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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The John Buckley Collection of Modern & Contemporary Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  13 May 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  9
• Lot Description:
  Peter Booth
  (born 1940)
  Drawing (Levitating Man in Fantasy Landscape) 1980
  watercolour and pastel on paper
  65 x 102 cm
• Provenance:
  Australian and European Paintings, Christie's, Sydney, 27 April 1998, lot 240 (illustrated); Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne
• Notes:
  Peter Booth's literary and artistic influences are also evident in Levitating Man in Fantasy Landscape. William Blake's depictions of the underworld provided a parallel with the chaotic landscapes of the early '80s and Doris Lessing's work was 'influential for Booth and, if not the genesis, reaffirmed his growing apprehension about the future destiny of civilisation'1. Painted just two years prior to representing Australia at the 40th Venice Biennale, Levitating Man in Fantasy Landscape is an intriguing early work in the second phase of Booth's oeuvre. Painted in a reduced palette of black and red with touches of blue and yellow, the scene is littered with human, totemic and hybrid forms, possibly sourced from the artist's dreams. And although anxiety permeates the hellish foreground, our gaze is cast to the Blakian horizon with its rising sun that lights the way to what may well be paradiso. 1 Robert Lindsay, 'Hard Rain: The Iconography of Peter Booth', Peter Booth: Human Nature, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2003, p.20
• Estimate:
  A$5,000 - 7,000
• 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.