GALLERY NEWS 29 JANUARY 2010: Sidney Nolan, Leonard French, Brett Whiteley, Roger Kemp

83 Moncur Street Woollahra NSW 2025
tel: 02 9362 0297 fax: 02 9362 0318
email: art@evabreuerartdealer.com.au
website: www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au


Important Australian Paintings

Sir Sidney Nolan (1917-1992)

Sir Sidney Nolan (1917-1992)
Kelly 1959
Polyvinyl acetate on board
151 x 120.25 cm
signed lower left: N
verso: Feb 23rd 1959 / N
no.8163

Provenance: Private collection New South Wales

Exhibited: Unmasked: Sidney Nolan and Ned Kelly 1950 - 1990, Heide Museum of Modern Art, 11 November 2006- 4 March 2007

Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly paintings are among the most important in his oeuvre. Painting the first of his Kelly series in 1946-47 (National Gallery of Australia), Nolan returned to the Kelly figure many times and it is the 1950s Kelly paintings in particular which establish “a new magic and imaginative power.”1 In these later Kelly paintings the ‘naïve’ style of the 1940s Kelly series has been replaced by a more human, emotional intensity. In Kelly 1959 Nolan combines the heroic image of Ned Kelly with the classical image of martyrdom. This work highlights Nolan’s interest in the mythic and uniquely Australian Kelly saga as a story which parallels classical legend. Painted while Nolan was in New York on a Harkness Fellowship, Kelly 1959 is executed in polyvinyl acetate (the medium used for the Leda and Swan series also painted at this time) which Nolan scraped across the board in multiple transparent layers of luminous and varied colour.

1 Clark. J., Sidney Nolan: Landscapes and Legends, ICCA, Sydney, 1987, pp.120-21.

Visit our website to view other paintings by Sir Sidney Nolan


Leonard French (b.1928)

Leonard French (b.1928)
Winter Fountain c.1987-93
enamel and gold leaf on hessian on composition board
122 x 137 cm
Signed: l.r. 'French'
Provenance: Private collection Perth
no.11197

Leonard French's works frequently depict epic stories, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey and events from the Bible. These stories allow him a platform to explore universal themes, most frequently the struggle and spiritual journey of a hero. His highly individual and distinctive works reveal a plethora of influences, from Byzantine mosaics (his symmetry and precision), to Gothic (bright colours outlined in black), Romanesque architecture (squat, solid figures) Cubism and the work of Léger to name but a few. This work, Winter Fountain, exemplifies all these elements. The two figures in the work – one black, one white and both with distinctive rounded heads, first began appearing in French’s work in the late 1980’s. Like many facets of French’s work they appear to be highly symbolic, but with the exact meaning intended by the artist obscured. Other works wit these figures include The Release (in the collection of the Bendigo Art Gallery), Duet and The Tightrope (both in private collections.) Winter Fountain from the Duality series, expresses a deep sense of self and individual mortality. The series which was created during the late eighties explores the human condition as the figure struggles with between light and dark images of self. French's work is represented at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, all state galleries, most regional galleries and is also included in many major international collections, including the MoMA, New York. French also completed numerous monumental commissions in Australia, the most famous being the glass ceiling in the Great Hall at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Visit our website to view other important Australian paintings


Brett Whiteley (1939-1992)

Brett Whiteley (1939-1992)
Untitled (Bird) 1978
Oil on board with mixed media
82 x 85.5cm
Signed 'Brett Whiteley 78' lower left
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.8781

Brett Whiteley created some of the most important paintings of twentieth century Australian Art. His mastery of, and unique approach to form, colour, light and gesture in a body of work which spans subjects from birds to boulders, have made him one of the icons of not only the Australian art world but also internationally. Brett Whiteley is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all state galleries, many regional galleries, as well as many important public collections both in Australia and overseas. Three of Brett Whiteley’s most memorable solo exhibitions were devoted to the theme of birds in 1979, 1983 and 1988. “It is not too fanciful to think of Whiteley’s bird paintings as self portraits”, Barry Pearce has commented. “He loved them since childhood and in his last phase of work they became symbols of both domesticity and freedom.” Reference: The Australian Magazine, 26 August, 1995, p.16.

“Pearce has described Whiteley as “Australia’s most sublime painter of birds, “as essential symbols of the song of creation and the joy of life.” Reference: Barry Pearce (1989), Australian Artists, Australian Birds, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, p.144.

