This work, painted on another page from the same issue of the Melbourne Herald (21 Dec.1981) as Untitled [“If the porcelain shatters…”] (c.1981) [W/P], shows a similarly surreal hybrid head.

Details and ID photo forwarded to Arkley Works in 2024, noting the parallel with the other example mentioned above (with thanks to Alex Clark at Bonham’s and Wiebke Brix at Leonard Joel).

[new entry added June 2025]

Provenance

• With Michael Fox, Collingwood, 2024 (previous history unknown)
• Auctioned by Bonham’s, Melb., 9 May 2025, lot 24: details and ill. as shown here; est.$4-6,000; not sold

This variant of the composition used for Red Wedge [#1] 1981 [W/P] was first exhibited in Arkley’s 1991 survey show at Monash (and photographed there as reproduced here). Slides in Arkley’s archive, dated Oct81, show the work before the addition of the inscription.

The composition is closely similar to that of the first version, but rotated 180 degrees (as indicated by the inscription), and with some other minor variations in detail.

Monash Gallery files include details for the owner, who also lent Discocacti [study] (1986?) [W/P] for the 1991 exhibition. In 2013, both works were reproduced in an online real estate report on the sale of an East St Kilda property, but their current whereabouts is unknown.

NB this is a new entry, added Dec.2023, correcting previous conflation of the details for this work and the first version noted above.

Provenance

• Private collection, Melbourne (by 1991)

Exhibited

• HA Monash 1991, cat.27 (as ‘Study for Red Wedge Carpet 1980’; size as given above; indicating sd+t on verso)

This intense work, which remained in Arkley’s studio at his death, is painted on page 4 of the edition of the Melbourne Herald published on December 21st, 1981.

The surreal imagery may relate to the headline. The story is apparently about Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, whose baby disappeared at Uluru (Ayers Rock) in August 1980, sparking a controversial series of events leading to Lindy Chamberlain’s conviction for murder and subsequent exoneration.

For another surreal head painted on another page from the same issue of the Herald, see Untitled head on newspaper 1981 [W/P].

Provenance

• Artist’s studio collection (A300)

A gift from Arkley to the owner, a painter who acted as his studio assistant during the 1980s.

The imagery, “drawn” in black sprayed lines over patches of colour, is related to the teeming detail of Primitive [mural] (1981) [W/P] and other contemporary works.

Provenance

• Gift from Arkley, c.1982-88 (email advice, Jan./Feb.2020)

A slide in Arkley’s archive, showing this rug in process, is dateable to the first half of 1981, by analogy with other file slides of Untitled [installation] (1981) [3/M], exhibited in Sydney in May of that year; the in-process photo shows the incomplete rug (the yellow components not yet added) on black and white tiled flooring in front of Arrows and Crosses 1980 and Bodgie 1979.

The rug was evidently finished by the time of the Tolarno show in July 1981 (see installation photos), and another file slide processed Oct.1981 also shows the work in its completed state. Hence the dating of the rug to 1984 by the NGA (also in Duncan 1991, cat.32, and Spray 44) is incorrect.

It now forms part of the installation Logitex (table and chair tableau) (1980-84) [3/M], purchased for the NGA in 1984.

Provenance

• artist’s collection
• purchased for NGA 1984, as part of the Logitex installation

Exhibited

• HA Tolarno 7/81, cat.11 (as Red Wedge; together with drawings)
• NGA, Canberra, 7/83 (‘A Melbourne Mood’), as part of the Logitex installation
• HA Monash 1991, cat.32 (Logitex installation)
• HA retrospective 2006-7 (Logitex installation)

Literature

• Duncan 1991 (HA Monash exh.cat.): p.21 (ill.: as 1980-84)
• Spray 44 (ill.: as 1984)

Several working drawings related to the ‘Red Wedge’ carpet are extant in Arkley’s studio collection (one of them reproduced in a slide in the artist’s archive, with process date Mar81: see now A146 [State Library of Victoria, Howard Arkley Archive]); it is unclear whether any of these sketches was also exhibited at Tolarno 7/81 (cat.11), along with the rug and Red Wedge [#1] 1981 [W/P].

