Lot 31

Very good condition overall, no major faults to report. Very minor foreign matter has settled on the edge, approx 1mm squared. Painting is housed in a light wood shadow box frame in good condition, with overall size 117 x 150 x 4.5cm


The opinions expressed in the condition reports are a guide only and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Prospective buyers are encouraged to inspect articles for sale at our pre-sale viewing where Leonard Joel staff are available for advice.
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.

John Kelly: Son of Moonboy, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 31 October - 25 November 2006, cat. no.1

Inaugural Collector's Exhibition, Menzies, Sydney, Melbourne,15 February - 16 March, 2018, cat no. 15

Kelly, J., John Kelly : Sun of Moonboy, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 2006 (illus.)

Related Work:

Black Eyed Alien 2006
Menzies, Melbourne, 10 August 2017 SOLD for $50,000 (including buyer's premium)


John Kelly's radiant and characteristically irreverent canvas Light, of 2006, belongs to this celebrated artist's Sun of Moonboy series of work.

Constructed with Kelly's trademark sense of wit, irony and at times, absurdity, Light simultaneously pays homage to Sidney Nolan's (1917-1992) polarising 1940 picture, Moonboy, whilst perpetuating his long-standing protest against the Australia Council and its art funding policies through the clever appropriation and integration of that body's circular logo into his compositions.

Like Nolan, an Australian artist of Irish descent, John Kelly is both a significant figure in the global contemporary art landscape, and a keen observer of same. Thus, one is able also to draw parallels between the work and influence of the late Neo-expressionist painter Philip Guston (1913-1980, Canadian), and the present major Kelly painting Light, with the appearance of a haphazard and nonsensical inanimate object dominating the picture plane.

John Kelly's Light has remained in the same private collection since its original purchase in 2006, and though exhibited at Niagara Galleries (2006) and Menzies Art Brands (2018), it makes its maiden auction appearance in Centum.

Cameron Menzies, Guest Advisor

© John Kelly/Copyright Agency, 2020