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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  23 Nov 2015 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  2
• Lot Description:
  Charles Blackman
  (Born 1928)
  The Kiss c.1961
  oil on paper on board
  74 x 48.5 cm
  signed upper right: BLACKMAN
• Provenance:
  Australian Art Auctions, Sydney, 29 June 1987, Lot 115; Christies, Australian, International & Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 06/05/2003, Lot No. 104; Savil Galleries; Private Collection Melbourne, acquired from the above in 2003
• References:
  Related Works: Two Women 1962, National Gallery of Victoria Collection, Presented through the NGV Foundation by Barbara Blackman 2005; Three Children by the Pond 1961, National Gallery of Australia Collection
• Notes:
  Charles Blackman won the Helena Rubenstein Travelling Scholarship in 1960 which afforded the artist the opportunity to exhibit three works at London's Whitechapel Gallery in the 1961 exhibition Recent Australian Painting. This exhibition, under the direction of Bryan Robertson, was second only to their Rothko show in terms of popularity.1 The Kiss, which is thought to date from this highly productive 1961-1966 period during which Blackman lived in London, combines the artist's talent for observation with his ability to capture the intensity of human emotion. Blackman was ever the observer, whether watching children at play, observing people strolling in public parks or scrutinising actors' performances. This acute capacity for observation was combined with the artist's preoccupation with the 'language of the emotions', something which his mother instilled in him from an early age.2 The artist continued to return to this theme throughout his career, creating works in which fleeting and deeply private interludes are captured forever in paint. The Kiss depicts two lovers isolated in an intimate embrace. They remain immersed in the moment, their closed eyes placing this work in the sphere of the physical senses rather than in the realm of the intellect. The luminous gold background of The Kiss further heightens the emotional intensity of this painting. The spare expanse of colour behind the couple, which is characteristic of Blackman's work, strips this painting of sentimentality, and together with the use of shadow, adds to the sense of the lovers being encapsulated in their embrace and emphasises their isolation from the world around them. Byran Robertson credited Blackman with the ability to make '....icons from the commonplace material of domestic life. The fragile gestures and spontaneous moments among people in the streets around us are caught, and made eloquent.'3 The silent intensity of The Kiss is emblematic of Blackman's capacity for capturing the profound in the everyday and his ability to distil fleeting gestures in a form which both celebrates and transcends the moment. 1 Simon Pierse, Australian Art and Artists in London 1950-1965: An Antipodean Summer, Farnham, Ashgate, 2012, p. 113. 2 Shapcott, Thomas, Focus on Charles Blackman, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1967, p.9. 3 Bryan Robertson, catalogue foreword to the 'Paintings and Drawings by Charles Blackman' exhibition at the Matthiesen Gallery, 3-25 November 1961, reproduced in Charles Blackman: Intimate Reflections, catalogue of the exhibition held at Savill Galleries, Sydney, 13 March to 12 April 1997.
• 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.