Lot 83

Work in excellent condition with no faults or concerns to report.


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Australian Galleries, Melbourne cat. no. AG110526 (label verso)
Private collection, Melbourne

When Graeme Drendel was a young boy he was asked to be a page boy for a large grand wedding in Ballarat. His older sister was to be the flower girl and for the occasion he was dressed in a white satin suit - a very strange experience for a boy growing up on an isolated farm in the Mallee, 20 kilometres from Ouyen.
"Preparation of the Page" painting is based on a deep memory of the experience, of being on display in a role he didn't really understand. He remembers adults all dressed up and involved in their own activities that didn't involve him - Gavin Fry -

"The two men, one adjusting his tie and the other assisting, brushing lint off the shoulder perhaps, are from another painting done around that time. The two were carrying the same mattress that appears between the page boy and the others, through an empty landscape, also appearing in other paintings done around 1999. The page boy is me, somewhat isolated from the people around him, on display but mostly ignored by all except the female figure who is inviting the attention of the male figure behind her. The couple at the back are the same couple now engaged in conversation. The trees of course just allude to the rural setting of the scenario, while the pyramids are a stand-in for the silos that punctuate the Mallee skyline." - The Artist -