Rayner Hoff
(United Kingdom, Australia 1894–1937)
- Title
- Idyll: love and life
- Year
- marble 1926
plaster 1923 - Media category
- Sculpture
- Materials used
- marble
- Dimensions
-
106.7 x 52.0 x 13.0cm:
a - marble; 106.7 x 52 x 13cm
b - tabernacle; 135 x 68 x 23.5cm
- Signature & date
- Signed l.r. corner, incised "G.RAYNER HOFF". Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Howard Hinton 1926
- Accession number
- 1323.a-b
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
A relatively short Australian tenure - from 1923 to his death following a surfing accident in 1937 - did not prevent Rayner Hoff transforming the face of Australian sculpture. No active practitioner of the period is more associated with art deco, for example, or with the redirection of monumental statuary in Sydney towards an expressively inflected classicism. Hoff's sculpture is robustly erotic, but never prurient, embodying a paganism which is different in quality and kind from the coarser work of Norman Lindsay. Idyll: love and life might be described as chaste, despite the languor of its poses. Hoff taught drawing and sculpture at East Sydney Technical College, whose students revered and imitated him. Although met at the time with public outrage, Sydney's official Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park remains his enduring testament.
Art Gallery Handbook 1999
- Bibliography (9)
-
Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Parallel visions: works from the Australian collection, Domain, 2002, 15, 63 (colour illus.), 66, 144, 147.
Mark Ferson (Australia) (Editor), Mary Nilsson (Australia) (Editor), Aspects of Art Deco in Australia: Sunrise over the Pacific, St Leonards, 2001, 41.
'This vital flesh in three dimensions' by Deborah Edwards, pg. 14., Look Dec 1999-Jan 2000, Dec 1999-Jan 2000, 12 (colour illus.).
Deborah Edwards (Australia) (Author), 'This vital flesh': the sculpture of Rayner Hoff and his school, Domain, 1999, cover (colour illus., detail), 30 (colour illus.), 34-35, 38-39, 47, 101. cat.no. 267
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 134 (colour illus.).
Deborah Edwards (Australia) (Author), Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art, Domain, Sep 1989, 36 (illus.), 40, 65.
'"This vital flesh": the 1920s sculpture of Rayner Hoff' by Deborah Edwards, pg. 62-68., Art and Australia (Vol. 24, No. 1) Spring 1986, Spring 1986, 63 (illus.).
Editor Unknown (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales picturebook, Domain, 1972, 101 (colour illus.).
'Rayner Hoff: examples of his work; fine gallery collection' by Enid N MacDonald, pg. 13., The Sydney morning herald 17 Jun 1939, 17 Jun 1939, 13.
- Exhibition history (3)
-
Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art 1890's-1930's, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 19 Oct 1989–26 Nov 1989.
'This vital flesh': the sculpture of Rayner Hoff and his school, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 26 Nov 1999–16 Jan 2000.
Parallel Visions: Twenty-two artists from the Australian collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 22 Feb 2002–May 2003.
