John Latham

Obelisk Gallery, London
Jimmy McMullan, from whom acquired by the present owner

There is a tiny loss in the centre of the left edge of the first board but otherwise the boards are in good overall condition. There are abrasions to the paint surfaces of each board and some tiny isolated spots of paint loss but generally the paint surfaces are in good overall condition. There is an area of craquelure to the thick impasto in the centre of the central board. There is no sign of retouching under ultra-violet light. Held in simple wooden frames. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"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."

The present work was painted in 1954, the year John Latham began to use the spray gun in his art practice, and can therefore be seen as one of the artist's earliest experiments with this new practice. Latham was not the first artist to use a spray gun, but he was the first to see the practice as symbolic of the cosmos. His reflections in 1975 on his use of what he sometimes called the 'atomising paint instrument' convey its importance in the foundation of his art-making as a progressive, ground breaking practice that would lay the foundations for conceptual and performance art, and movements such as Happenings in the forthcoming decades.

Many interesting effects and inferences exist to be derived from the free mark made by this device. It destroys the picture plane in a legitimate way where contemporaries were at such pains to establish that plane... In the day, when used in the late '50s, none of these free gifts were publicly acceptable. (John Latham, 'Time-base and Determination in Events', reprinted in an appendix to John A. Walker, John Latham: The Incidental Person – His Art and Ideas, London: Middlesex University Press, 1995, p.199).

Discussing his first artistic experience with a spray gun when he painted a mural on the ceiling of the house of his friends, the parapsychologist Anita Kohsen, and the astronomer Clive Gregoto, to celebrate Halloween, Latham remarked,

It was the first time I'd ever used this instrument for visuals, and so I was just experimenting on what would happen with wet paint in point marks, and what would happen if you drag a dry brush across it and force, you know, an immediate wind-type force, which could be brought into it. (Interview with John Latham by Alex Baker, 2001 www.soton.ac.uk/~hansard/exhibition/archive/2006/latham.htm#baker).

In the present work Latham has combined spray paint with thick impasto to achieve the effect of the 'wind-type force'. The thick impasto has been smeared around, strained in this direction and that to reveal the board beneath. The spray paint has been applied in intermittent areas, emphasising the tone and relief of the impasto. The black spray paint applied to the passages of colourful impasto gives the impression of collapsing layers of pictorial depth. Other areas of spray paint appear as shadows and impressions and contrast with the weight of the impasto. Highlights of colour, red, yellow and blue, unite the three separate boards into a single, forceful work.