Visit our website to view other paintings by Brett Whiteley


Roger Kemp (1908-1987)

Roger Kemp (1908-1987)
Untitled c.1963
Acrylic on masonite
91.5 x 122cm
no.5320

Roger Kemp is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all state galleries, many regional galleries as well as many other public collections throughout Australia. Kemp has been the recipient of numerous coveted awards including the 1968 and 1970 Blake Prize. “Kemp’s contribution to the development of abstract painting in Australia is substantial. He has shown how a personal language can be developed from experience with effort and tenacity without recourse to models from abroad.”

Reference: Roger Kemp: Cycle and Directions 1935 –1975, Monash University Department of Visual arts, Exhibition Gallery, Melbourne: The Gallery, 1978 pp.1-2.

Visit our website to view other paintings by Roger Kemp


Kevin Connor (b. 1932)

Kevin Connor (b. 1932)
Movie World People 1993
Oil on linen
71 x 91.5cm
no.6155

Kevin Connor is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, most state galleries, many regional regional galleries as well as many other public collections throughout Australia. He has been the recipient of numerous coveted awards including the 1975 and 1977 Archibald prize, 1991 Sulman Prize and the 1992 and 2005 Dobell Prize. Movie World People 1993 is a bold, painterly work. Connor's brush work is loose and immediate, the paint application heavy, enlivening the painting with a distinct sense of movement.

Visit our website to view other paintings by Kevin Connor


James Gleeson (1915-2008)

James Gleeson (1915-2008)
Untitled (Two Figures in Psychoscape) c.1965
oil on board
19 x 14.5cm
Signed 'Gleeson' lower right
Provenance: Sydney Antique centre
Grafton House Gallery
Private collection Cairns
no.11139

Visit our website to view other paintings by James Gleeson


David Boyd (b.1924)

David Boyd (b.1924)
Three Children by the sea c.1999
Oil on board
26 x 22 cm
Signed: "David Boyd" lower left
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.11017

Visit our website to view other paintings by David Boyd




Contemporary Paintings

Elisabeth Kruger (b.1955)

Elisabeth Kruger (b.1955)
Spill 2007
oil on linen
122 x 122cm
no.10885

Visit our website to view other paintings by Elisabeth Kruger


Wayne Eager (b.1957)

Wayne Eager (b.1957)
Fragrance, 2008
acrylic on linen (framed)
152 x 122cm
no.10424

Visit our website to view other paintings by Wayne Eager


Tony Irving (b.1939)

Tony Irving (b.1939)
Beyond the fence 2009
oil on linen
80 x 130cm
no.11146

Visit our website to view other paintings by Tony Irving


Judy Cassab (b. 1920)

Judy Cassab (b. 1920)
Women with Sphinx 2007
Oil on canvas
39.5 x 50 cm
Signed 'Cassab 07' lower right
Provenance: The artist
no.10678

Visit our website to view other paintings by Judy Cassab


Anna Platten (b.1957)

Anna Platten (b.1957)
Head and House 2007
charcoal on paper
125 x 100cm
no.10769

Finalist in the Kedumba drawing prize 2007

Visit our website to view other artworks by Anna Platten


Paul Procee

Paul Procee
My Spineless Cousin 2009
Oil on copper
25 x 20cm
no.11195

Visit our website to view other paintings by Paul Procee


Philippa Blair (b.1945)

Philippa Blair (b.1945)
Knockout 2007
oil on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 cm
no.9863

Visit our website to view other paintings by Philippa Blair


Geoffrey Proud (b. 1946)

Geoffrey Proud (b. 1946)
Cloudy Day, Rain Sprite
pastel on paper
67 x 47cm
signed 'Proud' lower right
no.10161

Visit our website to view other pastels by Geoffrey Proud




Featured Graphic

Arthur Boyd (1920-1999)

Arthur Boyd (1920-1999)
Lovers in a Landscape
Etching A/P
26.5 x 30cm (image)
37.5 x 52.5cm (paper)
signed Arthur Boyd, VI/VI, A/P
no.10436

Visit our website to view other graphics by Arthur Boyd


John Coburn (1925-2006)

John Coburn (1925-2006)
Rare Bird 1987
Screen print A/P (6 colours)
artist' proof: 10
48 x 70cm (image)
54.9 x 74.9cm (sheet)
signed, dated LR, inscribed with title LC and edition LL
printed by Michael Phelps, Sydney
commissioned by the New South Wales State Cancer Council for its Bicentennial Collection: A portfolio of Australian artists (a boxed set with 11 other artists)
no.10386

