Tattooed Feet 1983



Alternate title: Feet
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 160 x 120
signed, dated and titled [on reverse, in black fibre-tipped pen: ‘Feet / Howard Arkley 83’; an additional verso inscription runs as follows: “For {name suppressed} 8.87 // From Howard”]
Private collection, Melbourne

This was the final work in the ‘Tattooed’ series, as shown in ‘Vox Pop’ (1983), HA Monash 1991, and the Arkley retrospective in 2006-7.

In the planning notes for his Quentin 2/85 exhibition, the artist commented on this work: ‘Feet of Christ’. Later (as quoted in Spray 54), he said the specific source was a detail from a crucifixion woodcut (for a reproduction of the source image, see Brown & Trioli 1988, unpaginated).

Provenance

  • P/C 1987? (refer additional verso inscription as noted above)
  • in current collection by 1991 (planning notes for HA Monash 1991)

Exhibited

  • NGV 12/83 (‘Vox Pop’)
  • HA Quentin, Perth, 2/85, cat.5
  • Heide 1986 (‘33 Men Painters’)
  • HA Monash 1991, cat.47 (details as above)
  • HA retrospective 2006-7 (shown in Melbourne and Brisbane)
  • HA TarraWarra 12/15-2/16

Literature

  • Cramer 1984:137 (B&W photo of ‘Tattooed’ series as shown in ‘Vox Pop’ 1983-4)
  • Spray 52-54 (inc. ill.)