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• Auction House:
  Webb's
• Sale Name:
  Important Paintings and Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  06 Dec 2011 ~ 6.30pm (NZ Time)
• Lot #:
  29
• Lot Description:
  Pat Hanly
  Pat Hanly – Golden Age 3 with Butterfly In this rare, early example from the Golden Age series, we see Hanly return to painting full human
  enamel on board
  900mm x 900mm
  signed Hanly, dated '78 and inscribed Golden Age in brushpoint lower left; signed Hanly, dated '78 and inscribed "Golden Age" 3 with white butterfly and N.F.S. in ink verso
• Provenance:
  Purchased directly from the artist by the present owners, 1978. The current owners attended an exhibition of Pat Hanly's Torso Series at RKS Gallery in 1978 and subsequently made enquiries as to the availability of another work. They were shown a selectio
• Exhibited:
  A group exhibition of contemporary New Zealand painting, Gallery unknown, Hamilton, 1978.
• Notes:
  Pat Hanly - Golden Age 3 with Butterfly In this rare, early example from the Golden Age series, we see Hanly return to painting full human figures and, for the first time in his practice, depicting male and female forms together as equal counterparts in a seemingly harmonious relationship. While this work was not included in the Golden Age exhibition at RKS Art, the following statement about the series was broadcast on the invitations: The Golden Age, all races in harmony, love, live despite greed and wars. Birds sing, stars appear, moon and sun shine, colours glow and life goes on . If, in the sensory exploration and vibrating particles of his work from the late 1960s, we witnessed Hanly become lost in the world, then in the Golden Age series we surely see him rediscover it again. In comparison with the later works of the series, Golden Age 3 with Butterfly is somewhat unique as it has been painted predominantly using the 'drip' technique pioneered in the artist's Pure Paintings of 1975. In addition to the unadulterated drips (clearly applied last), we also see evidence of a technique that the artist used to flatten the profile of dripped paint, where a sheet of newspaper was immediately thrown over a new line in order to absorb any excess. The Pure Paintings were simply arrangements of abstract line. They were intended as a completely transparent means of emotional expression that sidestepped any figurative mandate. However, in Golden Age 3 with Butterfly the effect is rather different. As one part of a greater whole, the dripped paintwork injects the work with an unpredictability: a life of its own. The jutted, angular approach to figuration that we see here harks back to the studies that the artist painted whilst in London during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Hanly was painting during the day and working as a stage manager at a nightclub in the evenings and the works depict the woman that he met during his time there. He was actively engaged in cubism then and, accordingly, the woman appeared almost totem-like. They were not by any means idealised forms; rather, these early studies had a dirty, gritty, impolite quality that examined every facet of their person. In Golden Age 3 with Butterfly, the figures are not idealised, nor are they symmetrical or smooth edged as they are later in the series. They are confronting and serrate but also utterly at ease. This is not the world seen through rose-tinted glasses; this is the world as it really is where everything has its own unique shape and colour. Hanly's Utopia was not a separation from his everyday life or a private quarter where problems could be escaped. Rather, Hanly found his Utopia in the knowledge that the world was a balanced place that somehow would always find its equilibrium. In spite of 'greed and wars', one could still take pleasure in the incidental beauty of everyday life. When explaining to the painting's original owners the presence of the butterfly mentioned in the work's title, Hanly disclosed that while he was painting the work, a butterfly just happened to pass by the doorway of the room in which he was working. The moment had such an arresting and poetic beauty that he decided he would capture it in the painting, thereby making the work complete. CHARLES NINOW
• Estimate:
  NZ$120,000 - 160,000
• 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.