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Alon Zakaim Fine Art and Connaught Brown are delighted to present Eric Tucker: At Home.
Following two previous sell out shows in 2020 and 2021, this exhibition delves further into the artistry of Eric Tucker. Alon Zakaim Fine Art and Connaught Brown have transformed their Mayfair galleries into Tucker’s Warrington studio/home and local pub. The galleries want to immerse the viewer in Tucker’s world and display his extraordinary pictures in the surroundings that inspired them.
Only revealing the extent of his work, even to his family, shortly before his death in 2018, this “discovery” of his paintings led to a solo exhibition at Warrington Museum & Art Gallery a year later. Since then, his posthumous celebrity began and has continued to grow.
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Available works
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1. ERIC TUCKERSoldPub Scene with White Shirt SmokeOil on canvas16 x 20 1/8 in, 40.5 x 51 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower rightOn view at Connaught Brown
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2. Eric TuckerSoldFeeding The PigeonsOil on board19 x 19 in, 48.2 x 48.2 cmPartially signed 'Eric' lower left
On view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art -
3. ERIC TUCKERFive Past SixWatercolour, gouache, pen and ink, rollerball pen, and pencil on paper28.2 x 38.2 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower left and on backing boardOn view at Connaught BrownSold
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4. eric tuckerSoldGreengrocer's CartOil on board16 3/8 x 18 7/8 in, 41.5 x 48 cmSigned 'Eric' lower rightOn view at Connaught Brown
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6. Eric TuckerSoldBusy Day at Stan Smith's CyclesOil on board18 1/8 x 23 7/8 in, 46 x 60.5 cmSigned 'E Tucker' versoOn view at Connaught Brown
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7. Eric TuckerSoldPotato PickersOil on board11 7/8 x 19 3/4 in, 30.1 x 50 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower rightOn view at Connaught Brown
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8. Eric TuckerSoldChewing the FatOil and pencil on board17 3/8 x 18 3/8 in, 44 x 46.6 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower leftOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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9. Eric TuckerSoldUnitedOil on board15 3/4 x 22 in, 40 x 56 cmSigned 'Eric' lower leftOn view at Connaught Brown
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10. Eric TuckerSoldMoustache Man, 1968Oil on board17 7/8 x 16 in, 45.5 x 40.5 cmSigned and dated 'Eric. 6.8' upper rightOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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11. Eric TuckerSoldTake Your Hand Off My KneeOil on canvas16 x 20 in, 40.5 x 50.7 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower leftOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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"He had to figure out for himself, from scratch, what was art, what was good art."
- Joe Tucker, Eric's nephew
"I don’t think anyone really saw enough of his work during his life to closely track his development! But his earlier work was more impressionistic in style, with visible brushstrokes, where later he moved to a softer, almost dreamier technique...
What’s incredible to me is that he began his journey from absolute zero - no art education, not an art book in the house, nor parents who visited galleries. He had to figure out for himself, from scratch, what was art, what was good art." -
Work (1852-65), Ford Madox Brown © Manchester Art Gallery
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The artist with whom Tucker is most commonly identified is L.S. Lowry. Both artists worked in northern England, choosing their bustling industrial cities and its peoples as their focus. While Lowry mainly stands back from a scene assessing, Tucker’s work is close and personal. He painted his friends and neighbours and the small community of which he is a part.
Tucker's use of low perspective in works such as Bar side Dominoes Game and Double Four to Win, propel the viewer into the scene. One can imagine the sound of the band playing, the taste of beer, shouts of children playing in the street, and the smell of heavy cigarette smoke in the air. The compositions are tight and engulf the entire canvas. By cutting off his figures there is a constant sense of movement and hubbub, as if he is capturing a fleeting moment in time.
