The main source for this substantial canvas is a lounge room template in Gold’s Instant Decorator, first used for Suparoom (1992). Here, however, the bland outlines of the source image are subjected to a riot of clashing colours and patterns, and almost all the sprayed line-work is in colours other than black. The result is a pulsating painting for which terms like “hallucinogenic” and “psychedelic” (often used indiscriminately in relation to Arkley’s work) actually do apply.

The stencilling which Arkley had begun to use extensively from the early 1990s takes on a key role here, using several different stencils from the artist’s studio collection, and there are flashes of unexpected illusionism, especially in the fire and its surrounds, imitating marble, metal and flames.

This work was purchased from Tolarno in 1994, together with New Room 1993. It was one of several Arkleys reproduced in the Danish journal Architekturtidsskrift (no.52/53, 1995/6), with characteristic poems on suburban Melbourne written by Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage); Arkley’s library included a copy.

Arkley also applied the title, possibly referencing a popular style of ice-cream combining different flavours in pastel hues, to Neapolitan Delight 1993 [kitchen].

Provenance

• Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
• The Sigg Collection, Switzerland, acquired from the above, April 1994
• Auctioned by Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 7 May 2025, lot 24: ill., dets. as shown here; est.$1-1.5 million; sold for $2,454,545 (including B/P)

Literature

• Arkley & Humphries 1995: 97 (ill.; as courtesy Tolarno)

Exhibited in Arkley’s “Recommended Rooms” show, Bellas, Brisbane, 5/93; slide in Arkley’s archive.

Arkley’s earlier kitchen image, Ultrakleen 1992, was based on a different composition in Gold’s Instant Decorator. This canvas, however, uses another page in Gold’s book (template no.10), featuring bentwood chairs in the foreground. Arkley has modified the homely source, adding unsettling details: an alarmingly tilted tiled floor pattern, and a cupboard door shown slightly ajar.

NB this painting should not be confused with Neapolitan Delight 1993 [lounge-room].

Provenance

• Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• Acquired for private collection, Melbourne, 1995
• Auctioned by Sotheby’s, Sydney, 20 Nov.2019, lot 33 (revised details and ill.as shown here; est.$800,000 – $1,000,000; sold for $1.2 million plus buyer’s premium [$1,464,000])

Exhibited

• HA Bellas, Brisbane, 5/93, cat.2 ($7,000)

This work was exhibited in HA Bellas 5/93 as shown here (reproducing Arkley’s archive slide); the check-list notes the title only. Further details indicated were provided by the present owner in Feb.2022.

The canvases might be seen as precursors, on a smaller scale, of the Heide installation Outside-Inside-Out 1995, which in turn echoed Arkley’s late 1970s/early 80s ‘door’ canvases.

Provenance

• Purchased from Bellas Gallery by present owner, 1993-94

Exhibited

• HA Bellas, Brisbane, 5/93, cat.7 ($5,000)

This painting, first exhibited in Arkley’s 1993 solo show at the Bellas Gallery in  Brisbane, is documented by a slide in Arkley’s archive (reproduced here).

The  fevered colour and turbulent patterning complicate the bland compositional source – the sitting room page in Gold’s Instant Decorator (template no.1, modified): see also the preparatory collage Blue Chip Instant Decorator: a Room 1989 [W/P].

Provenance

• Collection of Stephen Skala, Melbourne (according to Gould 11/13)
• Private collection, Melbourne, 1997- (see also Gould 11/13)

Exhibited

• HA Bellas, Brisbane, 5/93, cat.4 (title only given in the check-list; priced at $12,000)
• HA Gould 11/13 (ill., provenance details as shown above)

Ever since it was first shown at the NGV in the 1994 McCaughey Prize, this substantial painting – a larger, more vivid variant of Triple Fronted 1987 – has been a touchstone for the idea of Arkley’s houses as a mirror of Australian suburban reality (see e.g. Harford 1994, Edelstein 1994, Spray 115).

After the artist’s death, the picture became even more widely known, included in the NGV’s Federation exhibition ‘Common Wealth’ in 2001, and reproduced on a stamp released by Australia Post in 2003 and on the cover of a book of Australian short stories edited by Barry Oakley (2004). Richard Aitken included the painting, interestingly, in his 2004 State Library exhibition celebrating Victoria as the ‘Garden State’, describing this garden and its stylized details as ‘metaphors for the Australian way of life’ (Aitken 2004: 197).

The popular belief that such houses are ‘just like ours’ is subjected to critical scrutiny in Carnival 14-21 (‘The Arkley Myth and the Legend of Dot’), where attention is drawn to the artifice and sophistication involved in this particular work. During the 2000s, several other writers also addressed the more complex dimensions of this painting, emphasizing, for instance, the darkened windows (Genocchio 2003), and the absence of a front door (Davison in Delany & Hammond 2005); for one commentator, the whole image ‘reproduces a supremely dizzying, even alienating form of the collective hallucination’ (Hallows 2004).

