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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Peter Elliott Collection
• Sale Date:
  30 Aug 2015 ~ 6pm - Part 1 (Lots 1 - 193)
  31 Aug 2015 ~ 11am - Part 2 (Lots 194 - 340)
  31 Aug 2015 ~ 2pm - Part 3 (Lots 341 - 511)
  01 Sep 2015 ~ 10.30am - Part 4 (Lots 512 - 754) and 2pm - Part 5 (Lots 755 - 1013)
• Lot #:
  6
• Lot Description:
  William Francis (Bill) Robinson
  (born 1936)
  Afternoon Light - Tambourine with Two Creeks 1992
  oil on canvas
  91.5 x 122.5 cm
  signed and dated lower left: William Robinson 92
• Provenance:
  Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney
• Exhibited:
  Ray Hughes Gallery, 1992; William Robinson, The Revelation of the Landscape, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 11 January - 2 March 2003 and Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 28 March - 18 March 2003, cat. no. 18; Up Close and Personal: Works from the Collection of Dr Peter Elliott AM, S.H Ervin Gallery, Sydney, August-September 2011
• References:
  Lou Klepac, William Robinson, The Beagle Press, 2001, illus. plate 88 (colour); Gavin Fry, The Peter Elliott Collection of Australian Art, The Beagle Press 2013, p. 119, cat. no. 114
• Notes:
  One “enters” a William Robinson landscape rather than views it. Robinson’s Turneresque-toned Afternoon Light – Tambourine with Two Creeks of 1992 is a remarkable example of this observation in operation. Robinson’s Afternoon Light – Tambourine with Two Creeks seems to swirl with its own energy. Its visual centre with its hint of a dark subterranean force is placed off centre to the lower right of the canvas – its dark colours and scarred features may even point to a meteorite hit. The painting seems to “spin off” from this environmental whorl in a clockwise direction, as though it was the original source of everything around it. Trunks, branches, vegetation and even rocks lean and radiate out from this crown of land, as it stands defiant and dominant in the uninhabited landscape. All in all, this is not a scene painting. Robinson attempts to show the symphonic majesty of Nature rather than the details of any particular scene. The painting Afternoon Light – Tambourine with Two Creeks of 1992 arises from a semi-meditational and contemplative appreciation of the attributes of his local environment. The painting presents a heady mix of perspectives and swirling forms that challenge normal viewing and impel the viewer’s awareness into the paintings in ways that draw attention to small details, to light effects and to the vegetative richness of the scene. Robinson’s painting draws the viewer in and it could almost belong to the ocean, with its seagrass, kelp and anemones, just as easily as the air, as it possesses shifting forms that have no focus and mesmerise the viewer with subtle changes of colour, shifts of tone and grades of chromatic subtlety. The pictorial structure and visual effects are awe-inspiring and almost Romantic in the manner of the nineteenth century English artist John Martin (1789-1854), whose sweeping landscapes bear apocalyptic or didactic elements completely absent from Robinson. Furthermore, Robinson’s paintings are not naturalistic, literary or didactic and they arise from purely personal responses to his rainforest surrounds. Robinson’s paintings are celebrations of Nature, whereas Martin’s paintings are dark warnings. Robinson’s own words bear these observations out: With me, mystery is never related to a kind of Tolkien imagery nor one where Merlin might lurk. If anything the mysteries of natural forces are private evocations for me in a similar way that music creates feelings. ... The difficult thing to explain remains the same and that is that my works are about sensation rather than description. I view the earth as a living organism of which we are a part, that is ideally part of its complete unity and complexity. (author’s italics)1. 1 Lou Klepac, (Ed.) William Robinson Paintings 1987-2000, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 2001, p.139 
• Estimate:
  A$120,000 - 180,000
• 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.