Fast 1986



Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 160 x 120

signed, dated and titled [on reverse]

Private collection, Melbourne

Shown in HA Tolarno 9/86, used later as the basis for Arkley’s Sydney mural project (see now introductory comments for 1990), and reprised in Explosion (1996).

This painting, discussed in Spray as a ‘virtuoso psychedelic work’, and compared there with Brett Whiteley’s Smack (1973), is one of Arkley’s most overt attempts to translate the mind-altering experience of drugs into visual form.

Provenance

  • unknown
  • Owner recorded in Spray research card c.1996 (copy in A)
  • Auctioned by Sotheby’s, Melb., May 2007, lot 34 (ill., dets. as above; no provenance; est.$80-120,000; sold for $96,000 plus buyer’s premium)

Exhibited

  • HA Tolarno 9/86, cat.4
  • HA Metro 5, Melb. 2/02, cat.40
  • HA retrospective 2006-7 (Melbourne only)

Literature

  • Brown 1989: 37 (ill.)
  • Spray 83-5, as cited above (with full-page ill.)