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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  28 Oct 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  13
• Lot Description:
  Brett Whiteley
  (1939-1992)
  Near Yass, NSW 1977
  watercolour and ink
  60 x 74 cm
  signed and dated 'brett whiteley, 1977' lower left; titled lower left; stamped with monogram upper right
• Provenance:
  Robin Gibson Gallery, 1 March 1977; Private Collection, Sydney
• Notes:
  Brett Whiteley mastery of sinuous lines is highlighted in the work Near Yass, 1977. Although the artist's most recognisable landscapes are of Lavender Bay, Sydney, Whiteley also depicted the rural areas of Bathurst and Orange, where he spent his formative years, sustaining his imaginative genius throughout his lifetime. Economy of line is used to great effect in Near Yass, 1977. Another Yass landscape by Whiteley that year was The River at Yass N.S.W., which was exhibited at Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney in the Brett Whiteley Rivers exhibition in March 1977. The River at Marulan (...Reading Einstein's Geography), 1976; Summer at Carcoar, 1977; and The Fish River and Boulders, Oberon, 1979 are other works in this vein. As Barry Pearce related, '...he depicted the landscape in all its seasons with a tendency he called 'Chinese'. Repetition of certain motifs symbolized states of mind: the arabesques of rivers echoed the flight paths of birds...such elements and passages were scattered throughout Whiteley's landscapes in different combinations, whether on the intimate level of small studies and sketches, or the elegiac majesty of his large-scale paintings.'1 With initial formal training at the Julian Ashton Art School, Sydney from 1957-59, Whiteley exhibited as early as 1961 at significant shows at the Whitechapel and Marlborough galleries in London. He was awarded a slew of prizes including the international prize at the Biennale de Paris in 1961, and the Archibald, Sulman and Wynne Prizes twice each in the 1970s. The year Near Yass was created was one in which Whiteley won the Wynne Prize, for The Jacaranda Tree (On Sydney Harbour). He also held four solo exhibitions that year, two at Robin Gibson Gallery, one at Susan Gillespie Galleries, Canberra and one at Fischer Fine Art Gallery, London, signifying an industrious and dynamic period. Dr Shireen Huda 1 Barry Pearce, Brett Whiteley: art & life, Thames and Hudson and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995, p. 196
• Estimate:
  A$40,000 - 50,000
• 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.