Important Australian Art Including Selected International Works

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Lot 36
  • 36

PETER BOOTH

Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 AUD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Peter Booth
  • PAINTING (THE HOOK)

  • Signed and dated 1979 on reverse

  • Oil on linen
  • 71 by 106 cm

Provenance

Pinacotheca, Melbourne
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne; purchased from the above

Exhibited

Pinacotheca, Melbourne, 1981             
Blue Chip V: The Collectors' Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 4 - 29 March 2003, cat. 44 illus. p. 49

Condition

Original stretcher and canvas has not been lined. Overall good original condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Peter Booth is widely regarded as Australia's leading figurative expressionist painter. His celebrated Painting 1977, 1977 (National Gallery of Victoria) heralded the new spirit in Australian painting which was so strongly felt throughout the ensuing decade.

The present work, a dramatic, powerful composition, resonates with Booth's other paintings of this period, in their severed body parts, blasted tree stumps and torturer's ironmongery scattered across flaming, apocalyptic landscapes. The artist has said that these confronting paintings, with their wild amalgam of imagery from dreams, art history and horror movies, represent 'My journey through life. Tragedy, humour, violence, peace, chaos and order, light and darkness, the earth, the elements, animals and insects that share the earth with us. I have no theories, no systematic way of producing my work. It is made from intuition and experience.'1

1. Peter Booth, quoted in Jason Smith, Peter Booth: Human/Nature, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2003, p. 8