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James Cook (artist)

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New Zealand-born Australian artist, curator and art critic

William Edward James "Jimmy" Cook (1904–1960) was a New Zealand-born Australian artist, curator and art critic.

Early life

Cook was born in Heathcote, Christchurch, New Zealand in 1904.

Training

Cook attended the Canterbury College School of Art from 1919 to 1925 where in 1926 he was awarded the Sawtell Travelling Scholarship using which he studied briefly, touring England, Scotland and Europe, and sharing rooms with William Dobell who remained a close friend.

Teacher

Cook returned to Christchurch in 1927 where until 1933 he taught at his alma mater the Canterbury School of Art alongside Richard Wallwork, Leonard H. Booth, Professor James Shelley, Rata Lovell-Smith, Evelyn Page and Louise Henderson. Rita Angus, a fellow artist who was amongst the first students to sit the preliminary examinations held at the end of 1927 was briefly married to James's brother Alfred, also an artist.

In 1931 James joined an informal association of alumni 'The Group’ with which he exhibited in 1931 and 1932. In 1933, with his wife Ruth he returned to Europe and painted in England, France and Spain. Shortly after the commencement of World War 2 Cook was recruited by the British Ministry of Information as a war artist. Brown notes that he was just one amongst a 'considerable number of talented painters leaving New Zealand in search of artistic fulfilment, in most cases never to return...'

Australia

In 1941 Cook moved to Australia to teach at the East Sydney Technical College (ESTC, later called the National Art School) until 1949, his employment interrupted by his WW2 camouflage work for the Department of the Interior, then from March 1944, he was official war artist for the Australian Comforts Fund, in Papua New Guinea.

Cook was appointed Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1949, assuming the role in March 1950 and remaining until 1952.

In his early retirement Cook wrote art criticism for Sydney's The Daily Telegraph 1952-59 and continued to paint. He gave Rosalie Gascoigne oil paintings of views from Mount Stromlo under varying atmospheric conditions, studies which he had made for a larger painting intended for the Wynne Prize.

Cook subsequently made a return visit to England and Europe, but died of pneumonia in Florence, in 1960.

Style and reception

Smith in 1976 notes renewed interest in Cook's paintings, particularly those from the war period:

His drawings and his ability to visually articulate and describe through the use of the pencil have found few equals. It is in his paintings of military activities within the jungle environment that the full powers of Cook the painter and tonalist become evident.

McCulloch writes that he was 'a meticulous craftsman and a critic of integrity.'

Collections

References

  1. ^ McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; McCulloch Childs, Emily (2006). The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art (4th ed.). Fitzroy: AUS Art Editions; Miegunyah Press. p. ix. ISBN 0-522-85317-X. OCLC 80568976.
  2. Campbell, Jean (1989). Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day., Sydney,. Page. Craftsman House. pp. 188, 299. ISBN 9780947131289.
  3. ^ Brown, Gordon Harold; Hamish, Keith (1982). An Introduction to New Zealand Painting, 1839-1980. New Zealand: Auckland: Collins. pp. 105, 106, 110, 118. ISBN 9780002169899.
  4. Eagle, Mary (1996). "Dobell, Sir William (1899–1970)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 14. Melbourne University Press.
  5. "Art Deco – Rita Angus". Retrieved 9 September 2010.
  6. Docking, Gil (1990). Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Painting,. New Zealand: David Bateman Ltd. p. 110. ISBN 9780589004262.
  7. ^ Dunn, Michael (2003). New Zealand Painting: A Concise History. United Kingdom: Auckland University Press. p. 65. ISBN 9781869402976.
  8. McGahey, Kate (2000). The Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Artists Painters Printmakers Sculptors. New Zealand: Wellington: Gilt Edge Publishing. p. 50.
  9. Gascoigne, Martin (2019). Rosalie Gascoigne : a catalogue raisonné. Australia: Acton, ACT: Australian National University Press. p. 34. ISBN 9781760462345.
  10. The Robert McDougall Art Gallery (1985). The Expatriates. April-May 1985. New Zealand: Christchurch: Christchurch City Council. p. 2.
  11. ^ Cook, James (1941). "In a tent, Aldershot, pen and ink and coloured washes, 32.1 × 46.4 cm. Department of Australian Prints & Drawings, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, 1942 © the estate of James Cook". National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 19 January 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. Smith, Ernest (September 1976). "Memories of Three New Zealand Expatriate Painters". Art New Zealand. 1 (1).
  13. Art Gallery of Western Australian online collection. "James Cook". Art Gallery of Western Australian. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
  14. Art Gallery of South Australia. "William Edward James Cook: works in the collection". Art Gallery of South Australia online collection. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
  15. Bendigo Art Gallery. "Cook, James". Bendigo Art Gallery collection online. Retrieved 19 January 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Works by James Cook". Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
  17. New England Regional Art Museum. "Objects: James Cook". New England Regional Art Museum eHive. Retrieved 19 January 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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