Lot 27

Very good condition overall. No apparent faults to report. Housed in a light wood shadow box frame with minor surface marks. Overall size is 186.5 x 186 x 5.5cm


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Leonard Joel makes no guarantee of the originality of mechanical or applied components. Absence of reference to such modifications does not imply that a lot is free from modifications.

Dale Hickey remains one of the last surviving Australian abstractionists and conceptualists from a generation of artists who so defiantly reshaped art in Australia. This generation of artists were leading names in the iconic Field exhibition – a collection of colour field paintings that became a landmark within Australian art history. Hickey, along with 40 other artists, explored hard edge colour and flat geometric abstraction influenced by some of America's greatest painters of the time. The exhibition opened to much divisive opinion which helped to launch the careers of these artists, specifically Hickey.

Following the exhibition, Hickey experimented with different artistic styles drawing inspiration from Leger, Mondrian, and Motherwell, eventually settling on stripped-down portrayals of his own studio where easels, windows, and studio supplies create patterns of overlapping shapes.

'These paintings might be seen as both abstract and figurative. They are 'art about art', but also meditations on the solitary life of the painter, on the search for inspiration that haunts all artists' (John McDonald)

Studio Stuff 2008 is an exceptional example of Hickey's ability to portray the seemingly mundane with calm complexity worthy of high abstraction. The placement of the easel as though at the altar, flanked by gridded windows and graced by a featureless cup and rolled up tube of paint – solitary symbols of functionality. Hickey plays with perspective – objects appear as though they should topple or roll yet they remain static. He uses trompe l'oeil to create the illusion of both depth and volume with a smooth graphic surface that invites considered contemplation.

Olivia Fuller, Head of Art

© Dale Hickey/Copyright Agency, 2020