Lot 20

Overall good condition, with no apparent faults to note. Framed size measuring 215.5 x 169cm.


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Please note condition reports can be amended during the pre-sale period, so we strongly suggest any interested bidders check the published condition report available on the website before the auction commences. 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.

The National Australia Bank Art Collection

The Seventies: Australian Paintings and Tapestries From the Collection of National Australia Bank, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 15 October - 28 November 1982

Lindsay, R. (ed.), The Seventies: Australian Paintings and Tapestries From the Collection of National Australia Bank, The National Bank of Australasia, Melbourne, 1982, pl. 26, p. 39 (illus.)
"During 1974 whilst travelling in America and Europe it occurred to me that by using line I could express 'Australianess'. I became committed to making something in abstract painting which was essentially Australian - an attitude considered by many to be somewhat naive at the time. So all my pictures from 1974, through 1975 and 1976 concentrate on the character and positioning of lines, first individually, then in groups and finally as shapes"
"Quite early in the process a single line became dominant as in this painting 'Mezak'. These single lines took on special qualities, were heavier, fleshier, and had light within them. Awkwardly placed yet graceful in themselves, they should be read as having human presence representing aspects of the Australian character as seen and felt by one painter."
"All painters develop their imagery in private and in silence, a weakness and strength of our situation, and to speak too openly about the painting seems a violation of the initial act" (Artist's Statement. p. 39)

Krell, A., Fred Cress: Stages, Wild & Woolley, Sydney 1989, p. 120 no. 22