Reginald Turvey - South African Artist, Oil Paintings 1883 - 1968

Reginald Turvey was born in Ladybrand, South Africa 1883 - 1968

Art Education
1903-6: Slade School, London, under Henry Tonks, Wilson Steer, Frank Brangwyn (won Wilson Steer portrait prize).
1906-10: London School of Art, under JM Swan.

Short Artist Biography
Great-grandson of an 1820 Settler and son of a member of the First OFS Volksraad; received his first painting lessons from Frans Oerder in Pretoria; while studying in London Reginald Turvey formed lifelong friendship with the English potter, Bernard Leach: subsequently spent 18 months with Leach and his wife in Japan (1910/11); influenced by Eastern philosophy.
1911-13: Reginald Turvey lived and taught in Durban.
1913-24: further travels between South Africa and England; also a period of farming in Kenya (1913-17).
1924: Reginald Turvey married in South Africa, but returned to St Ives, Cornwall, where he built a house opposite the home of Leach.
1928: in South Africa, first one-man art exhibition in Durban: showed with National Society of Artists; returned to England.
1932: Reginald Turvey settled near Dartington in Devonshire, where Mark Tobey conducted a school; a close friendship developed between the two artists; Turvey and Leach were both adherents of Tobey's Baha'i religion.
1940: returned to South Africa; worked continuously and exhibited quite regularly, but did not achieve much recognition.
1946: Reginald Turvey illustrated short stories by Herman Charles Bosnian in `SA Opinion'.
1962-66: three exhibs in Johannesburg drew fresh attention to his style and resulted in acknowledgements of its affinities with certain international trends.
1963: honouring a 30 year-old pact with Leach and Tobey, Reginald Turvey joined them in London for the World Baha'i Congress.
1964: Reginald Turvey discontinued painting as a result of acute arthritis: spent the last years of his
life as an invalid.

Art Exhibitions
1909 (also 1931, 1932, 1940): Royal Academy.
1928: first one-man art exhibition, Durban.
1936: Empire Exhibition, Johannesburg.
1937: one-man art exhibition, London.
1940-: several art exhibitions in Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town.
1968: Retrospective Exhibition, Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg.
1975: Retrospec Exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum.
1976: Prestige Exhib, Gertrude Posel Gallery, Wits University

Public Art Collections
South African National Gallery, Cape Town: Durban Art Gallery; Will Humphreys Gallery, Kimberley; King George Gallery, Port Elizabeth; Pretoria Art Museum; University of Wits Galleries: Tatham Art
Gallery, Pietermaritzburg

 

Source
Berman, E. 1994. Art & Artists of South Africa . Southern Book Publishers.

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