‘Howard Arkley: Recent Works’, Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney, June-July 1983



‘Howard Arkley: Recent Works’, Roslyn Oxley9, 13-27 Macdonald Street, Paddington, Sydney, 15 June-2 July 1983

This show, the first of several solo Arkley exhibitions at this major Sydney gallery during the 1980s, show-cased his new figurative style with a mixture of new and previously exhibited canvases.

The check-list provides details as follows (all noted as acrylic on canvas, except nos.4 & 5, listed as ‘acrylic on paper on canvas’; all dated 1983 except no.11). The list of works shown was also reprinted in Duncan (1991), p.30.

The current Roslyn Oxley9 website (under Past Exhibitions, 1983) includes photographs of 9 of these works. Nos.3 and 4 do not appear, and there are some variations to other details and identifications as noted below.

For a review of the exhibition, see McGrath, Sandra (1983). A doodle-style invitation design by the artist (not used?) is preserved in his archive.

(photo: exhibition invitation design [Arkley archive])

1. Spot the Difference (A) (160 x 250; $1,800): identified here as Spot the Difference (Fast) 1983, the green-yellow canvas first shown in McCaughey Prize, NGV, Feb.1983, as ‘Romantic (Spot the Difference)’ and then in HA exh.at Quentin, Perth, Feb.1985, as ‘Spot the Difference – Fast’.

2. Spot the Difference (B) (160 x 250; $1,800): identified here as Spot the Difference (Slow) 1983, the red-yellow canvas first shown in in McCaughey Prize, NGV, Feb.1983, as ‘Amphetamine (Spot the Difference)’ and then in HA exh.at Quentin, Perth, Feb.1985, as ‘Spot the Difference – Slow’

3. Model (160 x 120; $1,000) = Model 1983: black-and-white canvas shown at Tolarno 10/83 as ‘Zygocactus’; later exh. in HA Monash 1991 and reproduced in Spray as Model.

4. Cartographer (160 x 120; $1,000) = Cartographer (After Durer) 1983, later exh. at Tolarno 10/83, HA Monash 1991 etc.

5. Suburban (160 x 121; $1,000) = Suburban 1983

6. Portrait (160 x 120; $1,000) = Tattooed Head (1983) (identification via current Roslyn Oxley9 website)

7. Amphetamine (160 x 120; $1,000) = Agave Parviflora 1985 (ID via photo on Roslyn Oxley9 website). This canvas has a particularly complicated history, later being shown as ‘Peel of the Orange’ (HA Tolarno 10/83), and as part of an untitled triptych in the 1986 Hugh Williamson Prize (Ballarat Art Gallery), and then exhibited and reproduced from 1987 onwards as ‘Agave Parviflora’ (its inscribed title)

8. Lightning (160 x 120; $1,000) = Lightning (1983), evidently a variant of Arkley’s ‘Zappo’ composition, first developed in works on paper dating from 1982. This canvas, reproduced on the Roslyn Oxley9 website, was previously identified as  Zappo (1983), the coloured version shown in HA Tolarno 10/83

9. Schizo (160 x 120; $1,000) = Schizo (1983) [private collection, Melbourne]: sprayed on a poster, like Winds of War Graffiti 1983 [aka Billboard]

10. Icon (triptych) (160 x 250; $1,800) = Icon (triptych) 1983 [Artbank coll., Sydney]

11. Primitive Silver (1982; 210 x 210; $2,500) = Primitive Silver 1982 [private collection, Melbourne]