Visit our website to view other graphics by John Coburn

Current Exhibition

February
Gallery 1 & 2: Summer Exhibition


Upcoming Exhibitions

March
Gallery 1: Autumn Exhibition
Gallery 2: Wayne Eager

April
Gallery 1: Autumn Exhibition
Gallery 2: Pam Sackville

May
Gallery 1: Autumn Exhibition
Gallery 2: Brian Seidel

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Staff Picks - Gallery Associate Laura Ryan

Christopher Beaumont (b.1961)
Still life with Blossom 2009
Oil on fine linen
25 x 30 cm
no. 10472

The space in these works is a virtual or abstract space while the rendering of objects wholly representational. I had a great interest in astronomy as a child. The heavens are an abstract emptiness with objects moving on principles of geometry. The world of atoms & molecules are often pictured as coloured spheres in this same black space. Atoms and molecules don’t actually look like this at all but this helps us to understand them conceptually. It is the same space of 3D computer modelling. I have grown up in a time when these images are commonplace and this is definitely an influence on the way I conceive of paintings. -Christopher Beaumont, 2007

Mike Parr (b.1945)
Zastruga Self Portrait 1986
Oil crayon & charcoal on paper
69.5 x 100cm
no.2772

Zhong Chen (b.1969)
Concubine Concubine
Oil on linen
122 x 122cm
no.10983

The pixel paintings incorporate images of Chinese portraits, animals and landscape, each of which is central to the genre of traditional Chinese ink brush painting. Zhong has painted Chinese beauties, Peking opera characters, Door gods and Imperial dogs in his recent body of paintings. By using traditional Chinese inspired images Zhong conveys a sense of his cultural identity. The choice of images are pop, as the folk art of China are an important part of the everyday and popular culture. Woodblock prints and paper cut outs are placed on windows and doors in China. Door god images are placed on doors to protect from the evil spirits. The ‘Romeo and Juliet’ paintings show images of traditional inspired Chinese lovers relating to Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy. David Thomas writes, “Paradoxes abound, not the least of them being the telling of a highly romantic tale through the calculated images of a computer. But these paintings are undeniably contemporary images, sophisticated in their marriage of ancient Eastern customs with new Western technology. The elegant faces may be based on age-old concepts of Chinese beauty, but they materialise as pixelated images of the computer age.” (1)

(1) David Thomas, “Zhong Chen : The Unity of the past and the present”, Zhong Chen Catalogue, Melbourne, 2002.

Stephen Nothling (b.1962)
A Rough Guide to all the Wrens 2007
Oil on canvas
100 x 150cm
no.9237

Samuel Wade (b.1979)
Orchard
oil on canvas
76 x 51cm
no.10036

By portraying these everyday visions using a traditional art training, the artist constructs a dialogue between commonplace existence and artistry, where subtle ironies along with a reverence for the art of the past are explored. The iconic figures of mother and child or a figure exuding pre-Raphaelite beauty may appear on a station platform, for instance. Special care in the portrayal of atmosphere and time of day acknowledges the legacy of the impressionts, while the introspective possibilities offered by the tradition of portraiture are explored. -Sam Wade 2009

Geoffrey Proud (b. 1946)
Emma – Twilight 2008
oil on canvas
100 x 88cm
no.9841

Often quirky and verging on the surreal, Geoffrey Proud's paintings in oil and pastel are like fractured fairytales. Depicting a world of innocence with a sometimes ominous edge, Proud's paintings are fantastic and bizarre. His choice of subjects is broad, including children and childhood narratives, flowers, still lifes and nudes. Alternating between expressionist impastoed brushwork and sensitive detail, he experiments freely with vibrant colour and varying textures. The highly glazed surfaces of his recent oils give his scenes an ethereal and otherworldly quality. Proud has won numerous awards including the Sulman Prize in 1976 for a painting on perspex, and the Archibald prize in 1990 for his portrait of writer Dorothy Hewett. He has exhibited consistently in all state capitals since 1966 and is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; many State and regional gallery collections; Parliament House collections in Canberra and Sydney; Artbank; IBM collection; and the Elton John collection, London.