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Available works
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12. Eric TuckerSoldOut and AboutOil on board17 3/8 x 24 in, 44 x 61 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower leftOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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14. Eric TuckerSoldBack Alley with DogWatercolour and pencil on paper11 x 12 7/8 in, 28.1 x 32.8 cmOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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15. Eric TuckerSoldFive Dogs with PeopleOil on board21 5/8 x 26 in, 55 x 66 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower leftOn view at Connaught Brown
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17. Eric TuckerSoldStreet with Blue HouseWatercolour and pencil on paper11 1/8 x 15 in, 28.2 x 38 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower leftOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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18. Eric TuckerSoldBackstreet SceneOil on board11 3/8 x 14 in, 29 x 35.5 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower leftOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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19. Eric TuckerSoldRag & Bone with Man SoutingWatercolour and pencil on paper14 5/8 x 30 3/4 in, 37 x 78 cmOn view at Connaught Brown
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20. Eric TuckerSoldShopping Baskets and PiggybackWatercolour and pencil on paper8 3/4 x 13 1/4 in, 22.1 x 33.5 cmInitialled lower right, signed 'E Tucker' on backing board, heavily annotated on versoOn view at Connaught Brown
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22. Eric TuckerSoldStreetsweeper and CrowdOil on board18 1/4 x 29 7/8 in, 46.5 x 76 cmSigned 'E. Tucker' lower rightOn view at Connaught Brown
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23. Eric TuckerSoldBunburyWatercolour and pen and ink on paper11 1/2 x 17 7/8 in, 29.3 x 45.3 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower rightOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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24. Eric TuckerSoldStreet VendorsOil on board18 3/8 x 25 1/4 in, 46.8 x 64 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower left and monogrammed 'E T' lower rightOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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25. Eric TuckerSoldStan Smith's Cycles (Early Version)Oil on board15 3/8 x 12 1/2 in, 39 x 31.7 cmSigned 'Eric' lower rightOn view at Connaught Brown
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26. Eric TuckerSoldBrady Shutters (Version I)Oil on canvas14 x 18 in, 35.6 x 45.7 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower leftOn view at Connaught Brown
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"Lowry is the outsider looking in and my brother is the insider looking out. My brother is one of the people in the pictures, he knows them all"
- Tony Tucker, Eric's brother
"I think he realised that, like Lowry, you could simply paint from where you stood - the streets you walked, the pubs you drank in...Gradually as he shaped his technique his brushwork became tighter, more controlled, the imagery more formalised. He developed his modus operandi - sketches usually on scraps of paper, drawn from life in the streets and pubs, then further drawings at home, perhaps several, dealing with structure and composition, leading to the final painting." -
Available works
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27. Eric TuckerSoldThe Come-OnOil on canvas15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in, 40 x 40 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower rightOn view at Connaught Brown
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28. Eric TuckerSoldGathering By The Bar, 1967Oil on board23 3/4 x 34 1/2 in, 60.2 x 87.7 cmSigned and dated 'Eric 6.7.' lower leftOn view at Connaught Brown
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30. Eric TuckerSoldTickle Under ChinWatercolour and pencil on paper11 1/8 x 14 3/4 in, 28.2 x 37.5 cmOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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Five Past Six
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Tucker was inspired by the quirkish originality of his favourite artist, Edward Burra. Both men were solitary figures when it came to their art, careful not to be impacted by uninvited opinions. These artists recorded what they saw as they saw it, depicting their realities and eccentricities with neither caricature nor idealism.
Their visions of working class life were not only of labour, but also of leisure. While Burra drew inspiration from the lively nightlife of Harlem, Tucker explored local scenes of entertainment and the popular spectacles of music, performance, and the circus.
Influenced by Burra, whose watercolour technique is remarkably rich and complex, Tucker took up this medium later in his life. Both artists created layered compositions that manage to show both the collective and intimate aspects of human interaction.
Tucker and Burra were skilled at evoking the atmosphere of a scene beyond simply the visual aspect. It is this power to involve the viewer in the whole environment which makes Tucker’s work so special.
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"I think my brother's paintings made people see that ‘ordinary’ life is indeed larger than life - richer, more vital than the mundane ordinariness that working lives suggest."
Tony Tucker
"What interested me about people’s reactions to his paintings was how immediately they saw that here was an artist with his own voice. His work has distinctive presence...
Quite a few people came to me at the house show and Warrington Museum saying that, although they could understand why he might be labelled a ‘secret Lowry’ by the media, they felt a connectedness, even an intimacy, with his work that perhaps wasn’t there in a Lowry canvas. The figures, characters, in my brother’s paintings aren’t caricatures." -
Available works
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41. Eric TuckerSoldOutside The Big TopWatercolour, pencil, and pen and ink on paper11 1/8 x 15 in, 28.2 x 38.2 cmSigned 'E Tucker' lower rightOn view at Alon Zakaim Fine Art
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Street Vendors