Eva Breuer Art Dealer: Roland Wakelin

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Important Australian Paintings January Stock Card

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

GALLERY NEWS 27 JANUARY 2010: Leonard French, Garry Shead, Ray Crooke, Brett Whiteley

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

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

Throughout his career as an artist Leonard French has held true to the philosophy of art at the service of the common man. His 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 with these figures include The Release (in the collection of the Bendigo Art Gallery), Duet and The Tightrope (both in private collections.)

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 web site to view other important Australian paintings

Garry Shead (b.1942)

Garry Shead (b.1942)
Dancer c.1998
Oil on board
59 x 43 cm
Signed 'Shead' lower left
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.11134

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-fulfillment, 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 escape. Shead achieves in this series of paintings a great lyricism 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.

Visit our web site to view other paintings by Garry Shead

Ray Crooke (b.1922)

Ray Crooke (b. 1922)
Villagers Relaxing
oil on canvas
75 x 61cm
signed lower left 'R. Crooke'
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.11049

Visit our website to view other paintings by Ray Crooke

Brett Whiteley (1939-1992)

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.

Visit our website to view other artworks by Brett Whiteley

John Coburn (1925-2006)

John Coburn (1925 - 2006)
Central Desert Painting
Oil on canvas
183 x 244cm
no.10080

Visit our website to view other paintings by John Coburn

Elisabeth Kruger (b.1955)

Elisabeth Kruger (b.1955)
Cirque 2008
oil on linen
122.5 x 153cm
no.10884

Visit our web site to view other paintings by Elisabeth Kruger

Ken Whisson (b.1927)

Ken Whisson (b.1927)
A Day in the Country 1967
Oil on board
73 x 102cm
Signed 'WHISSON' upper left
Inscribed verso "A DAY IN THE COUNTRY" / A DAY IN THE COUNTRY / CLEAR AND COLD / "THE FOXES ON THE HILLS BARKED CLEAR AND COLD"
Provenance: Watters Gallery, Sydney; Esa Jaske Gallery, Sudney
Exhibited: Ken Whisson: Paintings 1957-1985, Broken Hill City Art Gallery, New South Wales, 1985 (cat. 13)
Reference: Ken Whisson Paintings 1947-1999, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 2001, p. 120, cat. 19 (illustration p. 35)
Ken Whisson: Paintings 1957-1985, Broken Hill City Art Gallery, New South Wales, 1985, p. 50, cat. 13 (illustration p. 31)
no.7991

Ken Whisson is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all state galleries, many regional galleries, as well as many other important public collections in Australia and overseas. He has been the recipient of many awards including the 1979 John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize.

Ken Whisson's highly individual form of painting is often derived from and stimulated by memory and intuition. John MacDonald explains that Whisson is "asking the viewer to see with the eye of the mind rather than expecting a perfect match between the object and it's representation." In A Day in the Country, Whisson pushes the paint around his canvases at oblique and obscure angles, creating opposing red, green yellow and blue shapes and forms which echo a figure or a chair a dog or a boat. The resulting painting is fluid and dynamic.

Illustrated: McDonald. J., et al, Ken Whisson Paintings 1947 - 1999, Niagara Publishing, 2001, p.35.

Visit our web site to view other important Australian paintings

Roland Wakelin (1887-1971)

Roland Wakelin (1887-1971)
Terrace Houses Double Bay 1963
Oil on board
45 x 64 cm
Signed 'R.Wakelin 63' bottom left
no.11144

Provenance:
Private collection, Melbourne
Private collection, Sydney

Exhibited:
Toorak Art Gallery (label attached verso) - On loan from Mr P English
Geelong Art Gallery (label attached verso)
Roland Wakelin Retrospective Art Gallery of NSW 8 - 30 April 1967 cat no.87
Roland Wakelin: Master of Colour, A Newcastle Regional Gallery Touring exhibition, 2002
Toured to Newcastle City Art Gallery 10-13 May 1967

Illustrated:
Roland Wakelin: Master of Colour, A Newcastle Regional Gallery Touring exhibition, 2002

Visit our web site to view other paintings by Roland Wakelin

Patrick Hockey (1948-1992)

Patrick Hockey (1948-1992)
Untitled 1975
oil on board
44 x 44 cm
signed 'Hockey 75' lower left
provenance: private collection Sydney
no.9656

Patrick Hockey is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all state galleries, many regional galleries as well as many other important public collections both in Australia and internationally.

