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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Lowenstein Collection of Modern & Contemporary Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  07 Mar 2017 ~ 6pm
• Lot #:
  87
• Lot Description:
  Ben Quilty
  (born 1973)
  Witching Hour No.2, 2010
  oil on canvas
  80 x 100.5 cm
  signed, dated and titled verso: Ben Quilty 2010 Witching Hour no. 2
• References:
  Sasha Grishin, Accounting for Taste: the Lowensteins Arts Management Collection, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2013, p. 78 (illustrated)
• Notes:
  Ben Quilty has achieved vast acclaim in his early career as an artist. With candid observations of his own maunderings as a reckless delinquent, compelled by fast cars, drugs, alcohol and petty vandalism. He captivated audiences throughout Australian in under a decade which ultimately launched him into the international arena. Quilty’s personal experience ‘typified the Australian male rites of passage in the 1980s.’1 From salacious portraits of his wasted mates – Quilty’s next move focuses on a different kind of initiation – a series of large scale portraits of his infant son Joe, speaks ‘of a manliness acquired through fatherhood – parental delight, pride and responsibility. Celebrating the emergence of a new life...’2 His autobiographical nature renders this transition reasonable, and awakens a new closeness to human mortality in his work. Ben Quilty’s work appeared in the Archibald prize in 2005, 2006 and successfully won the Archibald in 2011 with his portrait of artist, friend and mentor, Margaret Olley. His works have been acquired by several major institutions across Australia including The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and he is represented in various corporate and private collections locally and internationally. Witching Hour No. 2, 2010 pays homage to the chaos and darkness ever present in human nature – a moment in the day where children and adults alike slump helpless; overwhelmed and exhausted by an overdose of stimulation. ‘The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment …when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves.’3 Capturing these ‘dark things’ and their universality is at the root of Quilty’s defining testament as an artist. ‘His subjects are modern day memento mori, pithy reminders of our mortality and a call to live life in the fast lane.’4 Whether it be a testosterone-charged male seeking confirmation of his masculinity through trysts of dangerous behaviour, or a child beleaguered by the fragility of its own nature – the duality is tangible. In the present work we see the swirl of wholesome colour slathered onto the canvas in quick succession. The floating head fixes our attention on the shear agony swelling from the rosy red cheeks, intensified by interposed tones of blue, grey and white. ‘Quilty’s compositions exude an infectious joie de vivre: joy in the material qualities of paint and the physical process of painting, and delight in the unexpected, often humorous, insights into the nature of human existence… ‘5 The artist’s application of paint sits parallel with his subject. Smeared, slapped and caked – the impasto style is in full command as Quilty carves his portraits into the canvas in agile and intuitive movements. It is a joy to look separately at each application of paint and step back to see them working in symbiotic harmony. Sarah Garrecht 1 Michael Desmond, Pride and Patriotism, 15 March – 14 April, 2007, Grantpirrie, Sydney (pamphlet) 2 Ibid 3 Roald Dahl, The BFG, Jonathan Cape, London, 1982, p. 9 4 BEN QUILTY LIVE!, Exhibition brochure, The University of Queensland Art Museum, 2009 5 Jacqueline Millner, Ben Quilty and the emotional eloquence of painting, BEN QUILTY LIVE! exhibition catalogue, The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 2009, p. 39 § - Resale Royalty of 5% will be applied to the hammer price of this work.
• Estimate:
  A$12,000 - 16,000
• 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.