Lot 34

Pinholes are in all four corners, likely from the time of exhibition. The are numerous creases within the paper. Work is framed behind perspex, with some marks to the perspex and frame. Overall size is 268 x 153 x 4cm.


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With Niagara Galleries, Melbourne (label verso)

Crawford, A. and Edgar R., Spray: The Work of Howard Arkley, Craftsman House, Sydney, p. 77 (illustrated)

Howard Arkley's tragically premature passing whilst at the peak of his artistic powers in 1999 would, at first glance, make him an unlikely candidate to appear in a standalone catalogue of living artists in 2020.

But by virtue of his 1984 collaboration with contemporaries Juan Davila and Maria Kosic, who remain very much part of the vanguard today, we are thrilled to present this monumental mixed media work, Untitled (Exquisite Corpse 4), for public sale.

The genesis of this Exquisite Corpse project arose when curator Denise Robinson approached Arkley, Davila and Kosic, three eminent contemporary artists with Pop Art sensibilities, to collaborate on a project which referenced Surrealist experiments of the same theme which originated in Paris in 1925. In accordance with the original premise whereby individual artists made their contributions sequentially and without reference to the efforts of each other, Davila worked first on the piece, followed by Kosic, then Arkley.

The resultant series (of which this is sheet 4) was then exhibited at Melbourne University's George Paton Gallery in May 1984 and again (sans the present example) at Sydney's Roslyn Oxley9 in January 1988.

The current example is afforded a colour plate in Ashley Crawford and Ray Edgar's defining Howard Arkley monograph, Spray (Craftsman House, 1997/2001), and the wider Exquisite Corpse series is credited as heralding Arkley's artistic transition from his cacti doodles of the early 1980s to the visionary impressions of modern suburbia which make him the cultural icon and market behemoth he is today.

Cameron Menzies, Guest Advisor

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