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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Peter Elliott Collection
• Sale Date:
  30 Aug 2015 ~ 6pm - Part 1 (Lots 1 - 193)
  31 Aug 2015 ~ 11am - Part 2 (Lots 194 - 340)
  31 Aug 2015 ~ 2pm - Part 3 (Lots 341 - 511)
  01 Sep 2015 ~ 10.30am - Part 4 (Lots 512 - 754) and 2pm - Part 5 (Lots 755 - 1013)
• Lot #:
  8
• Lot Description:
  John Brack
  (1920-1999)
  Cold Figure 1960
  watercolour
  56 x 43 cm
  signed and dated lower right: John Brack 60
• Provenance:
  Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
• Exhibited:
  John Brack - Solo Exhibition Paintings and Drawings, Johnstone Galleries, April-May 1960, cat. no. 19; Up Close and Personal: Works from the Collection of Dr Peter Elliott AM, S.H Ervin Gallery, Sydney, August-September 2011
• References:
  Ronald Millar and John Henshaw (eds), John Brack, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1971, p. 100; Sasha Grishin, The Art of John Brack, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, illus. vol. 2, p.205; Gavin Fry, The Peter Elliott Collection of Australian Art, The Beagle Press 2013, p. 78, cat. no. 61
• Notes:
  John Brack was unique among Australian artists. His works stand apart as art sprung from an at-a-distance discernment. In other words, they are thought into place rather than expressed into existence. Brack’s procedure is observational however in his case there is no expressionistic release, romantic feeling or sentimental connection. Brack excels at pictorial construction, compositional finesse, feature arrangement and image placement. His works are meticulously executed; Brack only created around three hundred oil paintings, and even fewer watercolours, in eleven major themes, over his forty year career. Brack is most engaging in his watercolour paintings such as his Cold Figure of 1960. These attributes are also amply seen in his wartime watercolours of army life in 1940 – twenty of which were recently (mid 2014) generously donated to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Brack’s Cold Figure of 1960 shows a male figure (probably a writer or artist, given the inkwell and pens) dressed in mustard tweed trousers and a thick pinkish sweater topped off with a large striped scarf. The woollen-belted figure stands next to a Portsmouth legged table, loosely scattered with paper and a Manila folder that lie adjacent to an inkwell. The background is indeterminate and suggested in a series of vertically striped markings of varied light umber tones. The figure is simplified to the point of caricature and the paleness of its hands emphasise its title. Unlike oil painting, the technique of watercolour allows for no revision or corrections, so what is seen is an unusually clear register of the artist’s more direct and innate talent. Brack’s Cold Figure of 1960 shows the then forty-year old artist at his most free and deft. 
• Estimate:
  A$30,000 - 40,000
• 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.