Garry Shead (b.1942)
The Rocking Horse 1986
Oil on board
90 x 120 cm
no.11133

As Sasha Grishin describes the series: “Throughout the series the constant recurring motif is that of the fully clad male dancer, usually shown in an evening suit and occasionally appearing slightly awkward and uncertain of himself, accompanied by a nude, or an almost nude female dancer. On one very basic level there is the aspect of voyeuristic erotic wish-fullfillment, drawing on the surrealist strategy of undressing the woman with the male gaze that had been so effectively employed by Renne Magrite. Shead’s female dancers are of great sensuous beauty and lyrical charm. There is a hint of a more metaphysical dimension of this dance, relating it to the dance of life as interpreted by artists like Edvard Munch. The Dance is performed on an allegorical stage like the arena of life, sometimes with an awareness of an audience and sometimes under the harsh glow of the spotlights. In most of the ‘Dance Sequence’ paintings there is an indication of an open door in the background, at times shown as the source of light, but in all instances the door way is a path for esacpe. Shead achieves in this series of paintings a great lryicism in the paint surface, a warm sensuousness through which the female flesh glows in a rich radiance. Increasingly these intimate interior settings allude to ambiguous and seductive dream-like reality where ideas and interpretations float free from gravity and verbal associations."

Reference: Grishin S, Garry Shead and The Erotic Muse, Craftsman House, 2001 p.166.

Jean Sutherland (1902 - 1978)
Asters in a White Vase c.1927
Oil on canvas
56 x 41cm
no.3146

Jean Sutherland is represented in the National Gallery of Victoria as well as many important collections throughout Australia. Sutherland was the recipient of many awards including the 1923 National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Art Scholarship.

Asters in a White Vase c.1927 is a luminous, delicately painted still life.

Sir Sidney Nolan (1917-1992)
Untitled (Bird) 1959
Ripolin enamel on paper
30.3 x 25.3 cm
Verso: Nolan / 10th April 1959 / New York
no.96003

Provenance: The artist
Private collection Sydney

Nolan is arguably Australia’s most significant and internationally acclaimed artist. Kenneth Clark refers to him as one of the major artists of the 20th century. He is well known for dramatic shifts between dark, moody themes and bright, uplifting creations. Always fresh and spontaneous, he never relied upon one style or technique but rather experimented throughout his lifetime with many different methods of application, and also devised some of his own.

He commenced formal training twice through the National Gallery of Victoria School of Art but felt compelled to educate himself instead. One of his greatest influences was the French Romantic poet Arthur Rimbaud whose image has been interpreted frequently in many of Nolan’s paintings. A love of music and literature is evident in many of his works both thematically and visually.

Several themes are captured in separate periods and series of works such as Gallipoli, The St Kilda period, Dimboola, Leda and the Swan and the Sonnets. But perhaps the most powerful and recurrent imagery is his iconic depictions of Ned Kelly, the idealistic bushranger and murderer well known in Australian folklore. This series began in 1945 and continued to surface in different techniques throughout Nolan’s lifetime.

Song Ling (b.1961)
Moonlight 2 2008
acrylic on canvas
71 x 56 cm
no.10235

I like to use symbolic imagery from traditional culture in my work as there are many layers of meaning for me. But with these new paintings I am not just looking for symbolism and meaning, but also concentrating on the aesthetic to create paintings of beauty.

With this current series of works I am seeking to represent the Childhood images, Chinese Zen style traditional ink and brush paintings and Asian comic characters in a new way; to give an ancient and pop image a contemporary look, to bring the symbol into a new technological context.

The modern printing process and digital technologies use the dot to produces images. I use a hand-painted dot to create my works.

The colours I use are often found in Chinese folk art and embroidery; I choose colours which have the strongest contrast to create tension in the work. Old technique versus new technique, traditional versus modern; color versus color. But still, I want to create paintings of beauty. Song Ling 2009

James Stephenson (b.1970)
View of Chetsingh Ghat 2009
Oil on board
29 x 19cm
no.10441

The works in this series take their inspiration from Hinduisms most holy site, the ancient north Indian city of Varanasi, situated on the Ganges River. Painted in situ on the city’s ghats (stone steps which descend the rivers bank), these works focus on the everyday ritual bathing performed by locals and pilgrims from all over India, and explore the beauty of one of the worlds great cultural centres.

James Stephenson trained at the Julian Ashton School and has won numerous awards including The Henry Gibbons Prize for Drawing in 1999.

