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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen-Webb's
• Sale Name:
  Important Paintings & Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Nov 2016 ~ 6.30pm (NZ time)
• Lot #:
  17
• Lot Description:
  Peter Stichbury
  Walter Whitlow
  acrylic on linen
  1600mm x 1200mm
  signed PETER STICHBURY , dated 2005 , titled WALTER WHITLOW and inscribed ACRYLIC ON LINEN in brushpoint verso
• Notes:
  The glossy allure of Peter Stichbury's Walter Whitlow portrait is captivating. Therein lies an improbable combination of crisp linearity and ethereal perfection: a struggle between the detached soullessness and the fascinating psychological turmoil just beneath the surface of the work. These are the very qualities which render Stichbury's work so charming and enigmatic. Depicted in the classic head-and-shoulders frontal pose (Stichbury's preferred method of framing his sitters), Walter Whitlow possesses a fantastic, almost undefinable, beauty of the spirit and style that make the artist's portraits so iconic and instantly recognisable. The radiance of the sitter's youth, juxtaposed with his own brooding and seemingly aloof hauteur, renders him something of a Dorian Gray-type hero: a hero whose narrative we, as onlookers, crave to understand and which, short of our own conjecture and suppositions, evades us. As such, there is a palpable sense of unease with the way in which Walter's precisely exacted and calculated beauty exudes something of haughtiness: a grandeur which compels the viewer into a psychoanalytical quest for understanding. As with many of Stichbury's highly acclaimed paintings, there is a psychological prowess to this work, which suggests that a darker truth lurks below the fresh and dewy-faced complexion of this heavy-lidded youth. Walter's clean-cut visage and impeccable attire are of such clean and perfect passivity that they reflexively seem to cast that passivity into doubt. The meticulously constructed features of the sitter assume, therefore, such an almost-incredible demeanour of perfection and innocence that we can only wonder about the existence of Walter's darker, more-troubled side. If we take a step back and consider Stichbury's work to be as a mirror unto (most evidently) pop culture and ourselves, but also unto the idea of beauty and celebrity, and something of an anthropological exploration, the potential of our own engagement with this portrait, and our relationship with the sitter, expands rapidly. The nomenclature of the portrait is a perfect example of this: on one level, there is a certain generic quality to the innocuously named Walter Whitlow. However, the implied literary reference to Walt Whitman cannot be foregone and calls to mind such words of Whitman's as: And your very flesh shall be a great poem. Of all the Walter Whitman lines which could be considered alongside this work, this one, in particular, speaks volumes. For herein lies the essence of Stichbury's artistic genius. Through the almost clinically detailed process of depicting Walter - a fictitious subject of the artist's own conception - Stichbury has created something of infinite lyrical and poetic potential: a work whose relationship with each individual viewer will be forcibly, and brilliantly, unique.
• Estimate:
  NZ$65,000 - 85,000
• 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.