Circle of the Moon 1959

A$27,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Painted in Melbourne, 1959. Oil on plywood, 400 x 500 mm, signed and dated verso, framed. An exceptional early work by Robert Jacks, with unbroken provenance, exhibited at his retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2014 and illustrated in both of the artist s monographs. As quoted in his 2001 monograph, This painting, with its constructive qualities, delighted Jacks and he recalls how drawn he was to the purely abstract at that time . A fine and quite rare early oil painting by the great Australian abstract artist Robert Jacks, sourced directly from the artist s estate and never before offered for sale. Painted while the artist studied at Prahran Technical College, this painting is one of a series of works influenced by British painter Ben Nicholson, defined by the raw matrix of the plywood, the texture of which forms an inimitable organic background upon which Jacks has composed his abstract work. In the late 1960s the painter migrated to the United States, where he would live and travel for the next ten years, during which time his small collection of plywoods from college years were placed in storage in his parent s house. Upon return to Australia and establishment of the artist s final residence and studios in Harcourt, Victoria, the collection of plywoods were returned to the artist where they formed foundation pieces of his visual library of works from across his career. In Jacks s painting titled Circle of the moon , 1959 (Plate 7), a white circle is surr

• Binding: Hardcover

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