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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen-Webb's
• Sale Name:
  Important Paintings and Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  07 Aug 2017 ~ 6.30pm (NZST)
• Lot #:
  22
• Lot Description:
  Michael Smither
  Thomas with Coloured Block
  oil on hardboard, 1973
  720mm x 520mm
  initialled MDS and dated '73 in brushpoint lower right; original Willeston Gallery, Wellington label affixed verso
• Provenance:
  From The Collection of Kevin and Levanah Croon, Australia, previously Lower Hutt. Purchased by Kevin and Levanah Croon from Peter McLeavey Gallery, 1973.
• Notes:
  Michael Smither's domestic pieces are unique in this country's art history. Some artists, such as Doris Lusk, Rita Angus and Robin White, have created occasional pieces featuring children and toys but, for Smither, such pieces are a whole genre in themselves. He must have painted dozens of them. In this instance, the subject is fairly simple - a boy, still in nappies, with a coloured wooden block; no other persons or objects are present to distract attention. There is something primal about this scene as though the child were contemplating the mystery of three-dimensional objects and their colours: almost like Adam coming to terms with his world. Possibly something of the artist's own remembered sense of discovery permeates the painting (Smither has admitted that his domestic paintings are as much about his own childhood as they are about those of his children). It is as if the child were a kind of proto-artist addressing the elements of form and colour reduced to their essentials. Potentially, he sees in the item he holds the possibility of making a painting such as that formed by the wall and floor where he sits: a two-zoned abstract painting like something by Milan Mrkusich or Don Peebles. This is fanciful, perhaps, but Smither's paintings encourage the viewer to engage imaginatively with their details. They're much more than just family snapshots in paint. The face of Thomas is beautifully calm and focused; his concentration is perfect. Nothing else in the world exists for him at this moment other than the piece of wood with its straight lines, right angles, colours and texture. This is the kind of 'act of attention' that Rainer Maria Rilke and D H Lawrence (as poet) said was essential to the moment of art. Invisible but also crucial to the effect of the painting are the numerous repeated layers of oil paint thinly brushed on, building up the intensity and presence of the colour - a technique Smither shared with Rita Angus and Michael Illingworth. PETER SIMPSON
• 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.