Roderick Shaw (1915-1992) is perhaps best known for his worker paintings of the social realist school, such as Cable Layers (in the Art Gallery of NSW). Equally, however, he was a printer of quality books, including the poems of A D Hope and David Campbell. He studied art at East Sydney Technical College, and during WWII worked at the Commonwealth Aircraft factory painting camouflage with William Dobell and Joshua Smith. After the war he worked as a designer and illustrator. In 1939 he had established a printing press with Dick Edwards, and after the war Edwards and Shaw were instrumental in ending the censorship of four letter words in Australia, by publishing the banned report of the trial of Penguin books over Lady Chatterley's Lover. He designed the mural for the Waterside Workers' Federation Office and for many years taught at workshops and summer schools. He was a foundation member of Artists for Democracy and of Artists Against Nuclear War. Shaw had a major retrospective show at Woolloomoolloo Gallery in 1988 and is represented in the Art Gallery of NSW and the National Gallery of Victoria as well as the Australian War Memorial.
