Doomsday Notations (1975)

Shown with this title in Arkley’s first solo show (Tolarno, 4/75), this canvas cannot be identified with certainty, in the absence of installation photos for the Tolarno exhibition.

However, it seems likely that it was identical with another canvas from this period, probably the similarly-titled Winter Notations 1975, which surfaced at auction in 1995.

Another possibility is Oriental (Wave Study) (1974), based on the same formal idea of short sprayed vertical strokes of different weights in various combinations. This canvas was shown in June 1975 as ‘Second Tracing’ and then in Arkley’s second Tolarno exhibition and thereafter as Oriental (Wave Study). An archive slide is dated May75 (also the process date of  slides of several other works definitely shown at Tolarno in 4/75).

Exhibited

• HA Tolarno 4/75, cat.6 (details as above): uncertain ID as noted above