Papers of Lloyd Rees and Elizabeth Butel
MSS 169

Collection Description

Literary papers, including manuscripts of Peaks and Valleys, transcripts of interviews, correspondence and notebooks. The collection also includes floppy disks and audio tapes.

Administrative / Biographical history

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Rees

Lloyd Frederic Rees (1985 - 1988) was an Australian landscape painter. He was born in Brisbane in 1895 and attended state schools and Central Technical College in Brisbane. He began work as a commercial artist in 1917 at Smith & Julius in Sydney. Throughout his life his art was occupied with light and the relationships between humanity and nature. He frequently travelled to Europe, sketching and painting locations on his travels.

From the 1940s to 1960s, Rees was part of the Northwood group of artists. Conservative in aesthetics these artists tended towards a neo-impressionist style for their landscape paintings, in contrast with the abstract expressionism that was more fashionable at the time.

For over forty years (1946 - 1986), Dr Rees taught art at Sydney University in the Faculty of Architecture. The University of Sydney awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Letters in 1969. He later (1988) received the Sydney University Union Medal for his contributions to art and to the university.

Rees was twice married, first to Dulcie Metcalf (d.1926) and then to Marjory Pollard, who predeceased him by less than eight months (1988). He had also been engaged to the sculptor Daphne Mayo, but it was ended in 1925.

Dr Rees was honoured repeatedly during his life. He won the Wynne Prize twice (1950, 1952), the Commonwealth Jubilee Art Prize (1957) and the John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize (1971). He was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1987, followed by Companion of the Order of Australia in 1985. Just prior to his death in 1988, Rees received the Jack Manton Prize (1987), for his piece The Sunlit Tower. He received the Médaille de la Ville de Paris in the same year.

In 1988, he was named in the Bicentennial Authority's list of the 'Two Hundred People who made Australia Great'.

Elizabeth Ann Butel was born on the 17 January 1951 in Sydney, New South Wales. She received a B.A. Dip. Ed. from Sydney University, 1973, Art Certificate from East Sydney Technical College, 1978 and Diploma of Art from City Art Institute, 1981. She has worked as a secondary school teacher, freelance journalist, writer/editor and publisher.

References:

Art Gallery of NSW. (no date). Collection: Lloyd Rees. Retrieved from: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/rees-lloyd/? 22/01/2019

Duyker, Edward. (2019). Lloyd Rees: Artist and Teacher. Retrieved from: https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/ART/article/download/5698/6369 21/01/2019

Acquisition Details

Scope and Content

A collection of literary papers of Lloyd Rees, created principally during the creation of his autobiography, Peaks and Valleys (1985). The collection was deposited by the editor and author Elizabeth Butel, who recorded and edited Peaks and Valleys. The collection consists in the main of notes and manuscripts relating to Peaks and Valleys, including transcripts of the audio recordings, notebooks, correspondence. The collection also contains 10 5.25" floppy disks and 34 groups of audio cassettes.

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