Other minor works on paper probably dating from 1981 include several sketches in A of cacti etc., apparently related to Primitive (a typical example is reproduced here), and two sketches on sheets of newspaper dated 1981 (one, showing a skull/clown head, is reproduced in C.Fig.3.5).

See also Sketchbooks nos.16 (early 1980s?), 17 (dated 1981), and 22 a & b (early 1980s?), and Visual Diaries no. D 11 (c.1979-82).

[photo: Fragmentary sketch, c.1981? (black fibre-tipped pen, 56 x 52 irreg.; Arkley archive)]

This work, first shown in Arkley’s solo exhibition at the Solander Gallery, Canberra, in 1981, is clearly visible in installation slides taken at the exhibition (artist’s archive). Documentation received in 2025 indicates that the work was purchased from the Solander show in 1981, and later purchased at auction by the present owner in 2011 (provenance details and documentation forwarded March and July 2025).

The composition is closely related to that of an earlier work on paper: see Untitled [Weaving] 1980 [W/P]. The present example varies some of the details in the 1980 work, and also reverses the orientation, showing the green elements at the top.

Unfortunately, a previous catalogue entry confused the two works, now definitely identified as distinct variants. Both works exemplify Arkley’s sophisticated approach to pattern in this period, discussed further in the entry on the 1980 work.

[revised entry, March/July 2025; NB the photograph reproduced here was kindly supplied by the owner]

Provenance

• Solander Gallery, Canberra
• Purchased from the above by A.B.Salter, 21 Oct.1981 (copy of receipt seen)
• Auctioned by Pickles Estate Auction, Canberra, Sept.2011 (information from present owner, 2025)
• Acquired from the above by the present owner, Sept.2011

Exhibited

• HA Solander 10/81, cat.7 (dimensions given as 80 x 104; $400)

This work relates to the artist’s ‘Functional Object’ series (1980), and also his subsequent plans for a ‘Fashion Show’ (1984): see discussion in Carnival 137. The pattern is similar to that used in Arabesque [aka Floral] 1979 and Floral (1981). Arkley’s files include a slide with process date Mar81, suggesting the date proposed here.

Provenance

• artist’s collection
• P/C Melb.

Exhibited

• HA’s ‘Casual Works’ show 1988, as part of the source material for Pattern Painting [and source material] (1988 and earlier) [W/P]

Literature

• Carnival 137 and Fig.4.50 (as undated)

An elegant, small sprayed work on paper reproduced in the catalogue/brochure for Arkley’s Brisbane IMA mural (July 1981), and clearly related to the serial character of that work, although its also has much in common with Arkley’s earlier monochrome work of c.1974-76 in particular.

This drawing remained in Arkley’s studio collection at his death. Untitled [‘Spots’] 1978 [W/P] is comparable.

Provenance

• artist’s collection
• P/C Melb.

Literature

• Taylor IMA 1981 (Muzak Mural exh.cat.): ill.

The style of this work is consistent with other examples from the same period, and the unusual pattern is the same as that featured in Ornamentik (1981) and Untitled [Ornamentik variant] (1981?). It may be identical with Figurative (1981) [W/P] as shown at Solander 10/81 (unidentified), although there are size discrepancies. It is unclear whether the title ‘Abstract’ is original.

Provenance

• auctioned by Deutscher-Menzies, Melb., 24 Nov.1999, lot 16 (as ‘Abstract’; ill. and details as above; est.$5-7,000; sold for $5,200 plus buyer’s premium)
• auctioned by Christie’s, Melb., 25 June 2002, lot 167 (again as ‘Abstract’; ill.and details as above; est.$6-8,000; sold for $6,000 plus buyer’s premium)
• private collection, Sydney, 2002-2012
• auctioned by Deutscher & Hackett, Sydney, 2 May 2012, lot 75 (once again as ‘Abstract’; ill. and details as above; est.$8-12,000; sold for $8,000 plus buyer’s premium)
• auctioned by Leonard Joel, Melb., 22 March 2016, lot 115 (also as ‘Abstract’; ill. and details as above; est.$8-12,000; sold for $7,800 [$6,000 plus buyer’s premium])

Exhibited

• (possibly) HA Solander 10/81: see comments above