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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 #:
  16
• Lot Description:
  Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd
  (1920-1999)
  Figure Sitting on a Beach 1967-69
  oil on canvas
  109 x 114 cm
  signed lower right: Arthur Boyd
• Provenance:
  Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane, 1969
• Exhibited:
  Arthur Boyd, Johnstone Gallery, 1969, cat. no. 16; Up Close and Personal: Works from the Collection of Dr Peter Elliott AM, S.H Ervin Gallery, Sydney, August-September 2011; Masterpieces from the Peter Elliott Collection - curated by Lou Klepac, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 6 December 2013 - 7 February 2014, Orange Regional Art Gallery, 2 May - 15 June 2014
• References:
  Ursula Hoff and Andre Deutsch, The Art of Arthur Boyd, London, 1986, p. 67, pl. 137 as ‘The Potters Wife - Figure in Wave’; Gavin Fry, The Peter Elliott Collection of Australian Art, The Beagle Press 2013, pg. 77, cat. no. 60
• Notes:
  Arthur Boyd’s Christian upbringing instilled in him a strong work ethic and a self-belief that sustained him through challenging times and periods of great hardship. He remained intensely private and humble all his life and found it almost impossible to discuss any aspect of his work. Boyd was a haptic artist. That is, he responded to feeling rather than form. The haptic approach is free, imprecise, loose and emotional. The haptic artist is characteristically uncommunicative and often quite unaware of the source and purpose of his or her art. For these artists, the world is made up of felt experiences rather than observed occurrences. For Boyd the emotional response, rather than the event was always more significant. In the haptic approach paint brushes were often discarded and spatulas, twigs and palette knives were used and often paint was applied by hand alla prima, that is directly on the unprimed canvas, which was left with very thick, streaked impasto and deeply textured surfaces. It was believed that such paintings held a more authentic subjective power that was motivated by genuine emotional urges. The above preamble sets the artistic context of Boyd’s impassioned painting Figure Sitting on a Beach of 1967-69. The painting was created in London where over a ten-year period he experimented and explored. His works there broadened thematic and technically – they also displayed a wider cultural grasp. For example, the present painting is closely related to both his Lysistrata I of 1971 and his earlier Figure in a Landscape of 1961, each in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. These scenes of ablution, nudity and carnality are new in Boyd and the present painting, set between these two paintings, acts as a register of these changes. Boyd’s Figure Sitting on a Beach of 1967-69 is a dynamic and visually commanding work that shows paint handling by fingers, the brush and, mainly, the palette knife. The centre pale figure seems to thrash about with the same energy as the sea behind her – its hair like seaweed; its flesh like sea foam. The centre whirls and the edges hold the energy. Whether the scene comes from mythology, the Bible, or an observed event seems not to matter. What is of importance is the haptic display of spontaneously applied imagery. Boyd’s visually commanding Figure Sitting on a Beach of 1967-69 is a remarkably spirited painting that reaches backward to the figure washing its hair in his Figure in a Landscape of 1961 and points forward to his Lysistrata I of 1971. 
• Estimate:
  A$50,000 - 80,000
• 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.