This is a variant of Untitled [‘Head’] 1988 [W/P], closely similar in composition and on the same scale, but in reverse and somewhat differently coloured.

A full-scale ‘cartoon’ of this composition, in pencil on tracing paper, preserved in Arkley’s studio collection, evidently formed part of his working procedure for one or both of these finished works on paper.

Documentation and ID photos of the present work kindly provided by the owner, who also has two doodled pages (15 and 67) from Arkley’s Mills & Boon book The Chateau of Fire (details listed under https://www.arkleyworks.com/mills-boon-books/).

Provenance

• Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Melbourne
• Acquired from the above by the present owner, c.1991

This work on paper, related to Arkley and Davila’s major collaborative installation Blue Chip Instant Decorator: a Room (1991-2) [3/M], was exhibited in the ‘Howard Arkley and Friends’ show at TarraWarra Museum of Art in 2015-16, together with Untitled 1992 [W/P] [Howard Arkley & Juan Davila]. See also Untitled [standing male figure wearing mask] 1991 [W/P] [Howard Arkley & Juan Davila].

All these works on paper foreground the interplay between diverse systems of decoration, and the symbolism of the mask or mirror. For further discussion of these themes in relation to Arkley & Davila’s collaborative oeuvre, see Gregory (2001); Carnival (ch.5); and Victoria Lynn in Fitzpatrick & Lynn (2015), 53-54.

Provenance

• The artists

Exhibited

• HA TarraWarra 12/15-2/16 (details as above; ill.)

This painting was exhibited in the 1990 ‘Head Show’ at Tolarno. Arkley’s dot-matrix source image is preserved in his studio collection – for a reproduction, see Visual Diary D 41 (1995).

The authors of Spray see this picture as lacking the complexity of Arkley’s more multi-layered works. This could be fair comment; nevertheless, this work reflects the artist’s consistent interest in computer imagery.

Early in his career, he considered computer images as sources (mentioned in Boles 1975), later produced ‘abstract’ works based on dot-matrix print-outs [see e.g. Print Out (1980)], and in 1998 began a series of heads ‘drawn’ on a computer. It would have been fascinating to see how his art evolved in the climate of the flourishing of ‘new media art’ in the early 21st century, given this long-standing interest in electronic sources and imagery.

Provenance

• P/C Melb.(acquired from the artist in 1990, according to Deutscher-Menzies 3/07)
• Auctioned by Deutscher-Menzies, Sydney, 13/3/07, lot 21 (ill. and details as above; est.$30-50,000; sold for $34,000 plus buyer’s premium)

Exhibited

• HA Tolarno 10/90 (‘The Head Show’), cat.7

Literature

• Spray 101 (with ill.)

This excellent example of Arkley’s ‘private’ style was made for his sister-in-law, on the occasion of her birthday in 1990. The work is inscribed in part: ‘Happy Birthday to Shirley H.Arkley’.

The imagery is based loosely on various earlier compositions, notably Spot the Difference (Slow) (1983). For a similar drawing of comparable size, including several of the same motifs, see also Untitled 1985 [W/P].

Provenance

• Gift from the artist 1990

Arkley’s files contain a slide and also a 1991 studio photo (reproduced in Carnival Fig.6.1) showing the artist posing with this work. Not seen publicly since it was shown in the 1990 ‘Head Show’, the painting was identified recently as in a private collection in Europe.

A working drawing referencing the well-known robot-toy/comic-book franchise, is preserved in the Howard Arkley Archive (State Library Victoria, MS 14217/1/1761, and reproduced in Fitzpatrick & Lynn (2015), p.103. Arkley’s library contained several ‘Transformers’ sticker and colouring books.

Head Transformer (1992) is a related variant, based on a somewhat different sketch.

Provenance

• Acquired by present owner via Tolarno, c.1990 (correspondence with owner 2007)

Exhibited

• HA Tolarno 10/90 (‘The Head Show’), cat.9

Like Arkley’s generic ‘Zappo Head’, this face confronts humanity with its own strangeness.

The 1990 ‘Head Show’ invitation (copies in Arkley archive) comprised a reproduction with cut-out eyes and nose, forming a mask; the artist’s files also contain a photo of guests wearing these masks at the opening of the show; and for a photo of Arkley himself wearing one, see Spray 98.

Provenance

• Private collection, Melbourne
• Acquired by present owner from the above, 2008

Exhibited

• HA Tolarno 10/90 (‘The Head Show’), cat.2
• HA retrospective 2006-7 (Melbourne & Brisbane)
• HA TarraWarra 12/15-2/16 (details as above; ill.)

Literature

• Carnival 182 and Fig.6.28

Photos in Arkley’s archive and the former Monash Visual Arts slide library indicate that this work, reproduced in Spray, was also the factory painting exhibited in the 1991 Arkley survey at Monash.

Shadow Factories (1990) [Lyon] is a slightly smaller but otherwise quite similar contemporaneous version of the same composition. Source images for this and the other factory canvases are reproduced in Carnival 42-44.

Provenance

• Recorded in Melbourne P/C in planning notes for 1991 Monash exh. and 2006-7 NGVA retrospective (where the size is noted as 175 x 275)

Exhibited

• HA Monash 1991, cat.80 (size given incorrectly as 75 x 274)

Literature

• Spray 94-5 (size given as 166 x 240)

One of several factory canvases inspired by Peter Carey’s short story of the same name, with its descriptions of the multi-coloured clouds of smoke emanating from factories (see now Spray 96-97 and Carnival 42, for quotes and discussion).

