Author Description

Horace Trenerry (1899-1958) an artist of unique vision and quality remained known only for a small group of admirers, most of them in Adelaide. Disregarded in books on Australian art, two of Trenerry's paintings were nevertheless included in an important exhibition of Australian painting shown at the Tate Gallery, London in 1963 where they were singled out for special praise. In 1970, Lou Klepac, when Curator of paintings at the Art Gallery of South Australia, published a book on this remarkable painter, whose achievement seemed impossible to extend beyond the south Australian border. Today, Trenerry is being discovered by discerning collectors of Australian art, especially in Sydney, where Barry Pearce, Head Curator of Australian Art, has acquired several of Trenerry's finest works for the collection. The present book which shows a wide range of Trenerry's work all in colour, will allow people to discover a painter who deserves to be better known. Besides two essays by Lou Klepac and extensive biographical notes, the book includes and essay by Barry Pearce on Trenerry and Adelaide, and a memoir by Jeffrey Smart, who visited the artist in Aldinga in the late 1940s.'..there was something so brave and mad about Tren. He knew how to live, but painting was the imperative necessity, and everything was sacrificed to that.' from Jeffrey Smart, Not Quite Straight, a memoir. William Heinmann Australia 1996AUTHORLou Klepac, art historian and publisher, was born in Croatia in 1936. he emigrated to Australia in 1950 and was educated at Perth Modern School and the University of Western Australia. He was Curator of Paintings at the Art Gallery of Western Australia (1964-66) and at the Art Gallery of South Australia (1966-1970). And then Senior Curator and Deputy Director at the Art Gallery of Western Australia (1974-80).