Focus On: Geoffrey Proud

Often quirky and verging on the surreal, Geoffrey Proud's paintings in oil and pastel are like fractured fairytales. Depicting a world of innocence with a sometimes ominous edge, Proud's paintings are fantastic and bizarre. His choice of subjects is broad, including children and childhood narratives, flowers, still lifes and nudes. Alternating between expressionist impastoed brushwork and sensitive detail, he experiments freely with vibrant colour and varying textures. The highly glazed surfaces of his recent oils give his scenes an ethereal and otherworldly quality.

Proud has won numerous awards including the Sulman Prize in 1976 for a painting on perspex, and the Archibald prize in 1990 for his portrait of writer Dorothy Hewett. He has exhibited consistently in all state capitals since 1966 and is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; many State and regional gallery collections; Parliament House collections in Canberra and Sydney; Artbank; IBM collection; and the Elton John collection, London.

Staff Picks - Gallery Associate Megan Fizell

Clifton Pugh (1924 - 1990)
Hand & Orchid
Etching 25/75
22 x 15cm (image size)
33 x 25cm (paper size)
no.11067

Born in 1924 in Richmond, Victoria, Clifton Pugh made a name for himself for his portraiture and landscape paintings, after serving in the Australian Imperial Forces in New Guinea in his early years. Pugh attended the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1947 to 1949, and then spent much of his life in his bush property 'Dunmoochin' outside of Melbourne. Greatly inspired by the natural environment, Pugh was joined in his love of the land by other artists, who together with him became the Dunmoochin Artists Society in 1953. In the year before his death in 1990, Pugh set up the Dunmoochin Foundation to preserve the bushland and enable other artists to use the studios in future.

Brett Whiteley (1939-1992)
The Luxembourg Gardens (glimpse) (detail)
Pen and Ink on Paper
55.5 x 75 cm
Initialed 'BW' lower right
Illustrated: Brett Whiteley: Paris Regarde de Côté, Australian Galleries, 1990, Plate 41.
Provenance: Australian Galleries
Private collection Melbourne since 1992
no.11042

The Luxembourg Gardens (glimpse) is part of a series of works on paper which Whiteley produced in Paris between June and July of 1989. Whiteley had rented an apartment on the Rue de Tournon and produced one work a day for 60 days. These are regarde de cote (sidelong glances), which Whiteley saw as the answer to creating images of the city which were not cliché. "millions of pictures have been painted – how to find a new vision is the challenge. What one is after is a high-octane visual poetic journalism, brief, essential and above all fresh. This can best be achieved by drawing, and not the heavy métier of oil paint." Offered for the first time since it was acquired from the Paris Regarde de Coté exhibition this is a superb example of Whiteley's masterful draughtsmanship.

Reference: Brett Whiteley's introduction to: Brett Whiteley: Paris Regarde De Côté, Australian Galleries, 1990.

Adriane Strampp (b.1960)
Stags 2009
Oil on linen
101.5 x 101.5 cm
no.10650

Strampp’s new work takes another look at the horse and the landscape, in a quieter and more contemplative manner, together with the use of a limited palette. Her work continues to explore the intangible and evocative, that communicates before it is understood, and the importance of and relationship between scale, surface and the poetic image through a method of layering and reduction that reflects the experience of connection, through history on either a personal or broader level. Subject and shadow are indeterminate, and the viewer is drawn into the work to decide between what is ‘real’ and what is not. More importantly, it is hoped that the viewer will experience a connection of experience through the work. This new body of work will be exhibited later in the year as part of her Master’s degree submission.

Christopher Beaumont (b.1961)
Still Life with Quince, Artichoke and Ivy 2006
Oil on linen
76 x 84cm

The space in these works is a virtual or abstract space while the rendering of objects wholly representational. I had a great interest in astronomy as a child. The heavens are an abstract emptiness with objects moving on principles of geometry. The world of atoms & molecules are often pictured as coloured spheres in this same black space. Atoms and molecules don’t actually look like this at all but this helps us to understand them conceptually. It is the same space of 3D computer modelling. I have grown up in a time when these images are commonplace and this is definitely an influence on the way I conceive of paintings. -Christopher Beaumont, 2007

Kerry Lester
Aridne auf Naxos
Woodcut print 42/60
76.5 x 56.5cm
Commissioned by the Australian Opera for its
Australian Opera's 40th Anniversity Print Portfolio
(to be sold individually)
no.7733

