Find Lots

• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Sherman | 100
• Sale Date:
  11 May 2022 ~ 5pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  34
• Lot Description:
  Mike Parr
  (born 1945)
  Smear Instonata, 1983
  charcoal on paper
  119.0 x 272.0cm (46 7/8 x 107 1/16in).
• Provenance:
  The Gene & Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney, acquired directly from the artist
• Exhibited:
  Mike Parr, Works on Paper: Survey from the 1980's, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 6 September - 29 September 2001
• Notes:
  Mike Parr joined Sherman Galleries at the start of the 1990s. We worked together during the course of some 16 years and I had the honour of seeing his cross-medium Self Portrait project evolve and develop. My favourite times with Mike took place when, (on a rotating schedule), he picked me up for a café breakfast. We decided early on that we would deliberately set time outside of our transactional discussions in order to share thoughts on books we had read or to give him space to elaborate on his work's impeccably developed conceptual underpinning. Personal, brilliantly argued, verbal analyses clearly matched and mirrored the driven, intense mark making for which he was already celebrated. His was an iconoclastic approach to portraiture, focussed exclusively (as per the Self Project title), on his own form. He obsessively tore, scratched, burnt and erased images of himself – going so far as to deliberately attack and subvert his own physical body in his endurance-based performative work. He distorted his features, foregrounded his vulnerabilities and constantly worked at erasing the wholeness most of us seek as a pathway to harmony and peace of mind. During these get-togethers Mike talked and talked. In turn, I called upon my deep reading in semiotics and structuralism which allowed me to participate, parry and add my authentic voice. I invariably came away highly stimulated, always feeling better prepared to share his vision with discerning gallery visitors, colleagues and potential collectors. The works on offer capture Mike's significant reach. The etchings form part of huge and hugely innovative print project undertaken in partnership with master printmaker John Loane. The facial stretched to-the-limit drawing is especially precious as the artist created a seriously limited number of hand drawn works on paper. The suite of bronze featureless heads was created to lay prostrate – unable to remain upright or signal a solid identity. The all-important We Are All Monochromes Now photograph – shown at Sherman Galleries in a top tier exhibition of the same title, is worthy, I believe, of inclusion in a major international museum. This single, telling work is one image in a series of six photographs – present in full in the Art Gallery of South Australia's Collection – in which multiple versions of a man's jacket are presented to the viewer, each with an empty sleeve pinned high. The artist's missing arm confronts us, signalling incompleteness, lack, loss and a state where wholeness remains elusive. Therein lies the rub. Dr Gene Sherman
• Estimate:
  A$8,000 - 12,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

  Can't see the realised price? Upgrade your subscription now!

• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.