# Albert Tucker artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/albert-tucker/
Profile generated: 2026-05-11T02:57:55.226Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1914-12-29
- Death date: 1999-10-23
- Nationality: Australian
- Movements: Angry Penguins, Australian Modernism
- Common media: painting

## About Albert Tucker

Albert Lee Tucker (1914–1999) was an Australian painter and a central figure in the Heide Circle, a group of modernist artists and writers who gathered at Heide, the Melbourne home of patrons John and Sunday Reed. Alongside contemporaries such as Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd, Tucker helped shape the Angry Penguins movement, which championed avant-garde expression in Australian art during the 1940s. He is widely known for his 'Images of Modern Evil' series, produced during and after World War II, which depicted the psychological strain of urban life and wartime Melbourne with stark, surreal imagery. Tucker spent extended periods in Europe and New York before returning to Melbourne, where he continued to paint until his death in 1999. His work is held in major Australian and international collections.

## Common works and media

Tucker's auction and appraisal profile includes oil on canvas paintings, gouaches, ink drawings, and limited-edition prints. His most recognised works are figurative and often surrealist-influenced, depicting distorted human figures, urban night scenes, and allegorical subjects. The 'Images of Modern Evil' series is his best-known body of work. Later landscapes and portraits also appear in auction contexts. Prints and works on paper provide a more accessible entry point for collectors compared to major oil paintings.

## Market and appraisal context

Albert Tucker's work appears regularly in Australian and international art auctions, with over 420 catalogued lots spanning paintings, works on paper, and prints. His 'Images of Modern Evil' series and other wartime-period paintings tend to attract the strongest collector interest. Provenance linked to the Heide Circle or major Australian gallery exhibitions can add meaningful context to appraisal. As with most twentieth-century Australian modernists, factors including medium, period, condition, subject matter, documented exhibition history, and expert attribution all play a role in valuation. Collectors should rely on current comparable auction records and professional condition reports for up-to-date estimates.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum, library authority, and scholarly sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. This page draws on data from the Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF, the Library of Congress Name Authority File, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, and Wikidata, alongside Appraisily's own auction-catalogue database.

## Sources

- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/78377
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83011941
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/50154971/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500041112
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3631144
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Tucker_(artist)