Geoffrey Proud (b. 1946)
Near the Orchard – a Study in Black 2008
oil on canvas
89 x 120cm
no.9843

Often quirky and verging on the surreal, Geoffrey Proud's paintings in oil and pastel are like fractured fairytales. Depicting a world of innocence with a sometimes ominous edge, Proud's paintings are fantastic and bizarre. His choice of subjects is broad, including children and childhood narratives, flowers, still lifes and nudes. Alternating between expressionist impastoed brushwork and sensitive detail, he experiments freely with vibrant colour and varying textures. The highly glazed surfaces of his recent oils give his scenes an ethereal and otherworldly quality. Proud has won numerous awards including the Sulman Prize in 1976 for a painting on perspex, and the Archibald prize in 1990 for his portrait of writer Dorothy Hewett. He has exhibited consistently in all state capitals since 1966 and is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; many State and regional gallery collections; Parliament House collections in Canberra and Sydney; Artbank; IBM collection; and the Elton John collection, London.

Tomasz Talaj (b. 1964)
Epic Flight 2007
Oil on plywood
10.5 x 15.3cm
no. 9432

Sarah Edmondson
Untitled (Lemons on a Pink Plate) 2003
Oil on canvas
30 x 30cm
Signed 'sarah edmondson '03' lower right
no.8091

Stephen Nothling (b.1962)
Swimming Bird II
Oil on canvas
10 x 10 cm

Known for his paintings of paradise–evoking roses, this exhibition of paradise landscapes was born out of Nothling’s monumental 2008 self portrait entitled Self Portrait out the front, exhibited in the Salon de Refusés last year. The work was in homage to Nothling’s own paradise – his home on the outskirts of Brisbane – and from it emerged this larger series loosely based on local Brisbane landscapes.

Immersed within the idea of paradise and perfection, Nothling created the fictional, ‘Nowhereland,’ an imaginary destination which acts as a backdrop for his pictorial theatrics. In Nowhereland Nothling’s parachuted navigator, (perhaps the pilot from the biplane in Joyflight) descends gently to the middle of nowhere.

Victor Rubin (b.1950)
Still Life II, Jan 1975
oil on masonite
15.2 x 20.3 cm
Signed and dated lower right 'Jan 75 VR.'
no.10731

Painted when Rubin was in his early to late 20’s the boards have been archived in Victor’s studio since they were painted. The period covers 1974-1976 with the majority of paintings from 1974-75 when he was living in Raine Street Bondi Junction in Sydney. This period of his work follows on from his involvement with the famous Yellow House in Macleay Street, Potts Point where he exhibited in 1971 at which point the Yellow House attracted the most cutting edge contemporary artists of the time including Brett Whiteley and others. The period is also marked by a strong influence from John Olsen who was Rubin’s teacher at the Bakery Art School and who remains a close friend.

GALLERY NEWS 19 JANUARY 2010: Geoffrey Proud, Tim Storrier, Ann Thomson

83 Moncur Street Woollahra NSW 2025
tel: 02 9362 0297 fax: 02 9362 0318
email: art@evabreuerartdealer.com.au

website: www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au

Painting of the Week

Geoffrey Proud (b.1946)

Geoffrey Proud (b. 1946)
Sunday Morning 2007
Oil on canvas
59.5 x 90cm
no.9715

Visit our web site to view other paintings by Geoffrey Proud

Focus On Tim Storrier

Tim Storrier (b.1949)

Tim Storrier (b. 1949)
The Night Line / Comet 2009
Acrylic on canvas
61.5 x 122.5 cm
no.11150

At the age of nineteen in 1968, Tim Storrier was the youngest ever recipient of the Sulman Prize, an award also conferred on him in 1984. He studied graphic design at the National Art School, Sydney, and has travelled extensively to the USA, Europe, China and the Middle East. His study tours to Egypt and Central Australia conveyed to him the vastness of the landscape and remote civilisations. The 'Burning Rope' series began as a site-specific installation in Central Australia and portrays a line of fire invisibly suspended between two points, mirroring the horizon line in the distance. Storrier is interested in the spiritual significance of reduced landscapes, the ephemeral gestures left by human interaction with nature and fire as representation of both devastation and renewal. There is a tension in his work between beauty and decay: his evocative use of texture and colour in the atmospheric effects at daybreak and dusk, are counterbalanced by destructive or gruesome elements like fire, snakes and slabs of meat.

