Tate Adams: Mini Book No 15

Townsville-based artist Tate Adams is renowned for his wood engravings, a form of printmaking he first practised while illustrating limited edition books for Ireland’s famous Dolmen Press. In Australia, he initiated something of a revolution in the art of printmaking through his teaching at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology from 1960-1982, and his establishment of the Crossley Gallery with early exhibitions of prints by artists such as Fred Williams, John Brack, George Baldessin and many others. He also established, with George Baldessin, the Lyre Bird Press for the publication of limited edition artists’ books. During the past decade he has moved from the miniature art of wood engraving, in which he is an internationally acknowledged master, to the painting of large-scale gestural works executed in gouache on paper. The vitality of these recent works is astonishing. This Mini-Book, No 15 in Macmillan Art Publishing’s series, provides an overview of Tate Adams’ art in both wood engraving and the recent abstract painting.