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• Auction House:
  Deutscher and Hackett
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian and International Fine Art
• Sale Date:
  24 Apr 2013 ~ 7pm
• Lot #:
  16
• Lot Description:
  James Gleeson
  1915 – 2008
  Fugue On The Theme Of Ariadne, c1956
  oil on composition board
  92.0 x 122.0 cm
  signed lower right: Gleeson; signed and inscribed verso on stretcher bar: FUGUE ON THE THEME OF ARIADNE
• Provenance:
  Macquarie Galleries, Sydney; Private collection, Sydney
• Exhibited:
  James Gleeson, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 21 November – 16 December 1956, cat. 100
• Notes:
  In Fugue on the Theme of Ariadne, c1956, Gleeson chose a subject that fascinated artists over the millennia. From the fifth century BC onwards, Ariadne and Theseus, and Ariadne and Bacchus (Dionysus) excited not only the vase painters of ancient Athens, but also artists throughout the Greek and Roman worlds of classical art. It reached its apotheosis in Titian’s Venetian masterpiece, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520–23, in the collection of the National Gallery, London. Ariadne inspired Anton Chekhov, Richard Strauss and others to magnificent literature and opera. With its combination of human sacrifice, the Minotaur, love at first sight, abandonment, and then marriage to Bacchus god of wine, the story of Ariadne had every thing to inspire works of epic grandeur. Gleeson gave it added interest by presenting it in the guise of a fugue in its twentieth century journey through the mind. His contrapuntal composition is as labyrinthine as the Minotaur’s home. DAVID THOMAS
• Estimate:
  A$40,000 - 60,000
• 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.