Find Lots

• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The John Buckley Collection of Modern & Contemporary Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  13 May 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  29
• Lot Description:
  Timothy Johnson
  (born 1947)
  The Bodhisattva Kukuzo
  acrylic on linen
  121 x 152 cm
  inscribed with artist's name, title and James Fairfax cat. no. 22 verso
• Provenance:
  James Fairfax Collection; Mori Gallery, Sydney
• Notes:
  In his work, Tim Johnson explores references and artistic techniques belonging to Buddhist, Indigenous Australian and Native American cultures, often combining one or more of these traditions. This cultural cross-referencing however is not simply an example of post-modern image appropriation or indiscriminate copying. These paintings are the product of a lived experience that Johnson feels he is completely in tune with. In the 1970s Johnson worked towards an art of dematerialisation and temporarily abandoned painting to concentrate on producing work which was built around a conceptual framework. He only returned to painting in earnest after coming into contact with the modern Western Desert art movement in Papunya. His fascination brought him face to face with the artists at the settlement. Johnson befriended and would paint collaboratively with many of the chief Papunya artists, including Clifford Possum, Turkey Tolson and Michael Nelson. Merryn Gates commented that 'by working closely with Aboriginal artists, and not merely imitating the outward appearance of their art, he was to develop a visual solution of his own'1. Bodhisattva Kukuzo is a striking example of Johnson's ability to combine various influences into one whole. At the centre of the canvas - the invariable starting point to all his paintings - is an image of Bodhisattva Kokûzô, a deity originating in India and predominantly venerated in Japan as the Buddha of wisdom and memory. From this central figure life emanates. Similarly to Yuelamu 1988 (Queensland Art Gallery), the absence of a horizon or vanishing point eliminates any illusory vanishing point. The landscape is reworked with dot painting to the point of abstraction where people, deities, snakes, trees, waterholes and oil drums hover and are bound together in a cross-cultural fusion that very few contemporary artists have been able to bring together with such a degree of success. 1 Merryn Gates, Tim Johnson: Across Cultures, The University of Melbourne Museum of Art, Melbourne, 1993, p. 7
• Estimate:
  A$5,000 - 8,000
• 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.