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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen-Webb's
• Sale Name:
  The Peter Jarvis & Helene Phillips Collection
• Sale Date:
  30 Nov 2017 ~ 6.30pm (New Zealand Daylight Time)
• Lot #:
  7
• Lot Description:
  A. Lois White
  Head of a Girl No.11
  oil on card
  435mm x 345mm
  signed A. LOUIS WHITE in brushpoint lower left; inscribed Head of a Girl, No.11 verso
• Exhibited:
  NZ Women Artists from Yesterday to Today, Taupo Museum, 2015.
• Notes:
  ESSAY: Portraiture was an early mainstay for Lois White, but she accepted few commissions. Instead, female students with strong and interesting faces would be asked to sit for her. Head of a Girl is typical of one of these paintings done at Elam School of Fine Arts, and dates from the post-war period. Despite their modest size and conception, White placed a premium on these works, proudly appending her signature to each. Less characterisations of particular women than structural exercises, the portraits are both of their time and timeless. Clothing styles are kept indistinct to focus attention on the structure of the head, and the facial features are idealised with sensuous full mouths, prominent cheekbones and noses, and heavily lidded eyes. Lost in reverie, this auburn beauty’s face is as calmly composed as a classical Greek goddess. Long directional brushstrokes used to energise the background and the painting of the girl’s white top deliver attention to the face and emphasise the stoic absence of expression, hinting at strength of character. Keen to distinguish her work from surrealism, cubism, impressionism “or any other fancy pants medium”, Lois White described herself as a visualist, joining with fellow Elam artists to form The New Group in 1948, and declaring “we see more fully into the soul of the subject. It has been our aim to see not only with our eyes but with our minds.” Linda Tyler
• Estimate:
  NZ$6,000 - 9,000
• 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.