Welcome to Arkley Works

Welcome to Arkley Works, a new type of publication that combines the virtues of a traditional ‘catalogue raisonée’ or ‘oeuvre catalogue’ (a fully researched accounting of an artist’s works, long regarded as a corner-stone of the art-historical enterprise), with the accessibility and contextual insight afforded by contemporary technology.

Howard Arkley (1951-99) seems the perfect subject for such a venture. Simultaneously respectful of his modernist and Pop forebears and contemporaries (Mondrian, Klee, Rothko, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Ed Ruscha and Robert Rooney, to name a few of his numerous heroes), he was also fascinated by popular culture – comics, toys, disco and punk music, advertising imagery and neon signs. In many ways, he was the quintessential Australian artist of the ‘Popist’/Postmodern generation of the 1970s and 80s, his vigorous air-brushed line-work and vivid colour a spectacular affront to the good manners of many a conservative critic (even to this day).

He also became, surprisingly perhaps (although he had long been fascinated by popular taste and decoration), an advocate for suburbia, especially in his last decade, achieving an extraordinary success with his ‘Home Show’ at the Australian Pavilion of the 48th Venice Biennale which opened in June 1999 with his magnum opus Fabricated Rooms (1997-99) as its centrepiece.

Arkley’s sudden death in his studio in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh, only a few weeks later, shocked everyone, and led to considerable auction-room mayhem and fevered rhetoric in the years that followed. Now, just over a decade after Arkley’s death, it seems timely to attempt a cooler summary of his artistic achievement, in a contemporary medium he must surely have found attractive, had he lived to see it.

The Catalogue

The site is designed to be navigated easily, with key information accessible through the individual year entries available via the drop-down menus under the heading ‘Explore the Catalogue’ in the top margin. Individual works for each year are listed in summary form at the right margin of each year entry: simply click on the title of a work to see full catalogue details, including ownership history (‘Provenance’), exhibition details, and key references for each work catalogued (for full details of references to Arkley, listed by year, see Bibliography).

Catalogue entries are provided for all installation works, paintings and major works on paper with a verified history of exhibition and/or ownership prior to Arkey’s death.  Summary entries list the artist’s sketchbooks, ‘visual diaries’ and doodled Mills & Boon Books (more detailed publication of all this material is in preparation). Not included in the present catalogue are: juvenile and student works made prior to 1972; some of the many ‘white’ works on paper Arkley made around 1974 and following; and his numerous ‘minor’ works on paper (sketches, doodles on drink coasters and the like).

The site has been produced using WordPress, with the technical assistance and design skills of Patrick Toohey. The text and overall conception are the work of John Gregory, author of Carnival in Suburbia: the Art of Howard Arkley (Cambridge University Press, 2006), for which this catalogue may be seen as a virtual companion volume. The author thanks the Sidney Myer Fund, who provided crucial financial assistance; Kirsten Stevens, for valuable research assistance; colleagues in the Faculty of Art & Design at Monash University; the many collectors and curators who responded to requests for information (some individuals are singled out in specific catalogue entries); and in particular The Estate of Howard Arkley for permission to reproduce the works shown, and Alison Burton for her continued support for the project.