TOM GLEGHORN

Tom Gleghorn

AKA: Tom Gleghorn

Born: 1925 UK

• Contemporary
• Landscape
• Water Colour
• Established

Fragment of the Crucifixion.

As a well known South Australian artist Tom Gleghorn recalled a defining moment in his life in a publication by the University of Adelaide: After arriving in Australia at the age of three his family settled at Warners Bay on Lake Macquarie. Just after he started school he established a friendship of sorts with a hard drinking, uncouth ruffian called Joe Westcott. One evening Westcott told him about and read to him Aesop’s Fables. This gave him a thirst for education and knowledge. Westcott was later painted by William Dobell. The painting is entitled The Billy Boy.

As a young man he was reading works by Santayana and other philosophers. Still he had completed an engineering apprenticeship and his path in life seemed to be set. Then in 1949 he and his wife of two years visited the Art Gallery of NSW and saw two paintings by Dobell which captured his imagination. This second ‘defining moment’ started him on the path to becoming an artist.

A year later he left his engineering job and started to work in display design in Newcastle. He never has any formal training in art but he did get encouragement from Dobell. At the age of 30 and now with two children he moved to Sydney and he worked as an artist/designer with retail stores. This led in turn to him becoming the director of the Blaxland Gallery in 1958. In the same year he won the watercolour section of the Mosman Art Prize with a painting entitled Fragment of the Crucifixion and the Blake Christus Prize with Head of Christ.

Robert Hughes writing in an article in 1959 said that opinions were sharply divided about Gleghorn. He had been referred to as a glorified commercial artist, as a fraud, as a bright young man who will fizzle out in a few years. On the other hand Hal Missingham called him the greatest painter in Australia. He came to art at a time when abstraction was in fashion in Australia and his subsequent career seems to show an enduring artist talent.

A highlight in his developing career was his winning the Helena Rubinstein Travelling Scholarship in 1961. He travelled overseas in 1962-63 and concentrated on the great European art galleries.

From this time he became an art educator and was renowned for his technical mastery of art materials. He was a teacher of art and design at the National Art School in Sydney until 1968, then head of art at Canberra Art School and in 1969 joined Bedford Teachers College in Adelaide. He finally left teaching to paint fulltime in 1983.

During his career he has exhibited on a regular basis at commercial galleries with the peak year being 1966 when he had five solo exhibitions. His works have always sold well with prices around $1000 in the 80s.

The moon turning into fish.

