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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Australian Art | Modern to Contemporary
• Sale Date:
  01 Sep 2020 ~ 6pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  11
• Lot Description:
  Charles Blackman
  (1928-2018)
  Upside Down Cat, 1952
  oil and enamel on pulp board
  75.0 x 100.0cm (29 1/2 x 39 3/8in).
  signed and dated lower left: 'BLACKMAN 52'
• Provenance:
  Private collection; GFL Fine Art, Perth; Private collection, Tasmania, acquired from the above in 2002
• Notes:
  For Charles Blackman the year 1952 is synonymous for his acclaimed Schoolgirl series, which to this day is considered one of the most significant groups of paintings produced in Australian Art history. 'In an interview in 1979 Blackman commented that the cat, other than the motif of the schoolgirl, was the first emergent, identified Blackman-type image' which was distinct from other artists... his preoccupation with cats derived also from childhood memories of feeding cats in Kings Cross and his delight in Colette's Creatures Great and Small, given to him to read by Sunday Reed, a fellow cat lover.'1 A photograph taken around the same time, in the collection of Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, shows him in his studio surrounded by paintings of solitary cats roaming their territory at night. That same year, 'Charles and Barbara scraped enough funds together to travel to Queensland in May for most of the winter, spending two months on Stradbroke Island after a fortnight at Mt Tambourine with the poet Judith Wright and her partner, writer Jack McKinney. Blackman took with him a leather plumber's bag filled with paints and brushes, an encouragement gift from Sunday Reed, with whom he had established a productive rapport'2. Whilst the Schoolgirl series was about take hold of Blackman's imagination, it was here that the present work was conceived as evident from the Queenslander house and Mt Tambourine in the background. Like the schoolgirl, the cat became a signature motif that would continuously appear through-out the remainder of Blackman's artistic life. 1. Kendra Morgan, Charles Blackman: Schoolgirls, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2017, p. 30 2. Ibid., p. 12
• Estimate:
  A$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.