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• Auction House:
  Gibson's Auctioneers & Valuers
• Sale Name:
  Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  16 Oct 2022 ~ 12noon (AEDT)
• Lot #:
  33
• Lot Description:
  Clifton Pugh
  (1924-1990)
  Collecting Dead Wool 1957
  oil and cement on composition board
  124.5 x 73cm
  signed and dated lower left: Clifton Pugh APR 57
  EXHIBITED: Clifton Pugh, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, November 1957, cat. 11; Clifton Pugh, Bonython Art Gallery, Adelaide Elders IXL Collection: Masterworks of Australian Painting and French Barbizon School, Colonial, Contemporary, Continental, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2 March - 1 April 1984, cat. 55, illus.; Portrait of Australia 1830-1930: The Elders IXL Collection, Riddoch Art Gallery, Mount Gambier, SA, 25 April - 1 June 1986; Mildura Arts Centre, Mildura, Vic., illus. and further venues in later years, cat. 45, illus.; The Sheep Show: Colonial to Contemporary Interpretations of the Sheep in Art, Ararat Gallery, Ararat, Vic., 26 October - 2 December 1990. REFERENCES: Noel Macainsh, Clifton Pugh, Georgian House, Melbourne, 1962, illus. pl. 11; Kym Bonython, Modern Australian Painting 1950 - 1975, Rigby, Adelaide, rev. edn 1980, illus., p. 24; Traudi Allen, Clifton Pugh, Patterns of a Lifetime, Nelson, Melbourne, 1981, p. 46; Ron Radford, Elders IXL Collection: Masterworks of Australian Painting and French Barbizon School, Colonial, Contemporary, Continental, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1984, p. 53, cat. 55, illus.; Ron Radford, Pamela Luhrs et al., Portrait of Australia, Elders IXL Collection, Elders IXL, Melbourne, 1986, pp. 68-69, illus. pl. 45
• Provenance:
  Bonython Art Gallery, Adelaide; Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort Limited, 1 October 1968; transferred to Elders IXL in 1985 Portrait of Australia Collection, Foster's Group Limited (label verso); Sotheby's, Melbourne, The Foster's Collection of Australian Art, 23 May 2005, Lot 35; Corporate Collection, Melbourne
• Notes:
  Clifton Pugh was an avid environmentalist known for his hard-edged gaze on rural Australia; his paintings were both commentary and a call to action. Pugh grew up in the city and after a brief service in the military, he purchased a plot of land in Cottles Bridge, Victoria. In tandem with his art practice, Pugh dedicated most of his years to developing the surrounding area of his Cottles Bridge home, restoring the natural ecosystem derailed by agriculture and invasive flora and fauna. Located on the rural fringe of developing Melbourne, it was close enough to entice city-dwelling artists to immerse themselves in the rugged bush landscape. Pugh's property soon became a mainstay for the likes of John Olsen, Fred Williams and John Perceval. Dead Wool, 1957 was considered by the artist to be a cornerstone piece in his body of work. He casts a thoughtful counterpoint to Tom Roberts' icon paintings Shearing the Rams, 1890, in which the shearers are championed in the Australian psyche as hard-working, boisterous larrikins. Pugh's iconoclastic painting reveals an unsentimental facsimile of masculine labour. His focus was much more on geographical actuality as opposed to the nationalist view of his predecessors. It held a mirror to the depression and desperation facing rural livelihood - men and youths would scavenge wool from rotting sheep carcases for cash. The figure stoically contends with the crows who had claimed the flesh for themselves. It was grim and cheerless resourcefulness for those rugged countrymen down on their luck. 'Much of Pugh's work is the outcome of a deeply held belief in the interdependence of life ó plant, animal and human. He has been inspired throughout by a spiritual affinity with the Australian desert landscape; at times he has used the battle for survival there in metaphorical waysÖ' Dead Wool is a testament to the harsh duality of existence for man and beast in 1950s rural Australia. Well documented and widely exhibited, this work is an iconic example of Pugh's ability to draw on the depth and complexity of the Australian bush where 'the landscape is moulding into sharp patterns from a chaos of grass, rocks, trees, and his stylised animals and birds provide a dramatic counterpart.' In composition, texture and colour palette this work is punchy and provocative, his intuitive ability to witness and contexualise our coexistence with nature is what makes Clifton Pugh's work so exceptional.
• Estimate:
  A$20,000 - 30,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.