Visit our website to view other important Australian paintings

Tim Storrier (b. 1949)
The Night Wind 2009
oil on canvas
61.5 x 122.5 cm
no.11149

Visit our website to view other important Australian paintings


Tim Storrier (b. 1949)

Desert
Oil on board
104 x 140cm
signed 'Storrier' lower right
no.10151

Visit our website to view other important Australian paintings

Tim Storrier (b. 1949)

Baggage Roll and Iron 1984
Mixed media
82.5 x 133.5cm
no.3524

Tim Storrier’s Baggage Roll and Iron 1984 is a mixed media collage produced during his visit to Giza, Egypt. The early 1980s were an important turning point for Storrier as in 1983 he held his first international solo exhibition to critical acclaim at London’s Fischer Fine Art Gallery. In 1984 he travelled to Egypt to develop a series of commissioned works and found a new strengthened focus in the still life, which would form the basis of his art practice during this period.

Baggage Roll and Iron builds upon the appearance and conceptional notions present in his early 1980s ‘Surveyor’ series as the familiar combination of constructed and found objects are painstakingly arranged on the paper. In Baggage Roll and Iron Storrier continues his interest in the tension between the Australian masculine of mythology and the ‘feminine’ craftsmanship of the ‘made weathered’ objects as well as the dichotomy between the landscape as untamed ground and Australia as mapped and colonised. Baggage Roll and Iron is an important moment in Storrier’s career and was uniquely produced in Giza.

Visit our website to view other important Australian paintings

Tim Storrier (b. 1949)
Mandalay
Collagraph 1/70
58.5 x 112.5cm (image)
70 x 120.5cm (paper)
no.11142

Visit our web site to view other important Australian graphics

Tim Storrier (b. 1949)
Night Run 2007
Collagraph 51/70
57 x 112.5cm
Signed 'Storrier' LR, titled, date
no.9411

This collagraph is made by building up multiple colour layers in the print, using several wooden plates. Next the ink is applied to the plate using a series of hard or soft rollers, for various effects, in a process called relief printing, where the design is raised up on the surface of the block. The ink plate and paper are then rolled through the press. A variable is adjusting the amount of pressure in the press to get different effects. During the printing process, if the image requires it, some areas are wiped back to provide a soft edge or tonal variation. There can be as many as eighty colours and up to eight plates for each edition. There are generally three stages of printing, working from the lightest colours to the darkest. At each stage the areas inked up on each plate are carved away, this is referred to as reduction printing.

Visit our web site to view other important Australian graphics

Tim Storrier (b. 1949)
Towards an Innuendo of Impermanence 1981
Photograph
59.5 x 50cm
no.9779

Visit our web site to view other important Australian graphics

Tim Storrier (b. 1949)
Still Life 1987
Lithograph 93/100
56.5 x 76cm (paper size)
dated, titled & signed 'Still Life Storrier 1987' lower right
edition number lower left
Commissioned by the New South Wales Cancer Council for its
Bicentennial Collection: A Portfolio of Australian artists
no.7718

Visit our web site to view other important Australian graphics

Important Australian Abstract Paintings

Ann Thomson (b.1933)

Ann Thomson (b.1933)
Transmition
Oil on linen
122 x 153cm
no.10705

Visit our website to view other paintings by Ann Thomson

Dick Watkins (b.1937)

Dick Watkins (b.1937)
Ulysses 1989
Oil on canvas
167 x 244 cm
no.9733

A pioneer of Australian abstract painting, Dick Watkins is represented in many Australian public collections, such as the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, as well as in many regional, private and corporate art collections.

Dick Watkins was at the forefront of artists exhibiting and promoting abstraction at Sydney’s Central Street Gallery from 1966-69. At this time, many of Australia’s expatriate artists living and working in London returned to Sydney and the creation of Central Street Gallery aimed to show Australia the exciting range of new artistic styles including Pop, Colour-field, Hard-edge, Minimalism and Conceptual art that were happening internationally. Watkins has been included in important group exhibitions, such as in 1968, The Field, held at the National Gallery of Victoria. A retrospective exhibition of Watkin’s work was held in 1989 at the Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery and in 1993 the National Gallery of Australia held the exhibition Dick Watkins in context: an Exhibition from the collection of the National Gallery.