Hockey’s Australian ‘Outback Hotel’ series (loosely worked renderings of outback hotels and their patrons) capture the essence of the sun-hardened heart of the land and it’s quintessentially Australian characters.

Visit our web site to view other important Australian paintings

Arthur Murch (1902-1989)

Arthur Murch (1902-1989)
Leda and the swan
Oil on board
39.5 x 49.5 cm
no.5186a

Arthur Murch, a Sydney based painter, trained under Dattilo Rubbo and the sculptor Raynor Hoff in the early 1920s. Murch is renowned for his ability to recreate luminosity in paint. He won the NSW Society of Artists Travelling Art Scholarship in 1925 and worked as a studio assistant to George Lambert before travelling throughout Europe in the 1930s. He was appointed Official War Artist in 1942 and won the Archibald prize in 1949. Under Lambert, Murch developed a romantic style of painting. His paintings portray an idyllic version of Australian life, depicting a playful Arcadian seaside existence. Experimenting with colour, pattern and light, Murch developed a distinctive style.

Arthur Murch is represented in the National Gallery of Australia and the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, and all State and many regional galleries.

Visit our web site to view other important Australian paintings

Jean Appleton (1911-2003)

Jean Appleton (1911 - 2003)
Early Morning Light c.1978
Oil on board
78 x 99 cm
no.5100

Jean Appleton is represented in many state and regional galleries as well as other public collections in Australia and overseas including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She was the recipient of many coveted awards including the inaugural Portia Geach Memorial Prize in 1965.

“Jean Appleton’s practice has always tended to still lifes and landscape, and since the mid-1970s at least she has been almost exclusively involved in painting interiors – works which at one level vary little in the flowers, fruits, furniture, jugs and drapery they utilise – and yet provide, as the still-life genre has traditionally done, endless possibilities for the artist to contemplate reality, experiment visually, and construct a vocabulary of creative expression."

Reference: Simpson, Caroline, Jean Appleton: a lifetime with art, Woollahra, N.S.W, 1998 pp.89

Visit our web site to view other important Australian paintings

Brian Dunlop (1938-2009)

Brian Dunlop (1938-2009)
Malatesta Kneeling 1979
oil on canvas
121 x 169cm
no.5599

Visit our web site to view other important Australian paintings

Ena Joyce (b.1926)

Ena Joyce (b.1926)
Bathing Sheds Round the Bay c.1958
oil on board
39.5 x 44cm
no.7231

Bathing Sheds Round the Bay c.1958 is a beautiful example of Joyce’s wonderful colour harmonies and sensitive observation of light.

"While teaching at Ballarat I met my future husband. We lived in Melbourne where I often painted round Port Phillip Bay and the areas familiar to Clarice Beckett." Ena Joyce

Visit our website to view other paintings by Ena Joyce

Introducing Andrew Paviour

Andrew Paviour
Wedding Reception
oil on canvas
66 x 76 cm
no.11189

Visit our website to view other paintings by Andrew Paviour

Andrew Paviour
At the Races
oil on canvas
76 x 84 cm

Visit our website to view other paintings by Andrew Paviour

Contemporary Australian Paintings

Adriane Strampp (b.1960)

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

Visit our website to view other paintings by Adriane Strampp

Christopher McVinish (b.1952)

Christopher McVinish (b.1952)
The Ongoing Moment
oil on canvas
110 x 110cm
no.11196

Visit our website to view other paintings by Christopher McVinish

Featured Graphic

Fred Williams (1927-1982)

Fred Williams (1927-1982)
Upwey Landscape 1965-1966
etching 16/22
21 x 13cm
signed 'Fred Williams' lower right
no.97355

Fred Williams is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, most state galleries, many regional galleries as well as many other public collections throughout Australia. Upwey Landscape 1965-66, a rare etching of this period, is an example of the unique visual shorthand which Williams devised to capture the beauty of the Australian landscape.

