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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 #:
  25
• Lot Description:
  Jude Rae
  Counterpoint
  oil on canvas, 1996
  1500mm x 1500mm
  signed Rae , dated 96 and title inscribed Counterpoint in pencil verso
• Provenance:
  Purchased by the present owner from Fox Jensen, Auckland.
• Notes:
  When Jude Rae first arrived in New Zealand from Australia in 1989, the position of painting in an ever-more-diverse art world felt increasingly precarious. With hindsight, of course, it wasn't and, indeed, painting continues to be the dominant medium despite the capacities that new technologies have added. The conundrum of what to paint, however, persisted. Rae's decision, or rather impulse, was to paint the linen itself. What followed was a major group, over many years, where the canvas or linen, which was yet to be stretched, was painted in various configurations. It was presented as compressed, folded and scrunched within the limits of the stretcher. Rae's capacity for modelling these folds and undulations seemed unprecedented. Her skilful chiaroscuro and tonal adjustment immediately set her work aside from the increasingly diffident school of painting that was proliferating. These drapery paintings of Rae's are clearly observational in nature but, also, they manage to carry a strong metaphorical weight. The notion of linen, clothing or bed linen and the absence of the body suggest that these are, in fact, paintings of bodies in absentia. Some works in particular seem to be loaded with a more intimate bodily reference in their folds and tucks. Though Rae has gone on to make still life the dominant series within her practice, these drapery paintings remain a pivotal moment for her. She would resist the notion that either the drapery paintings or the still life, for that matter, have any narrative responsibility. For Rae, it is the close observation of objects and, through that, the deeper understanding of vision that fascinate her. Whether it is in a drapery painting from this period or the later still life works, Rae's ability to let us perceive something other in the apparently mundane or at least familiar is a very special quality. In Jude Rae's 1995 painting, Counterpoint , the composition not only describes the folding of the drapery but also suggests, perhaps more strongly than in most of her drapery paintings, that the linen Rae is painting is, in fact, the linen upon which she paints. Stretched across the diagonal of the painting, the composition becomes taut and dynamic, offering less of the puckering and bodily imprint than is implied by the deeper folds and topography of many of these works. However, without these implications, the work speaks more clearly to the uncertainty around the position of painting or at least, in Rae's mind, stands at the junction of that 'rhetorica part of her questioning and exploration, and her recognition the following year that still life was a kind of 'laboratory of painting' in its own right. Andrew Jensen
• Estimate:
  NZ$25,000 - 35,000
• 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.