Overtly critical voices were also heard, notably that of Age critic Robert Nelson (2006, reviewing the Arkley retrospective), who questioned the perspectival coherency of the work, e.g. in the area of the front fence, apparently missing the point that the artist often deliberately retained awkward details of this type from his real estate and other source images.

In any case, none of these varied critical opinions seems to have affected the widespread view of this painting as exemplifying the Australian suburban experience in general. Just as some of John Brack’s urban and suburban images from the 1950s still retain their power and curious recognisability – despite, or perhaps even because of, their exaggerations – so too this work seems to encapsulate the contradictory character of more recent Australian ideals and attitudes towards ‘home’.

Provenance

• Purchased directly from Tolarno, August 1994

Exhibited

• NGV 2/94 (McCaughey Prize)
• Monash Uni.Gallery 11/94 (‘Tableaux’), cat.3
• Monash Uni. Gallery 2/99 (‘The Persistence of Pop’)
• NGV April-Dec.2001 (‘Common Wealth’)
• MUMA, Monash, 5/04 (‘Satellite Cities and Tabloid Life’)
• State Library of Victoria, Keith Murdoch Gallery, 10/04-2/05 (‘Gardenesque: Cultivating the Garden State’)
• MUMA, Monash 12/05 and 2/06 (‘Extra-Aesthetic’)
• HA retrospective 2006-7 (all 3 venues)
• MUMA 12/08-3/09 (‘Primary Views’)

Literature

• Harford 1994:28
• Edelstein 1994
• Spray 113 (ill.) and 115
• Wyzenbeek 2000
• NGV 2001 (‘Common Wealth’)
• Warner 2001
• Lancashire 2002
• Preston 2002:192-4
• Genocchio 2003
• Aitken 2004: 197 (as quoted above)
• Hallows 2004 (unpaginated; as quoted above; with ill.)
• Oakley 2004 (ill.on front cover)
• Davison in Delany & Hammond 2005: 16-17
• Carnival 14-21 and Fig.1.8
• Nelson 2006
• NGVA Arkley audio-guide 2006 (comments by Ray Edgar and others)
• Goldsworthy 2008:114 (ill.)

First shown in Arkley’s solo  exhibition at Bellas Gallery, Brisbane, May 1993, this painting is a ‘close-up’ variant of Mod Style (1992); for comparative discussion of both works, see Carnival 30, including comment on the derivation of both works from Gold’s Instant Decorator (template no.8: “Studio Apartment”).

The sale of this painting at Deutscher-Menzies’ auction in May 2000 (for a new record price) initiated a flurry of art market interest in Arkley’s work after his death.

Provenance

• History prior to 2000 unknown
• Auctioned by Deutscher-Menzies, Melb., 3-4 May 2000, lot 1 (ill.: detail as above; sold for $178,500)
• Recorded in Melb.P/C in NGVA Arkley retrospective planning files 2006

Exhibited

• HA Bellas, Brisbane, 5/93, cat.5 ($7,000)
• HA Metro 5, Melb., 2/02, cat.3 (priced at $240,000)
• HA retrospective 2006-7 (all 3 venues)

Literature

• Carnival 30 and Fig.1.19

First shown in the Arkley exhibition at Bellas Gallery, Brisbane, May 1993. The main source was the ‘Contemporary Living Room’ page in Gold’s Instant Decorator.

Illuminated Space (1999) is a closely comparable late variant.

Provenance

• P/C via Tolarno (acc.to Gould)

Exhibited

• HA Bellas, Brisbane, 5/93, cat. 1 ($7,000)
• HA Gould 8/01, cat.11 (details as above)
• McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 10/02 (‘Suburban Echoes’): as from an Adelaide P/C, courtesy Gould Galleries

In this elegant work, first shown in Tolarno’s ‘Art Cologne’ exhibit in 1993, the patterning of the grass is highly stylized, prefiguring the 1994 ‘Pointillist Suburb’ series.

Provenance

• Acquired for Hamilton 1994 via Tolarno (ref.: Spray research card, c.1996)

Exhibited

• Tolarno, Art Cologne, 11/93
• HA retrospective 2006-7 (Melbourne & Brisbane)

A reprise of Logitex (table and chair tableau) (1980-84) [3/M] and Muzak Mural – Chair Tableau (1980-81) [3/M], in the bright colour scheme typical of Arkley’s 1993 ‘Recommended Rooms’ exhibition.

A detailed set of installation instructions is held in Arkley’s archive (with the exhibition check-list).

Provenance

• Listed in HA’s 1993-6 stock-book as at Bellas 1993, and then (June 1995) as sent to Tolarno by Bellas (for sale?)

Exhibited

• HA Bellas, Brisbane, 5/93, cat.8 (priced at $9,000)

No individual examples noted. See also Visual Diaries D 35 (1993) and D 36 (c.1993-4).