William Delafield Cook - Tapa dura

William Delafield Cook has established a reputation as one of Australia's foremost artists. While his work has been recognised nationally and internationally since the early 1970s, this is the first major publication on his artistic development. In a detailed and scholarly text, Deborah Hart traces the evolution of Delafield Cook's art in the context of his life, from his familial background and his student days in the 1950s, through some four decades of work to the late 1990s. The text provides fascinating insights into Cook's semi-abstract phase, as well as his breakthrough to meticulous realist works, imbused with a haunting stillness, for which he has become best known.
Due to the artist's considerable following, his works have generally gone into public and private collections soon after their completion. Many of these works are reproduced here for the first time; the interrelation of text and images providing unique insights into William Delafield Cook's significant artistic contribution.

Deborah Hart has worked as education officer at the Queensland Art Gallery, as assistant director at the Wollongong City Gallery, and is presently part of an East Asia team for the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art to be held at the Queensland Art Gallery in 1999.