Ruth Tuck
Ruth Edith Tuck was a modernist painter of South Australia, noted for joint exhibitions with her husband Mervyn Ashmore Smith, and her influence as a teacher of painting. The Ruth Tuck Art School, founded by her in 1955, continues to operate in Adelaide. She was related to the better-known Marie Tuck.
Early life and education
Ruth Edith Tuck was born on 22 July 1914 at Cowell, South Australia, a daughter of Arthur Edward Tuck and his wife Minnie, née Wallis.Career
She studied painting under Dorrit Black and exhibited regularly with the Royal South Australian Society of Arts and was a foundation member of the Contemporary Art Society.She met Mervyn Smith in 1943 and married him on 15 October the same year; they lived in Adelaide, then Mervyn moved to Newcastle, New South Wales in 1949, where he was employed as a County Council planning officer; she joined him few years later. In 1953 they returned to Adelaide, where they remained and held numerous joint exhibitions of their watercolors, both modernist in outlook with Mervyn's work being generally characterised as the more ambitious.
Publications
Her written work includes biographies of Mary Packer Harris and Marie Anne Tuck for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.Ruth Tuck Art School
Ruth established the Ruth Tuck Art School in 1955.Recognition and honours
Tuck was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1981 for services to art.The Ruth Tuck Scholarship for Visual Arts was awarded by the state government via Carclew until 2016.
Death and legacy
Tuck died on 10 October 2008.The Ruth Tuck Art School continues to operate, at the Burnside Arts and Crafts Centre, in Hubbe Court, Burnside.
Family
Ruth was a granddaughter of noted Baptist minister Rev. Henry Lewer Tuck, an early immigrant to South Australia, whose brother Edward Starkey Tuck was the father of Marie Tuck. See her article for more details of the Tuck family in South Australia.Ruth had a son Mark in 1945 and twin daughters Michele and Angela in 1953.