Dick Watkins lives and works in Sydney, Australia. Influences from cubism, pop art, Picasso and the American abstract expressionists, particularly Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell and Willem De Kooning, can be seen in the above work.

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Stan Rapotec (1913-1997)

Stan Rapotec (1913-1997)
Untitled 1960
Oil on board
75 x 100 cm
Illustrated: Bojic, Z., Stanislav Rapotec, a Barbarogenius in Australian art,
Andrejevic Endowment 2007, picture b/w 1, page 142.
no. 5876

Stanislaus Rapotec was one of the leading exponents of Abstract Expressionism in Australia. He is represented in the Australian National Gallery, all state galleries, many regional galleries as well as many other important public collections both in Australia and overseas including the Australian Embassy, Paris, Vatican Gallery of Modern Religious Art, Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris. Rapotec has been the recipient of many awards including the 1961 Blake Prize.

In Untitled 1960 the bold and energetic brushstrokes swirl and explode across the board, masterfully capturing the artists physical and emotional gestures.

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Alun Leach-Jones (b.1937)

Alun Leach-Jones (b.1937)
Instrument for a Solitary Navigator No. 11 1994
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
137 x 117 cm
no. 9740

Born in the UK in 1937, Leach-Jones works can be found in many international and national public collections such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The British Museum, London; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Parliament House Collection, Canberra; and Art Bank, Sydney. As well as many regional art Galleries, university collections and Private collections throughout Australia, U.S.A., U.K., Switzerland, Wales and New Zealand. Leach-Jones moved to Sydney in 1960 where he now resides and works.

Leach-Jones has had over seventy solo exhibitions and was elected an Honorary Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, London.

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Carl Plate (1909 - 1997)

Carl Plate (1909 - 1977)
Third Edge 1961
Oil on board
181 x 121 cm
Signed 'Carl Plate '61' lower left
Signed and inscribed with title, verso:
'EDGE/CARL PLATE'
Exhibited: Sydney, Royal Agricultural Show
no. 8138

Plate’s Third Edge 1961 is a monumental painting which exemplifies the immediacy found in the very best paintings of this period.

Carl Plate was born in Perth and studied at the National Art School in Sydney. He then travelled and studied abroad before returning to Sydney in 1940, where he had a remarkable influence on local artists through the establishment of his famous Notanda Gallery in Rowe Street, Sydney. He was a highly gifted painter who moved from figurative abstraction in the 50’s to pure abstraction during the 1960s and 70s.

Plate has won prizes such as the McCaughey Prize in 1968 and the Aubusson Tapestry Prize in 1967. Plate is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all state galleries, regional galleries in NSW as well as institutions in London, New York, Paris and important corporate and private collections in Australia.

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Sale Section

Garry Shead (b.1942)

Garry Shead (b.1942)
Untitled 3 / VII 1976
Ink and watercolour on paper
36 x 26cm
no.6293

Untitled 3 / VII 1976 is a wonderful example of Shead’s skill with watercolour. The repeated curve within the vertical composition and the delicate, translucent tones give the subject a sense of weightlessness. This painting is influenced by Picasso’s Vollard Suite.

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Jean Sutherland (1902-1978)

Jean Sutherland (1902-1978)
Asters in a White Vase c.1927
Oil on canvas
56 x 41cm
no.3146

Jean Sutherland is represented in the National Gallery of Victoria as well as many important collections throughout Australia. Sutherland was the recipient of many awards including the 1923 National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Art Scholarship.

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Sali Herman (1898-1993)

Sali Herman (1898-1993)
English Wedding 1953-58
Oil on canvas
46 x 61cm
Signed 'S Herman 53/58' lower right
Provenance: Queensland Art Gallery
no.7179

Sali Herman is recognised as one of Australia's most important painters. His work is held in all Australian State galleries, the National Gallery of Australia, and many regional galleries and other public collections. A major retrospective of his work toured Australia in 1981. Sali Herman has been the recipient of many coveted awards including the Wynne prize in 1944, 1962 and 1965, and the Sulman prize in 1946 and 1948.

English Wedding 1953-58 exemplifies the strength and individuality for which Sali Herman is celebrated. There is a modelled texture to the surface of the painting. Layers of colour have been worked over each other in order to create a sense of energy and depth.

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Featured Graphic

John Olsen (b.1928)

John Olsen (b.1928)
Lily Pond
Etching 29/30
17 x 15cm (plate size)
38 x 29cm (sheet size)
no.11034

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