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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  A Private Collection of Fine Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  23 Oct 2012 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  8
• Lot Description:
  Anthony (Tony) Mcgillick
  (born 1940)
  Acid Rock, 1969
  acrylic on canvas
  91.5 x 215cm (triptych)
  maximum height 270 x maximum width 164cm
• Provenance:
  Gallery Dusseldorf, Western Australia; Annandale Galleries, Sydney
• Exhibited:
  Annandale Galleries, 'Howard Taylor: Constructions Paintings Drawings Maquettes', 14 May - 7 June 2008
• References:
  Bill Gregory, 'Howard Taylor: Constructions Paintings Drawings Maquettes' exhibition essay, Annandale Galleries, Sydney 2008
• Notes:
  Esteemed as one of Australia's leading modernist painters and 'arguably Australia's greatest post-war abstractionist'1, Howard Taylor's career began in the prisoner of war camps in the 1940s. Although he initially trained in the modern style, over time he distanced himself from the movement to develop his own unique aesthetic, a practice ultimately grounded in nature: One valuable gain in working directly from nature is that you acquire greater sensitivity about light and seeing generally. I believe that even if you work very abstractly, in a minimal sort of way, you're still drawing on your experience of life - the physical business of seeing and the more subjective one of feeling. In other words you acquire skill; you improve your perception by cultivating this looking thing.2 Cloud is an outstanding example of the works Taylor produced in the 1990s - works that have been described as the 'culmination of decades of hard looking, thinking and searching relentlessly for two-dimensional visual equivalents to spatial and atmospheric events'3. It is minimalist, and yet endless. The composition has a linear structure, but exudes a visual effect that defies any boundaries. As Bill Gregory describes in the catalogue essay, 'There is an atmospheric, almost gaseous quality that invites deep contemplation and communicates a visual experience of nature that the artist spent a lifetime recording and understanding.'4 The demand for the work of Taylor in Western Australia meant that his work was rarely seen until recently in the Eastern states. In 1999, Bruce James wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald: 'like an Indigenous elder, he's consulted for his views and respected for his responses, however Gnostic. The art lover visiting Perth, anyone with more than passing interest in culture, really, will be faced reliably with the inquisition: have you been to see Howard yet? Taylor and his art were the stick by which the rest of Western Australian art was measured.' Named a State Living Treasure in 1999 in Western Australia, Howard Taylor is represented in all major state galleries and in major corporate and private collections such as Wesfarmers, Bankwest and those of Mrs Janet Holmes a Court and Mr Kerry Stokes. 1 Michael Hutak, Australian Art Collector, Issue 28, January - March 2003 2 Howard Taylor interviewed by James Murdoch in 1986 for the Australia Council Archival Art Series, hhtp://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/exhibitions/howardtaylor/artist01.asp 3 Peter Hill, 'Insight for sore eyes', Sydney Morning Herald, 1 November 2003 4 Bill Gregory, 'Howard Taylor: Constructions Paintings Drawings Maquettes' exhibition essay, Annandale Galleries, Sydney 2008
• Estimate:
  A$120,000 - 150,000
• 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.