Contemporary Units 1988

This canvas was purchased from Arkley’s “Houses & Homes” exhibition at Tolarno in August 1988, and remained in the same private collection until it sold at auction almost exactly 37 years later, for a hammer price of $2 million, a new joint record price for the artist (with Neapolitan Delight 1993 [lounge-room], auctioned earlier in 2025).

In her review of Arkley’s 1988 show for Agenda magazine, Juliana Engberg commented specifically on the typical A.V.Jennings (‘spec builder’) style of the building depicted, a contrast with the older, more traditional houses shown in other works in the exhibition, and in many of Arkley’s other suburban paintings.

The artist’s list of sales for 1988 records the original buyer and price of $8,500. Arkley’s files also contain a transparency showing the work in progress, and a slide labelled ‘Mod House’ (an alternative title?).

Provenance

• Tolarno Galleries (label verso)
• Private collection, Melbourne (acquired from the above, August 1988)
• Auctioned by Smith & Singer, Sydney, 19 August 2025, lot 60: ill.and details as shown here, est.$700-900,000; sold for $2,454,545 inc.buyer’s premium

Exhibited

• HA Tolarno 8/88, no.8

Literature

• Engberg, ‘On the street where you live’, 1988 (exh.review, as cited above)