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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Aug 2016 ~ 6.30pm - Part 1 (Lots 1 - 78)
  30 Aug 2016 ~ 2.30pm - Part 2 (Lots 79 - 328)
• Lot #:
  25
• Lot Description:
  Charles Blackman
  (born 1928)
  Red Tablecloth c. 1968
  oil on board
  131 x 176.5 cm
  signed upper right: BLACKMAN
• Provenance:
  Australian Galleries, Melbourne; Sportscraft Corporate Collection, Melbourne; Contemporary Art, Sotheby's, Melbourne, 2 October 1994, lot no. 234; Private collection, Melbourne; Corporate collection, Sydney; Private collection, New South Wales
• Notes:
  Charles Blackman's poetic images are noted for their intuitive reflection on an inner vulnerability common to all individuals. His focus on figures - isolated and threatened in their environment was a recurring theme in his work from the 1950s that related closely to his domestic environment and to the issue of his wife, Barbara Blackman's changing world as she began to lose her sight. Tables, and the theme of the table cloth and setting, as seen in The Red Tablecloth (c.1968) first appeared in Blackman's major 'Alice in Wonderland' series of 1956-57, notably with The White Tablecloth 1956 (Private Collection) featuring a levitating and self-pouring wine bottle and tea-pot; and Feet Beneath the Table 1956 (Collection: National Gallery of Victoria) which has floating utensils and strangely miss-matched feet under the table. The series was based on Lewis Carroll's story that Blackman listened to when Barbara borrowed it as a talking book, and the bizarre and irrational aspects of the story with the topsy-turvy world that Alice found herself in, closely paralleled the domestic environment of the Blackmans at this time. A sense of displacement also pervades Blackman's shadowy scene of The Red Tablecloth (c.1968), but not in a whimsical way, rather this image with its heavily laden, tilting table, projects a sense of disquiet, mystery and intrigue. This emanates from the distorted perspective that Blackman utilizes to great effect, drawing us to the face of the young girl at the far edge of the table. The poignancy and uncertainty of her pensive attitude, as if lost in her inner thoughts and fears, reminds us that Blackman was a great observer of people, and that the emotional reach of his evocative works can be profound. His capacity to evoke a poetic dream-like mood undoubtedly stems from his early interest in the Symbolist painters, as he recollected in 1989, " my inspirations were painters like Odilon Redon and Seurat and the more mystical type of painter. I was never inspired by Braque or Picasso or the School of Paris, I was much more interested in the mysteries of certain figurative paintings like Arnold Böcklin's The Island of the Dead".1 The emotional immediacy of Blackman's The Red Tablecloth (c.1968) enforced by his brilliant use of intense colour and deep shadow makes this one of those memorable works in his oeuvre presenting images that, as he said, "come out of a sense of urgency: but they have learned great patience. Once they haunt you, they will not let you go".2 Frances Lindsay AM 1. Charles Blackman quoted in Thomas Shapcott, The Art of Charles Blackman, Andr Deutsch Limited, London 1989 2 ibid p.81
• Estimate:
  A$60,000 - 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.