Lot 21

In overall good condition. Some minor marks, and inconsistencies to the board, all likely inherent and from the artist's studio. Housed in a timber frame, overall size 126.5 x 96cm.


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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 Lowenstein Collection of Modern & Contemporary Australian Art, Melbourne

Patten, S., Creative Exchanges, The Australian Financial Review, 11-12 February 2017, p. 35 (illus.)

Yvonne Audette revisits a figural theme from an earlier part in her career when she was heavily influenced by Paul Cézanne and the Australian Abstractionist, John Passmore. Here, Audette presents figures in an abstract composition titled Game of Football No. 1 2001.

Using broad slabs of colour, the artist has liberally applied thick strokes to draw out the subjects in movement. Audette reveals untouched areas of the board beneath - the absent room allowing her subjects to appear almost suspended, hovering in mid-motion. Dominant highlights of orange and white further enhance the pictorial movement while calligraphy-like motifs outline the footballers in play. A linear sequence falls into place as the footballers almost appear to roll out and then back into one form, drawing the viewers eye the centre of the work. The broad linear strokes across the background move swiftly past the subjects, emphasising the speed at which the game is unfolding. Yvonne Audette guides the viewer through the image using her strokes or 'rhythm lines'… 'to keep the image alive by keeping it moving.' (1)

Audette employed the use of calligraphy in her practice as early as the mid-1950s. Her small abstract work titled Lyrical Painting c.1954 (2) employs the distinct use of black line in a very similar style to Game of Football No. 1 2001, revealing the impact of Passmore's teachings, who himself had recently returned from overseas passing on his own influences by Cézanne to Audette. It was during this time she also experimented with life drawings and incorporating figural attributes into her abstract technique. Developing her own distinct style, Audette hones an analytical approach to her subjects, reducing them to a series of simpler geometric-like forms, using interlocking shapes and planes of heavy colour to draw out her subjects and define them with her signature black line.

Lucy Foster | Art Specialist

(1) Audette, interview with Adams, 13 November 1998, cited from Heathcote, C., Adams, B., Vaughan, G., Grant, K., Yvonne Audette, Paintings and Drawings 1949-2003, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne 2003, p. 170
(2) Heathcote, C., Adams, B., Vaughan, G., Grant, K., Yvonne Audette, Paintings and Drawings 1949-2003, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne 2003, p. 225

© Yvonne Audette/Copyright Agency 2022