High Rise St Kilda Road 1986



Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 160 x 120

signed, dated and titled [on reverse: ‘Howard Arkley / 1986 / High Rise St Kilda Road’]

Private collection, Melbourne

This ‘Pop version of a Mies van der Rohe building’ (the apt description used in Spray) was first shown in HA Tolarno 9/86.

The motif of the sun glinting off the glass wall derives from an illustration earmarked in a book in Arkley’s library (Joseph Deken, Computer Images: State of the Art, London: Thames & Hudson, 1983, p.103: image by Michael Collery). For comments on this source, see Gregory, Eyeline (2001), also mentioning parallels with the novels of J.G.Ballard, one of Arkley’s favourite writers; Ballard’s High-rise (1975) may have inspired the title of Arkley’s composition.

Provenance

  • noted as purchased for a corporate collection (HA files 1986)
  • subsequent history unknown

Exhibited

  • HA Tolarno 9/86, cat.8
  • HA Monash 1991, cat.57 (details as above)

Literature

  • Duncan 1991: 35 (ill.)
  • Spray 82-3 (inc. full-page ill.)
  • Gregory, Eyeline (2001): 30 (as cited above)
  • Carnival 45 and Fig.1.24