Lot 16

Private collection, Melbourne
By inheritance from the above

Howard Arkley: Recent Paintings, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, 9 – 20 May 1979
Howard Arkley, Coventry Gallery, Sydney, 4 – 22 March 1980, cat. no. 4
Howard Arkley, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 18 October - 30 November 1991, cat. no. 15

Gregory, J., Arkley Works: Howard Arkley Online Catalogue Raisonne, https://www.arkleyworks.com/blog/2009/11/13/curvilinear-with-grid-1978/ (illus.)

Howard Arkley's subjects broadly extended from suburban houses and freeway overpasses, to zappo heads and pattern appropriations. When looking at the work of Howard Arkley and his extensive archives, the plethora of references is quickly apparent. Beneath each of Arkley's canvases is a complex history of ideas and experimentations from drawings, notes, clippings, photographs and more. Where some artists look to conceal their source material, Arkley placed it front and centre and even exhibited it alongside his paintings on at least one occasion.

In Howard's diary from 1978, he demonstrates a clear influence from John Perreault's essay 'Issues in Pattern Painting', which discusses contemporary art and its characteristic of calling attention to that which is often invisible. Those artists that are 'pattern-conscious', such as Arkley, bring these invisible elements into focus. Above this reference in Arkley's diary, he scribed his mission: "I want to re-energise abstract painting".

In the same year, Arkley and his wife Elizabeth Gower travelled to Europe and New York where he filled a small notebook with sketches and musings from different patterns he had sighted along the way. What appears to have struck him the most were the wrought-iron doorways. Upon returning to Australia, he continued this fascination and it was the provincial Australian fly-wire security door that provided a local equivalent.

"I used the door format to arrive at my canvas proportion using what turned out to be unlimited variations of patterns and shapes."(1)
The resulting paintings from this period are known as his 'door paintings', not only for their source material but also their size akin to a classic doorframe. These paintings were exhibited across shows in 1979 and 1980, referencing doors, sewing patterns and I Ching symbols. They demonstrate Arkley's 'pattern-conscious' approach, with free-flowing curves, curls and peaks reminiscent of wrought iron contained within the subtle grid-form of the doorframe.
In Howard Arkley's paintings, elements of modern life become the protagonist whilst he challenges our notions of art and décor through his pattern-making. He makes no attempts to conceal his thought process, referencing his source material openly. Through his paintings, Arkley identified a new Australian art identity, positioning him as the foremost painter of Australian suburbia for which he is still recognised today.

Olivia Fuller
Head of Art

(1) Fitzpatrick, A., Lynn, V., Howard Arkley and Friends, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Victoria, 2015, p.12

© The Estate of Howard Arkley. Licensed by Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art