Four Studies (1983) [W/P]



Collage and fibre-tipped pen on 4 sheets of paper, each 40 x 26.5
Private collection (scheduled for auction, May 2025)

According to Spray (first published in 1997), these 4 works were  ‘made for publication in the magazine Virgin Press’, and involved reworking Surrealist artist Joán Miró’s ‘organic abstraction’ project from the 1930s, juxtaposing photographs of various objects with Arkley’s doodles.

In 2025, the four sheets were listed for auction in Sydney, as reproduced here, showing the components of the sheet at top right in a slightly different configuration from the reproduction in Spray.

Provenance

  • Private collection (according to Spray)
  • Estate of Alan Cardy, Sydney (according to Shapiro, 2025)
  • Scheduled for auction by Shapiro, Sydney, 27 May 2025, lot 40: details and reproduction as shown here; est.$5-7,000

Literature

  • Spray 59: discussed as noted above; as in a private collection, reproduced in a somewhat different arrangement from that shown here, and listing the size of each sheet as 40 x 26.3 cm