JOHN THOMAS RIGBY
1922 – 2012
Compiled by Mark T. Rigby
Version: 4 Oct 2017
Artist Biography
1922 Born in Brisbane on 9 December. Later lived at Palen Creek south-west of Brisbane, briefly in Brisbane again, and then near the Glass House Mountains north of Brisbane by the early 1930s.
1937-38 Studied art at Central Technical College, Brisbane.
1939-41 Worked in commercial art at National Advertising in Brisbane.
1941 First public showing of work (Royal Queensland Art Society Annual Exhibition in Brisbane).
1942-46 Served in the Australian Military Forces, mainly in Townsville and Mareeba, Queensland, and New Guinea.
1946-47 Worked as a freelance commercial artist in Brisbane and was sports cartoonist for The Sunday Mail, Brisbane.
1948-50 Studied for a Diploma in Fine Art at East Sydney Technical College under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.
1949 Married Shirley Walker.
1951 Awarded a Diploma in Fine Art in January; returned to painting and commercial art in Brisbane, living in the suburb of Kedron. John and Shirley separated.
1954 First showing in the Archibald Prize for 1953 with a portrait of Jon Molvig. Married Margaret Shaw Auld. First one-man exhibition at The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane. Son Mark born. Began presenting private art classes at St Mary’s Church Hall, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane.
1955 Won the Italian Government Travelling Art Scholarship (organised by the National Gallery Society of New South Wales and the Dante Alighieri Society).
1956-58 Sailed from Australia with wife Margaret and son Mark on 29 August 1956 to live and paint in Italy. Later visited England and France.
1957 One of 10 finalists in The Australian Women’s Weekly Portrait Prize.
1958 Arrived back in Australia and resumed working in graphic art and painting in Brisbane. Won The Australian Women’s Weekly Art Prize for best portrait (of wife Margaret). Daughter Renée born.
1959 Won three Queensland centenary year art prizes.
1961 Founding Executive Member of the Contemporary Art Society, Queensland Branch.
1962 Moved to Brisbane’s western suburbs. Son Anthony born.
1963 Won the Sir John Sulman Prize for 1962, Art Gallery of NSW.
c.1966 Started Rigby Studio, an advertising art studio with staff.
1969-87 Trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
1972 Left the field of commercial art to paint full time.
1973 Commenced teaching one day per week at the College of Art, George Street, Brisbane.
1974-84 Senior Instructor/Officer-in-Charge at Brisbane’s School of Fine Art, Queensland College of Art (now part of Griffith University).
1980 Featured in UNICEF’s ‘Queensland Men of Achievement’ photographic exhibition.
1981 Toured US galleries with fellow artists.
1984 Retired from the College of Art and returned to full-time painting. Painted on Lord Howe Island.
1985 Invited to paint in Kakadu National Park under the Artists in the Field program run by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Painted in the Whitsunday Islands.
Extensive recorded interviews conducted (7.5 hours) with Rigby on his life, art and the Australian art scene by Barbara Blackman for the National Library of Australia. Now archived, transcribed and updated by NLA online (2017).
1987 Painting trip in Tasmania.
1989 Painted throughout Western Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands.
1990 Travelled to Greece, England and France.
1992 Painted on Thursday Island, Torres Strait.
1994 Awarded an honorary doctorate, Griffith University, Qld.
1995 Travelled to Egypt and Central Australia with works resulting from both trips in later solo shows.
1996 Painted in Bali.
1997 Travelled to North Queensland and painted around Port Douglas and the Daintree National Park.
1999 Visited galleries in Spain and continued to Italy with wife Margaret and son Mark to revisit places lived in during the 1950s.
2000 Painted in Fiji.
2003 Painted on St Bees and Keswick Islands, North Queensland.
Launch of the book “John Rigby: Art & Life” by John Millington and Mark Rigby at the Queensland Art Gallery
2004 Major survey of portraits by John Rigby mounted by the Museum of Brisbane, City Hall
2005 – 2009 Continued to have exhibitions – Gold Coast, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