Visit our web site to view other graphics by Fred Williams

Current Exhibition

January
Gallery 1 & 2: Summer Exhibition

Upcoming Exhibitions

February
Gallery 1 & 2: Summer Exhibition

March
Gallery 1: Autumn Exhibition
Gallery 2: Wayne Eager

April
Gallery 1: Autumn Exhibition
Gallery 2: Pam Sackville

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Thursday, January 7, 2010

Staff Picks - Gallery Manager Robert Maconachie

Sir Sidney Nolan (1917-1992)
Portrait of John Perceval with a Model Boat 1943
Ripolin enamel on board
63.5 x 76 cm
no.6368

Provenance:
The Estate of Sir Sidney Nolan

Exhibited:
Nolan’s Nolans: A Reputation Reassessed, Agnews and Sons, London 1997, cat no.10

Literature:
Nolan’s Nolans: A Reputation Reassessed, Agnews and Sons, London 1997, cat no.10, p.10.
Rosenthal. T.G., Sidney Nolan, Thames and Hudson, London, 2002, p. 48.

Painted while stationed at the Wimmera, Portrait of John Perceval with Model Boat 1943 is a portrait of Nolan’s close friend and fellow artist John Perceval. Perceval is shown gazing at a small model ship, (prefiguring Perceval's Williamstown series) which he has clutched to his chest. This also eludes to Baudelaire’s Le Bateau Ivre (The Drunken Boat). A square window through the figure’s torso allows us a view to a painting within the painting; a beach scene from the St Kilda series, which pictures the Greek legend of Icarus1, the tale of the boy whose attempt to fly to the sun ended in tragic failure.

As Nicholas Usherwood explains, the inclusion of the model boat may also relate to the theme of Icarus which goes back to Nolan’s work for the Lifar Ballet, see cat. no.5 Eyes (Tent Series) c.1940. It may also suggest the “wreck of youth and Nolan’s other wise well–concealed anxieties about the war in the Pacific, in particular a recent unsuccessful Australian naval engagement in the Macassar straights of the North Australia cost – Nolan had a brother, Raymond in the Navy. He may have also begun to feel anxious about being sent to fight in New Guinea, later the cause for his desertion from the army.”2
RM

1 Nolan’s Nolans: A Reputation Reassessed, Agnews and Sons, London, 1997, cat. no.9.
2 ibid

Garry Shead (b.1942)
Monarchy at Sunset 1995
Oil on canvas
122 x 155 cm
Signed 'Garry Shead 95' lower left
no.1606

Illustrated: Grishin., S, Garry Shead, Encounters with Royalty,
Craftsman House 1998, plate 3, page 37.

Exhibited: Lyall Burton Gallery, Melbourne
Touring Exhibition, Brisbane City Gallery, 1998

Provenance: Lyall Burton Gallery, Melbourne
Eva Breuer Art Dealer, Sydney

Monarchy at Sunset 1995 is one of the largest major paintings from the early period of the important 'Royal Suite' series.

The painting is illustrated in the definitive text on the series and is one of the largest paintings from the beginning of the series in 1995. The composition is a complex one involving multiple large figures including both the Queen and the Consort. The painting also includes the other essential images of the best paintings of the series; the harbour bridge, the silhouetted kangaroo, the Koala and the sprig of golden wattle.

Like his contemporary "colourist" Roy de Maistre, Roland Wakelin was Australian modernism's expert in colour harmony. He uses classical subject matter - landscape, cityscape or still life - then applies high keyed colours for a gentle modernist effect . His life's work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1967, which holds a number of exemplary Wakelin pieces. He taught at the School of Architecture, University of Sydney, from 1952, and is represented in all major public galleries in Australia.

Danila Vassilieff (1897-1958)

Untitled (Two Boys and Dog) c.1941
Oil on board
34 x 26cm
Signed 'Vassilieff' lower right
Provenance: The Williams family, Queensland
click here to view the verso
no.8198

This painting pictures two young boys, Bryan and Barry Williams (and their dog, Macky). It was painted at Warrandyte, Victoria, where the parents of the boys were building a mud brick house in the early 1940s. They became acquainted with the artist Vassilieff, as he was building his stone house in the area around the same time. Years later this painting was discovered by Bryan's wife, hidden under a framed newspaper image of a replica Captain Cook's cottage that was owned by the boys' father, Vyvian Williams.

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.

Stan Rapotec (1913-1997)
Untitled, 1960
Oil on board
75 x 100cm
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.