In his comments on this painting for the 2006 Arkley retrospective audio-guide, Ashley Crawford emphasised its ambivalent tone. This version is similar to Shadow Factories 1990 [Spray], but slightly smaller, and in this case the artist did not include a crane at the left.

Provenance

• Purchased via Tolarno (1992?)

Exhibited

• Melbourne Art Fair 3, Oct.1992 (installation photos in A)
• HA retrospective 2006-7 (all 3 venues)

Literature

• Carnival 96-7 and Fig.1.25
• NGVA Arkley audio-guide 2006 (comments by Ray Edgar and Ashley Crawford)

This work, probably the most arresting painting in Arkley’s 1990 ‘Head Show’, was based on a comic-book source (modified copies preserved in Arkley’s archive [State Library of Victoria]).

Already widely reproduced during the 1990s (e.g. on the cover of Art + Text, Jan.1992), the painting has attracted particular attention since the artist’s death, often being seen as a revealing self-image.

In 2003, for instance, it was included as no.11 of a set of 12 large-format reproductions of Australian ‘Faces’ spanning the period from 1788 to the present, produced for schools. The accompanying text, emphasizing Arkley’s post-modern characteristics (especially his taste for appropriation), suggested that the painting ‘was seen as the most inspired work’ from the 1990 Tolarno show, and speculated: ‘Was it a self portrait of a man on the brink of madness, a man seeing something that no one else could see?’ (Hart 2003). In 2004, Metro 5 gallery director Brian Kino upped the interpretative ante, describing the picture, in a Melbourne newspaper story on Australia’s 12 allegedly most important paintings, as ‘a chilling self-portrait… [of]… a wild-eyed madman confronting his future fears and seeing his future demise’ (Herald Sun Weekend, 6 March 2004).

The origins of these interpretations can be traced to the Age article published at the time of the 1990 exhibition, quoting Arkley as saying all the paintings in the show were in a sense self-portraits (Trioli 1990). The article featured a dramatic photo by Cathryn Tremain, showing the artist himself juxtaposed to the pop-eyed features of this painting.

There is no doubting the vivid character of this work, but analyses treating it simply as a ‘self-portrait’ tend to limit its scope, and also deflect attention from the formal and colouristic achievements involved (for comments along these lines, see e.g. Carnival 106). In a subtle analysis in Spray, Crawford and Edgar address the humorous and ironic dimensions of the work, and its recreation of ‘the hallucinogenic experience first distilled in Zappo (1983)’.

Second Psychedelic Head (1992) is a different work, based on another comic-book source.

Provenance

• P/C Melb. (recorded in HA Monash 1991 exh.planning notes)
• Auctioned by Sotheby’s, Melb., 26 April 1992 (est.$6-8,000; sold for $7,150 inc. buyer’s premium)
• Auctioned by Deutscher-Menzies, Melb., 22 Nov.1998, lot 326 (details as above; est.$8-12,000; not sold: details via AASD website 9/09)
• At Kozminsky’s, Melb. 2000
• At Metro 5, Melb., 2/02 (priced at $135,000)
• Auctioned by Sotheby’s, Melb., 4 May 2004, lot 32 (est.$70-100,000; sold for $97,500 plus buyer’s premium [$115,062])
• Collection of Selwyn & Renata Litton, Sydney, acquired from the above
• Auctioned by Smith & Singer, Sydney, 2 May 2023: ill., dets.as above; est.$250-350,000; sold for $490,909 (inc.B/P)

Exhibited

• HA Tolarno 10/90 (‘The Head Show’), cat.4
• HA Monash 1991, cat.79
• Metro 5, Melb., 2/02, cat.11
• HA retrospective 2006-7 (all 3 venues)
• HA TarraWarra 12/15-2/16 (details as above)

Literature

• Trioli, ‘Head Show’ (1990)
• Art + Text #41, Jan.1992 (cover ill.)
• Spray 99 (full-page ill.) and101 (cited above)
• Hart 2003 (quoted above)
• Herald Sun Weekend, 6 March 2004 (quoted above)
• Carnival 106-7, 177, 182, and Fig.6.29
• Fitzpatrick & Lynn, Howard Arkley and Friends (2015), 18-19 and 101-102 (including reproductions of the present painting and several source images from Arkley’s archive)

First shown in the ‘Head Show’ (1990), this painting is documented by slides in Arkley’s archive. The artist’s verso inscription, possibly added later, incorrectly indicates the size of the canvas as 120 x 160, and gives the title as ‘Camera Head’ (perhaps an alternative title at some stage).

Untitled [‘Polaroid Portrait collage study’] (1997?) [W/P], a collage drawing related to this canvas (and possibly a working drawing for it, although dated later), has appeared at auction several times since the artist’s death.

Provenance

• Unknown

Exhibited

• HA Tolarno 10/90 (‘The Head Show’), cat.5 (as ‘Polaroid Portrait’)
• HA at Melbourne Art Fair (Kalli Rolfe) 2/24
• HA 1301SW, Sydney, Feb.-March 2025