2012 Passed away on 18 October.
SELECTED PRIZES AND AWARDS
1955 Italian Government Travelling Art Scholarship, Sydney
1958 The Australian Women’s Weekly Art Prize, Portraits, Sydney
1959 Redcliffe Centenary Art Contest, Queensland
Centenary Year Royal National Agricultural Association Prize, Queensland
Caltex Centenary Art Competition
1960 H.C. Richards Memorial Prize, Brisbane
1962 Royal National Agricultural Association Prize, Queensland
1963 The Sir John Sulman Prize for 1962, Sydney
Melrose Prize, Adelaide
1965 Finney’s Art Prize, Brisbane (later became the David Jones Art Prize)
1968 David Jones Art Prize , Brisbane
Albury Art Prize, New South Wales
1969 Armidale Figurative Prize, New South Wales
1971 Gold Coast City Art Prize, Queensland
Naracoorte Acquisitive Exhibition, South Australia
1974 Gold Coast City Art Prize, Queensland
1994 Honorary doctorate, Griffith University, Queensland
2001 Honorary membership, Royal Queensland Art Society
2003 Companion, Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences
Also selected for hanging in the Archibald (24), Wynne (24) and Sulman (21) Prizes from 1953 to 1999, as well as in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize competitions from the 1980s to 2004.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1954 The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1956 The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1958 Terry Clune Galleries, Sydney
The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1961 The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1963 The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1964 The Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne
1965 The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1966 The Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1967 Design Arts Centre, Brisbane
1969 Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne
The Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1970 The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1973 Young Australian Gallery, Brisbane
Reid Gallery, Brisbane
1974 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1976 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1978 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1981 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1984 The Broadbeach Gallery, Gold Coast, Queensland
1985 Wagner Gallery, Sydney
Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1986 Wagner Gallery, Sydney
1988 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1989 Wagner Gallery, Sydney
1990 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1992 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
Wagner Gallery, Sydney
1993 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1994 Buderim House, Buderim, Queensland
1995 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
1997 Wagner Gallery, Sydney
1998 Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
2000 Wagner Gallery, Sydney
2004 Wagner Gallery, Sydney
2005 Art Gallery Collections, Gold Coast
2006 Gallery G, Brisbane
2007 Pollock Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Wagner Gallery, Sydney
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Showed in many exhibitions of Brisbane’s Half Dozen Group of Artists and the Queensland Artists of Fame and Promise annual exhibitions during the 1950s.
Also exhibited in national touring exhibitions shown in state or regional galleries, e.g. Australian Women’s Weekly Art Prize, Archibald, Wynne, Sulman, Uncommon Australians: Towards An Australian Portrait Gallery (1992/93), To Look Within: Self Portraits in Australia (2004). and the Moran National Portrait Prizes. Flood prints (1974) are featured within the Museum of Brisbane exhibition 100% Brisbane (2016 – 2019).
1941 – 43 Royal Queensland Art Society Exhibition, Brisbane
1944 ‘Exhibition of Soldier Arts and Handicraft 1944’, Australian Army Education Service in conjunction with the Toowoomba Art Society.
1949 Strath Art Exhibition, Sydney
1951 ‘The Strath Art Group’, Marodian Gallery, Brisbane
‘Mixed Exhibition’ (created title), Marodian Gallery (predecessor of the Johnstone Gallery), Brisbane
1952 ‘Christmas Exhibition’, The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1955 ‘Four Queensland Artists’, The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
‘A loan exhibition of paintings and sculpture’, The Johnstone Gallery
1959 ‘October Exhbition’, The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1961 ‘A Group of Brisbane Painters’, Rudy Koman Gallery, Sydney;
‘Australian Painting’, Raymond Burr Galleries, Los Angeles, USA (works selected by Kym Bonython)
1962 ‘14 Queensland Painters’, The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
‘Christmas Exhibition’, The Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1964 ‘Brisbane Artists’, Rudy Koman Gallery, Sydney
1965 Mixed show, Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne
1966 Mixed show, Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne
‘Brisbane Painters’, Rudy Koman Gallery, Sydney
1972 ‘A section of drawings’, The Johnstone Gallery
1985 ‘Downs Artists’, Downs Gallery, Toowoomba
1986 ‘John Rigby and Judith Laws’, Downs Gallery and Arts Centre, Toowoomba
‘The Artists’ Camp VI’, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1995 ‘A Time Remembered’, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
1997 ‘Out of Queensland – Three Contemporary Painters’, Wagner Gallery, Hong Kong
1998 ‘Out of Australia’, Liu Hai-Su Art Museum, Shanghai, P.R. China;
‘Five Men and a Houseboat’, Bruce Watling Galleries, Gold Coast, Queensland
1999 ‘International Year of Older Persons Exhibition’, Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane
2000 ‘Modern Masters of Australian Painting’, Wagner Gallery, Sydney
2001 ‘Out of Australia’, Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong
2002 ‘Australian Realist & Modern Painters’, Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Art of John Rigby
https://johnrigbyart.au