1957
Dickerson, Gleghorn,
David Jones Gallery, Sydney. Coburn group exhibition
1958
Matson Lines Travelling Exhibition
1959
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney.
Solo exhibition, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, NSW.
Solo exhibition, Gallery 43, Melbourne (drawings).
1960
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney.
Solo exhibition, Skinner Galleries, Perth.
Second International Print Biennale, Tokyo.
South Pacific Young Painters, Tokyo.
1961
Solo exhibition, Bonython Galleries, Adelaide.
Solo exhibition, Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane (paintings).
Recent Australian Paintings, Whitechapel Gallery, London.
Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil
Australian Artists Exhibition , Raymond Burr Gallery, Los Angeles
1962
Collectors Choice exhibition, Stone Gallery, Newcastle, UK.
Petits format Exhibition, Gallerie du Fleuve, Paris
1963
Solo exhibition, Skinner Galleries, Perth.
Solo exhibition, Stone Gallery, Newcastle, UK
Australian Painting Exhibition, Tate Gallery, London.
La Grande Toile exhibition, Gallerie du Fleuve, Paris.
1964
Solo exhibition, Bonython Galleries, Adelaide.
Solo exhibition, von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle.
Solo exhibition, Bonython Galleries, Sydney (paintings).
Tendencies exhibition, Gallerie du Fleuve, Paris.
Australian Painting Travelling Exhibition, Laurie Thomas
1965
Young Australian Painters, Kyoto, Tokyo.
1966
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney.
Solo exhibition, Hungry Horse Gallery,Sydney.
Solo exhibition, von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle.
Solo exhibition, Australian Galleries, Melbourne.
Solo exhibition, Bonython Gallery, Adelaide.
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Canberra (paintings).
Australian Painting, Auckland, New Zealand.
1967
Exhibition of Ikon bronzes and monotypes, Australian Sculpture Centre, Canberra.
1968
Solo exhibition, von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle.
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Canberra (paintings). Barossa 5 (acrylic, 152.4 x 147.3 cm) sold for $1000.
1969
Solo exhibition, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney. Langhorn Creek (watercolour drawing 55.9 x 76.2 cm) sold for $200.
1970
Solo exhibition, Reid Gallery, Brisbane.
International Graphics Exhibition, Rijecka, Yugoslavia.
1971
Solo exhibition, von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle.
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Canberra (paintings). Edge of the Vineyard No 1 (acrylic 137.2 x 76.2 cm) sold for $450.
Solo exhibition, Powell St Gallery, Melbourne.
Solo exhibition, Lidums Art Gallery, Adelaide.
1972
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Canberra (paintings).
Solo exhibition, Die Gallery, Tanunda SA.
1973
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Canberra (paintings).
Group of Australian Painters, NSW House, London.
1974
Solo exhibition, Macquarie Galleries, Canberra (paintings).
Solo exhibition, Desborough Gallery, Perth.
Solo exhibition, The Barn, Adelaide.
1975
Solo exhibition, David Sumner Gallery, Adelaide.
Solo exhibition, Collectors Gallery, Perth.
Solo exhibition, Town Gallery, Brisbane.
1977
Solo exhibition, Verley Just Town Gallery, Brisbane.
1978
Joint exhibition with Reg Livermore, von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle.
1979
Solo exhibition, Town Gallery, Brisbane. Kangaroo Point (oil, 30 x 40) sold for $1000. The Beekeepers landscape - Orroroo (polymer emulsion, 90 x 123) sold for $1500.
1981
Solo exhibition, Town Gallery, Brisbane. Tom: Shearers quarters or a postcard from a hooker in Memphis (mixed media, 48 x 70) sold for $700.
Solo exhibition, von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle. Off Dixon Street (mixed media, 50 x 65)sold for $625.
1982
Solo exhibition, Verlie Just Town Gallery, Brisbane.
1983
Group exhibition, Golden Age Gallery, Ballarat. Tom: Roadside, Point Julia (synthetic polymer paint, 91 x 126) sold for $1800.
1984
Solo exhibition, Gallery of Man, Kalamunda, Perth.
Solo exhibition, Bonython Meadmore Gallery, Adelaide.
1985
Group exhibition, Wagner Gallery, Sydney.
1986
Solo exhibition, Tynte Gallery, North Adelaide.
Solo exhibition, Greenhill Galleries, Perth.
Solo exhibition, Greythorn, Victoria.
Group exhibition, Gallery Huntly, Canberra.
1987
Solo exhibition, Adrian Slinger Galleries, Brisbane.
Group exhibition, Greenhill Galleries, Perth.
Group exhibition, Tynte Gallery, Adelaide.
1988
Solo exhibition, Freeman Gallery, Hobart.
Group exhibition, Tynte Gallery, Adelaide.
Group exhibition, Dempsters Gallery, Melbourne.
Group exhibition, Kensington Gallery, Adelaide.
Group exhibition, Eddie Glastra Gallery, Sydney.
1990
Solo exhibition, Adrian Slinger Gallery, Brisbane.
1991
Solo exhibition, Greenhill Galleries, Perth.
Solo exhibition, von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle.
1992
Solo exhibition, Greenhill Galleries, Perth.
1993
Solo exhibition, Galeries la Tour des Cardinaux, L’isle-sur-la-Sorque, Provence, France.
1994
Group exhibition, Art Galleries Schubert, Main Beach, Queensland.
1995
Solo exhibition to celebrate the 70th birthday of the artist, Greenhill Galleries, North Adelaide.
1996
Solo exhibition, Holdsworth Galleries, Woollahra.
1997
Solo exhibition entitled “1963 Revisited”, von Bertouch Gallery, Newcastle.
1998
Solo exhibition, BMGArt, North Adelaide.
2001
Solo exhibition for 76th birthday, BMGArt, North Adelaide.