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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Lowenstein Collection of Modern & Contemporary Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  07 Mar 2017 ~ 6pm
• Lot #:
  100
• Lot Description:
  John Coburn
  (1925-2006)
  Desert Country, 1990
  oil on canvas
  106.5 x 122 cm
  signed and dated lower right: Coburn 90; signed, dated and titled verso: JOHN COBURN 1990 DESERT COUNTRY
• Exhibited:
  John Coburn, Greenhill Galleries, 27 August – 18 September 1991, cat. no. 5 (leaflet)
• References:
  John Coburn, Greenhill Galleries, 1991, cat. no. 5 (leaflet); Lou Klepac, John Coburn: The Spirit of Colour, The Beagle Press, Australia,2003, cat. no. 15, p. 30 (illustrated); Sasha Grishin, Accounting for Taste: the Lowensteins Arts Management Collection, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2013, p. 152 (illustrated)
• Notes:
  RELATED WORKS: Desert camp, 1990, oil on canvas 107 x 122 cm – illustrated in Lou Klepac;John Coburn, The Spirit of Colour NOTES: John Coburn had an illustrious and varied career in the arts, working in periods as a painter, tapestry designer and printmaker. Throughout his life, he devoted himself fervently to three defining themes – the connectivity between man, spirit and nature. ‘My aim in my work is to create visual images which reflect emotions and feelings about nature... I should like to reveal the transcendental mystery of nature, to create harmonies of form and colour that are like mystical experiences – the feelings of awe and wonder one sometimes has in the presence of nature.’1 Coburns lifelong pilgrimage was ultimately a quest to obtain spiritual enlightenment through painting. Coburns spiritual and artistic awareness of nature’s mystery germinated during his formative years in the wide-ranging hinterlands of Ingham, Queensland. This is where he was first exposed to the immense and luminous beauty of the Australian landscape. In July 1987, Coburn journeyed through far North Queensland, the Northern Territory and central Australia. During this voyage he rediscovered his appreciation of the inherent beauty of the country. The expanse and intensity of colour in the landscape evoked memories within him of his youth. ‘Coburn is an ideographic painter. He deals in signs which conjure up memories of experience without greatly augmenting their sensual impact…’2 The expedition of 1987 was a pivotal point in his spiritual understanding as an artist and reflected in works produced in the subsequent years. In Dessert Country, 1990 he isolates his palate to tones of rich earthy reds, browns, blacks and dusky greys. There is a boundless and mesmerizing energy present in Coburns works of the late 1980s and early 1990s. ‘Deeply influenced by the Australian land – colours became more restrained and the texture of the paintings more complex: the result reached deeper into the artist’s psyche. The spiritual element of these paintings is more evident in the darker paintings.’3 Each aspect of the work is executed with ceremonial precision, in a quest to communicate the deeper spiritual mysteries of the universe through abstract form. Contemplative shapes carefully emerge from the red earth, ‘the individual elements pull toward each other or repel each other until their ideal geometry is transformed into something sensate and obedient to vital laws.’4 In Dessert Country, 1990, Coburn transcends hard-edged abstraction – the dialog of biomorphic forms hum with unheard sacred music and the earth strums a ceaseless cord. ‘Large, imposing, intense and introverted, these works achieve a sense of presence which rivals and surpasses those generally acclaimed colour visions which preceded them. Having painted them, Coburn discovered a deep source of creativity...’5 Dessert Country, 1990 is a formidable example of a compelling period in his artistic career. Sarah Garrecht 1 John Coburn, Artist’s Statement, in Robert Lindsay, (ed.) The Seventies: Australian paintings and tapestries from the collection of the National Australia Bank, National Bank of Australasia Limited, Melbourne, 1982, p.37 2 Robert Hughes, The Art of Australia, Penguin Books Ltd., Victoria, 1966-70, p. 276 3 Klepac, Lou, John Coburn: The Spirit of Colour, The Beagle Press, Australia, 2003, p. 26 4 James Gleeson, Masterpieces of Australian Painting, Lansdowne Press Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, 1969, p. 204 5 Klepac, Lou, John Coburn: The Spirit of Colour, The Beagle Press, Australia, 2003, p. 31
• 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.