Carl Plate (1909-1977)
Third Edge 1961
Oil on board
181 x 121cm
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. Click here to view a study of this work.

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.

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

Elisabeth Kruger (b.1955)
Cirque 2008
oil on linen
122.5 x 153cm
no.10884

Awarded the prestigious Moet & Chandon Art Fellowship (1989) and an overseas studio residency with the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council (1990), Elisabeth Kruger is recognised as one of Australia's leading contemporary artists. In her newest series of paintings, Kruger explores the luscious beauty of flowers. These are stunning floral masterpieces with a contemporary edge. Her work is represented in the Australian National Gallery, The National Gallery of Victoria, the Parliament House Collection, Macquarie University and major private collections.

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.”

In Untitled c.1963 the bold black outlines that border the blocks of red, blue, green and white is reminiscent of stain-glass artwork.

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

Arthur Boyd (1920-1999)
Portrait of Alannah Coleman III c.1971
Oil on canvas
76 x 63 cm
no.3168

Arthur Boyd’s paintings of art world personalities such as this portrait of the art dealer Alannah Coleman, are masterfully executed expressions of the sitter. Boyd translates the nuances of his subject in vigorous strokes of yellow, blue and red, which animate the painterly surface.

Stock Room Viewable by Category

Eva Breuer Art Dealer has recently categorized the stock room into 9 different themes, Traditional, Figurative, Landscape, Urbanscape, Still Life, Animals, Large Paintings, Nudes, and Sculpture. Please click the image below to browse each category.

Nudes

The artists depicted include, Albert Henry Fullwood, Garry Shead, Tim Storrier, Roland Wakelin, Elisabeth Kruger, Sidney Nolan, John Coburn, and Vince Vozzo.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

GALLERY NEWS 5 JANUARY 2010: Ray Crooke, Tim Storrier, Garry Shead

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

Garry Shead (b.1942)

Garry Shead (b.1942)
Monarchy at Sunset 1995
Oil on canvas
122 x 155 cm
Signed 'Garry Shead 95' lower left
no.1606

Illustrated: Grishin., S, Garry Shead, Encounters with Royalty,
Craftsman House 1998, plate 3, page 37.

Exhibited: Lyall Burton Gallery, Melbourne
Touring Exhibition, Brisbane City Gallery, 1998

Provenance: Lyall Burton Gallery, Melbourne
Eva Breuer Art Dealer, Sydney

Visit our website to view other important Australian paintings

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

Spanning more than five years, the 'Outback' series is an important period of work by Garry Shead that encapsulates his father’s narrative history of the adventurous jackaroo. Themes running throughout the body of work include loss of freedom and frustration symbolised by the breaking of the horse. Visually inspired by the outback landscapes by Sidney Nolan, the paintings are composed of warm ochres and burnt sienna reds. Initially the horses depicted in the early works from the series contained parts of the female body. The horses evolved to embody a sexual energy typically reserved for Shead’s female subjects and the relationship between man and horse served “as a metaphor for the relationship between man and woman, while the vastness of the outback landscape is constant setting for this drama.”1

1 Grishin S, Garry Shead and The Erotic Muse, Craftsman House, 2001 p.87

Visit our website to view other paintings by Garry Shead

Garry Shead (b.1942)
Dancer c.1998
Oil on board
59 x 43 cm
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.11134

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.

Visit our website to view other paintings by Garry Shead

Ray Crooke (b.1922)

Ray Crooke (b.1922)
Untitled (Three Figures)
oil on canvas
75 x 61cm
signed lower left 'R. Crooke'
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.11049

Visit our website to view other paintings by Ray Crooke

Ray Crooke (b.1922)
Untitled
Oil on board
49.3 x 60 cm
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.10657

Visit our website to view other paintings by Ray Crooke

Tim Storrier (b.1949)

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

Visit our website to view other paintings by Tim Storrier

Roland Wakelin (1887-1971)

Visit our website to view other paintings by Roland Wakelin

John Coburn (1925-2006)

John Coburn (1925-2006)
The Four Seasons (Summer) 1994
Oil on canvas
64.5 x 89.5cm
Signed 'Coburn' lower right
Signed and inscribed verso 'John Coburn/ summer/ 1994/ Oil'
Provenance: The Royal Pines Resort, Queensland. Commissioned directly from the artist in 1994
no.9087
cat no.11

