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.)