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Auction archive: Lot number 48

William Robinson

Estimate
A$180,000 - A$250,000
ca. US$125,687 - US$174,566
Price realised:
A$207,400
ca. US$144,820
Auction archive: Lot number 48

William Robinson

Estimate
A$180,000 - A$250,000
ca. US$125,687 - US$174,566
Price realised:
A$207,400
ca. US$144,820
Beschreibung:

William Robinson (born 1936) Birkdale Farmyard 1, 1985 signed lower right: 'William Robinson' inscribed verso: 'Farm Construction' oil on canvas 122.0 x 182.5cm (48 1/16 x 71 7/8in). Fußnoten PROVENANCE Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney The IBM Collection, Australia (label attached verso) EXHIBITED William Robinson Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 28 June - 18 July 1985 LITERATURE 'Exhibition Commentary', Art and Australia, Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 1985, p. 181 (illus.) 'For Robinson, the real shift towards an independent vision occurred with a series of conte 'cow portraits' undertaken at Birkdale around the late 1970s. The sense of having gone in an idiosyncratic direction, in these carefully executed, wacky drawings of cows framed in oval formats against sensuously velvety black grounds, came as a surprise to the artist himself when he saw them together at the Ray Hughes Gallery in Brisbane. "In 1980 I had this show of cows. When I'd done them I realised I'd gone up a pathway... I had gone up other pathways that were all wrong because they were other artist's pathways... with the cows for the first time I'd created something. I felt a sense of amazement that I'd gone out on a limb and created something I couldn't relate to anybody else's work before. Only to old Victorian photos in oval frames. So I had this rather silly show of cows, leaving all the other things behind and taking a journey into the unknown." The sense of liberation Robinson felt in discovering his own path is evident in the numerous farmyard painting and drawings of the early 1980s. Bill and Shirley had moved in 1970 to a farm at Birkdale, on the outskirts of Brisbane, and these works are directly connected to their life on the farm. Significantly, the farmyard works did not occur immediately after the move but rather as part of a process of gradual familiarisation. "We bought this eight acres at Birkdale in the Redlands district and expanded the house. We didn't accumulate the animals immediately. I tried growing nut trees but I was a disastrous farmer. I was going to work in the city at the same time (as an art teacher). Gradually we accumulated a few animals and by 1976, after I'd gone to teach in Toowoomba for six months, we came back and started to collect animals with a vengeance; more and more livestock – dogs, chooks, cows and goats. Shirley was even running a little sort of dairy." By the early 1980s it was as though the lid had been lifted off the pressure cooker. Years of experience and first-hand observation were now transmuted into the vitality of the work. As subject matter moved out of doors Robinson's compositions became more expansive and daring; backgrounds generally flattened out, with a much greater scattering of elements across the whole.'1 The present work depicts many of the hallmarks of Robinson's classic farmyard construction scenes – the contrasting behaviour of playful roosters and hens near and far, inquisitiveness of goats and of docile cows, peering around corrugated iron structures – Robinson's animals are given no preferential treatment in their placement or portrayal. In all their activity, the animals seem almost oblivious to the man who stands quietly observing them. Visible occasionally in other Farmyard Construction paintings, is the image of the artist, which here appears to the left-hand section of the work. In situating himself in the composition, the artist allows the viewer to observe the significance of his involvement in the daily activities on the farm. 1. Deborah Hart, William Robinson The Transfigured Landscape, Piper Press, Sydney, 2011, p. 25

Auction archive: Lot number 48
Auction:
Datum:
26 Jun 2019
Auction house:
Bonhams London
Sydney, Woollahra 36-40 Queen St. Woollahra Sydney NSW 2025 Tel: +61 (0) 2 8412 2222 Fax : +61 (0) 2 9475 4110 info.aus@bonhams.com
Beschreibung:

William Robinson (born 1936) Birkdale Farmyard 1, 1985 signed lower right: 'William Robinson' inscribed verso: 'Farm Construction' oil on canvas 122.0 x 182.5cm (48 1/16 x 71 7/8in). Fußnoten PROVENANCE Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney The IBM Collection, Australia (label attached verso) EXHIBITED William Robinson Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 28 June - 18 July 1985 LITERATURE 'Exhibition Commentary', Art and Australia, Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 1985, p. 181 (illus.) 'For Robinson, the real shift towards an independent vision occurred with a series of conte 'cow portraits' undertaken at Birkdale around the late 1970s. The sense of having gone in an idiosyncratic direction, in these carefully executed, wacky drawings of cows framed in oval formats against sensuously velvety black grounds, came as a surprise to the artist himself when he saw them together at the Ray Hughes Gallery in Brisbane. "In 1980 I had this show of cows. When I'd done them I realised I'd gone up a pathway... I had gone up other pathways that were all wrong because they were other artist's pathways... with the cows for the first time I'd created something. I felt a sense of amazement that I'd gone out on a limb and created something I couldn't relate to anybody else's work before. Only to old Victorian photos in oval frames. So I had this rather silly show of cows, leaving all the other things behind and taking a journey into the unknown." The sense of liberation Robinson felt in discovering his own path is evident in the numerous farmyard painting and drawings of the early 1980s. Bill and Shirley had moved in 1970 to a farm at Birkdale, on the outskirts of Brisbane, and these works are directly connected to their life on the farm. Significantly, the farmyard works did not occur immediately after the move but rather as part of a process of gradual familiarisation. "We bought this eight acres at Birkdale in the Redlands district and expanded the house. We didn't accumulate the animals immediately. I tried growing nut trees but I was a disastrous farmer. I was going to work in the city at the same time (as an art teacher). Gradually we accumulated a few animals and by 1976, after I'd gone to teach in Toowoomba for six months, we came back and started to collect animals with a vengeance; more and more livestock – dogs, chooks, cows and goats. Shirley was even running a little sort of dairy." By the early 1980s it was as though the lid had been lifted off the pressure cooker. Years of experience and first-hand observation were now transmuted into the vitality of the work. As subject matter moved out of doors Robinson's compositions became more expansive and daring; backgrounds generally flattened out, with a much greater scattering of elements across the whole.'1 The present work depicts many of the hallmarks of Robinson's classic farmyard construction scenes – the contrasting behaviour of playful roosters and hens near and far, inquisitiveness of goats and of docile cows, peering around corrugated iron structures – Robinson's animals are given no preferential treatment in their placement or portrayal. In all their activity, the animals seem almost oblivious to the man who stands quietly observing them. Visible occasionally in other Farmyard Construction paintings, is the image of the artist, which here appears to the left-hand section of the work. In situating himself in the composition, the artist allows the viewer to observe the significance of his involvement in the daily activities on the farm. 1. Deborah Hart, William Robinson The Transfigured Landscape, Piper Press, Sydney, 2011, p. 25

Auction archive: Lot number 48
Auction:
Datum:
26 Jun 2019
Auction house:
Bonhams London
Sydney, Woollahra 36-40 Queen St. Woollahra Sydney NSW 2025 Tel: +61 (0) 2 8412 2222 Fax : +61 (0) 2 9475 4110 info.aus@bonhams.com
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