Lot 20

This work has recently had a professional surface clean. With no previous restorative work or faults detected, this painting is in good condition, with original frame. Frame does bear some minor marks and sits slightly ajar in the lower left hand corner connection, with overall size: 64 x 71cm
(LEONARD JOEL CONTACTLESS DELIVERY $88 within 20km of Melbourne premises)


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Kenthurst Galleries, Sydney c.1991
Private collection, Sydney

Garry Shead has cemented a considerable reputation as one of Australia's most prominent figurative artists.
Shead's career rose to new heights following a period when modern art, particularly that in Sydney, favoured abstraction. During such a time, Shead instead focused on the figurative - in many ways a rebellious act against the establishment. His works are today considered whimsical, with a narrative and uniquely lyrical undertone.
As a young man, Shead discovered the work of D. H. Lawrence yet did not explore his writings within his own oeuvre until later in life. When Shead began painting this series in the early 1990s, he was living in Bundeena near where Lawrence had lived with his wife Frieda in Thirroul in 1922. In this series, Shead explores many characters, often mirroring Lawrence and his wife Freida with himself and his wife Judith. Of the D.H. Lawrence paintings, art historian Sasha Grishin notes:
'Shead's [paintings] are a personal, intuitive response to the novel, rather than an attempt to illustrate the narrative. The imagery has much to do with the Lawrences at Thirroul, as with the characters in the novel. Richard Somers and his wife Harriet, of the novel, in the paintings appear as strange and ambiguous figures, at times taking on the features of Lawrence and Frieda, at others, having more than a passing resemblance to Shead and his wife Judith.'
In "The Arrival" from Shead's most collectible series, the bushy landscape descends steeply down towards the cliff edge before the sharp drop to the striking deep blue ocean. The coastal houses are perched in perfect order in the centre, whilst the two figures - amalgamations of all these characters including the artist himself - stand slightly askew, as though on the verge of exiting the scene with bags in tow.

Olivia Fuller, Head of Art

© Garry Shead/Copyright Agency, 2020