Influenced by Matisse, Rothko and Miro, Coburn’s art is motivated by the natural world and by his own personal spirituality. The Seasons is arguably one of the most important motifs of Coburn’s career. Encompassing both the natural and the spiritual, the Seasons appear in all decades of Coburn’s work culminating in a series of nine monumental tapestries commissioned in 1988 by the Christensen Fund which were woven in Aubusson, France. The present four paintings represent the individual seasons of nature and parallel the ‘growth, development, transformation and renewal of the spirit.’1 As Alan Rozen suggests “it is through his integrity in relating his religion to nature and nature to religion,” that Coburn achieves his raison d’etre.2

Memories of the landscape of his childhood are predominant in all the Seasons of Nature paintings. As Coburn told Nadine Amadio; “They derive from my childhood when I was growing up in Queensland in the tropical vegetation.”3 Each of the present paintings, which were commissioned by the Royal Pines Resort in 1994, is a seasonal garden of delight; Spring has a clarity and brightness that suggests warm spring air and new life, Autumn glows with rich golden hues, Winter suggests a withdrawing and pulling back of life forces and Summer is an exultant celebration of life and regeneration.

1 Amadio, N., John Coburn’s The Seasons Tapestries, The Christensen Fund, 1988, p.3.
2 Rozen, A., The Art of John Coburn, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1979, p.9.
3 Amadio, N., John Coburn’s ‘The Seasons’ Tapestries, The Christensen Fund, 1988, p.12.

Visit our website to view other paintings by John Coburn

Anna Platten (b.1957)

Anna Platten (b.1957)
Head and House 2007
charcoal on paper
125 x 100 cm
Finalist in the Kedumba drawing prize 2007
no.10769

Visit our website to view other important Australian works on paper

Sale Section

David Boyd (b.1924)

David Boyd (b.1924)
The Willow and the Wattle 1990
Oil on canvas
34 x 44cm
Signed lower left 'David Boyd'
Titled, signed and dated on stretcher verso
Provenance: Private collection Sydney
no.10699

Visit our website to view other paintings by David Boyd

Jimmy Pike (1940-2002)

Jimmy Pike (1940-2002)
Parapara and Kurrkuminti
acrylic on canvas
75 x 60cm
verso: parapara and kurrkuminti
J Pike
no.10152

Pike was born during World War Two in the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. His people, the Walmajarri, had very limited contact with white Australians, and Pike did not meet a white person until he was 13. While living a traditional nomadic life Pike learned to create ceremonial designs, often applied to the body, which depicted the stories and knowledge of his tribe. As a young adult Pike begun working at cattle stations in the Kimberley rather than continuing to live a traditional nomadic life. During this time he begun to supplement his earnings as a stockman by carving boomerangs and wooden curios to sell to tourists.

In 1979 Pike was sent to jail after being convicted of killing another Aboriginal man. While incarcerated he begun to paint, draw and make prints. His bold colours and patterns drew attention early and his two art teachers in prison set up a company to market his work. After his release in 1986 Pike concentrated on his art, and he and his wife (Pat Lowe, a community welfare officer he met while in prison) published several books written by her and illustrated by Pike.

During his life Pike held successful exhibitions in China, South Africa, Italy, England and the Philippines. His work is held in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Queensland Art Gallery, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Visit our website to view other contemporary Aboriginal paintings

Tim Storrier (b.1949)

Tim Storrier (b. 1949)
Desert c.1975
Oil on board
104 x 140cm
signed 'Storrier' lower right
no.10151

Visit our website to view other paintings by Tim Storrier

Contemporary Australian Paintings

Stephen Nothling (b.1962)

Cover of Darkness 2
oil on canvas
160 x 190cm
no.10879

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Michael Muir (b.1975)

Michael Muir (b.1975)
Untitled
pastel on paper
oil on canvas
66 x 66cm
no.10743

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Don Rankin (b.1947)

Don Rankin (b.1947)
Poppies (study #4) 2009
Oil on canvas
80 x 60 cm

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Featured Graphic

John Olsen (b.1928)

John Olsen (b.1928)
Fish & Kettle 2002
Etching 10/30
11 x 20cm (plate size)
no.9583

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