certain look in the works of an artist. By contrast, the works have varied from subject to subject and period to period. His art has been complimented for a complete mastery of chromatics in their most intense registers.
John Rigby’s story is interwoven with the cultural history of south-east Queensland, particularly that of Brisbane. As a painter, his works rank among the best names in Australian art. Rigby the artist, the teacher and art administrator made an immense contribution to the visual arts and its services.
For those interested in acquiring examples of the late artist’s paintings, the Rigby family is making available for sale some of the artwork from their private collections. Viewings can be arranged by appointment. Please visit this sales link to Art Sales
The Fine Art & Commercial Work of John Rigby
Presented by the John Rigby Family
John Rigby Art
‘Art to me should give pleasure – it should also move us.’
‘All art is abstract… Many decisions I make in a painting are intuitive.’
Highlights
From the artist John Thomas Rigby
The Rigby Family Portraits
John, Margaret, Mark, Renée, Tony
While John Rigby painted many individuals he asked to pose or was commissioned to paint, he was often inspired to paint and draw Margaret beginning in 1952, two years before their marriage, and ending 60 years later with a drawing produced just months before his passing in 2012. Most family portraits have been exhibited, some multiple times and most have been retained by the family. Rigby also produced many self-portraits, a number of which were hung in the Archibald Prize. And, of course, his children were inspiration for some others.
‘Portrait painting sorts people out.’
Artists who show ‘the dog beneath the skin, warts and all.’
The Rigby Family
Portraits
From the artist's collection
A Senior Figure in Australian Art
A remarkable career – numerous solo & group exhibitions in Australia & overseas,
winning and being a finalist in dozens of major prizes and represented in many private, corporate and public collections.
Trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery 1969-1987.
Officer-in-Charge of Fine Art, Queensland College of Art 1974-1984.
Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University 1994.
Honorary Membership, Royal Queensland Art Society 2001.
Companion, Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences 2003.
John Rigby Art
Selections
From galleries & art prizes
Selections
From galleries & art prizes
From Bush Tracks to Brisbane – Commercial Arts
Brisbane in the late 1930’s –
Central Technical College art course, Victor Day Signwriters, then National Advertising as a Commercial Artist until early 1942.
Served during World War II – Maps, Topography & Cartoons.
A post-war cartoonist for The Sunday Mail (Brisbane), 1946 – 1947.
Studied Art at East Sydney Technical College, 1948 – 1950.
Early 1950s back to Commercial Art – Campbell Advertising then Noble-Bartlett Advertising.
John Rigby operated the ‘Rigby Studio’ employing staff from the mid 1960’s to 1972.
Commercial Art
From WWII to modern commercial advertising
Beautiful Queensland – An Artist in the Landscape
John Rigby’s records of untouched Queensland & regional islands –
Paintings that have so much life.
Queensland offered so much variety to Rigby ranging from Brisbane cityscapes to outback scenes and life,
to his beloved islands the full length of the state from North Stradbroke Island to Thursday Island.
Landscapes
Monumental Statements
Nature compositions
‘I like to go into the environment and be surrounded by it. So many landscapes have disappeared in my lifetime.’
Oblivious to the rain and hail pelting down, ‘People must have thought I was mad.’
Monumental Statements
Nature compositions
The Diversity of Rigby’s Art
I’ve been privileged to have been surrounded by Dad’s art all of my life. It really was like growing up in an art gallery with an amazing variety of paintings and drawings – as if by many artists. Except for one thing – they were all from the creative mind and hands of one artist – John Rigby. Mark Rigby
Art Galleries
An Overview of John Rigby’s Work
– Retrospective –
A Prominent Visual Artist for our Time
Art Galleries
An Overview of John Rigby’s Work
Retrospective
A Prominent Visual Artist of the Time
Previous Gallery Event from
Dec 4 2019 – Feb 15 2020
Previous Exhibition RED HILL GALLERY
‘Setting The Scene For 100 YEARS OF JOHN RIGBY’
Aug 6 – 22 2021 ‘It Takes Two’
Brisbane River
c. early 1990s
oil on canvas
91 x 112 cm; frame 102 x 122.3 x 4 cm.
John Rigby painted scenes around the Brisbane River many times during his life and the first such painting he sold was in an exhibition in 1941 when he was 18.
Previous Exhibition RED HILL GALLERY
‘100 YEARS OF JOHN RIGBY’
Feb 11 – 25 2022
Life on Fafa Island
1989
oil on canvas
50.5 x 61.5 cm; framed, 67.6 x 78 x 6.2 cm.
During 1989, John Rigby and his wife Margaret (pictured in this painting) travelled to the Cook Islands, Samoa (called Western Samoa at the time), American Samoa and Tonga.
Rigby painted this work on Fafa Island in the Kingdom of Tonga. The island was hit by a tsunami from the nearby major volcanic eruption in mid-January 2022 and is now covered in volcanic ash.
Contact John Rigby Art
We welcome your contact with us. For all enquiries, please use our Contact Form.
E-mail Subscription
If you wish to receive updates on future exhibitions or significant news,
please see our Contact Page to subscribe (or unsubscribe at any time) to our mailing list.
E-mails are infrequent but may be helpful. We have no concerns over changes to subscriptions.
Your details are kept confidential - as per our Terms of Use and Privacy.
Contact John Rigby Art
We welcome your contact with us. For all enquiries, please use our Contact Form.
E-mail Subscription
If you wish to receive updates on future exhibitions or significant news,
please see our Contact Page to subscribe (or unsubscribe at any time) to our mailing list.
E-mails are infrequent but may be helpful. We have no concerns over changes to subscriptions.
Your details are kept confidential - as per our Terms of Use and Privacy.
John Rigby: Art and Life
Art & Life Book
Art & Life Book
$49.95
Contact John Rigby Art
We welcome your contact with us. For all enquiries, please use our Contact Form.
E-mail Subscription
If you wish to receive updates on future exhibitions or significant news,
please see our Contact Page to subscribe (or unsubscribe at any time) to our mailing list.
E-mails are infrequent but may be helpful. We have no concerns over changes to subscriptions.
Your details are kept confidential - as per our Terms of Use and Privacy.
Contact John Rigby Art
We welcome your contact with us. For all enquiries, please use our Contact Form.
E-mail Subscription
If you wish to receive updates on future exhibitions or significant news,
please see our Contact Page to subscribe (or unsubscribe at any time) to our mailing list.
E-mails are infrequent but may be helpful. We have no concerns over changes to subscriptions.
Your details are kept confidential - as per our Terms of Use and Privacy.
John Rigby: Art and Life
Art & Life Book
Art & Life Book
$49.95
Art is Life
Art is Life
