1984
1984 Works
3D/Miscellaneous
Paintings
- Primitive [mural] (1981) [W/P]
Works on Paper
Works on Paper Minor
In contrast to the previous year (when Arkley produced more than 20 canvases), his focus shifted in 1984 to work on paper. During the year, his works featured in a number of significant national and international touring exhibitions, and he consolidated a new theme – cacti and succulents – at his second solo show at Roslyn Oxley9 in Sydney (May/June), largely comprising works on paper. At the time of the latter exhibition, according to the biography in the Monash survey exhibition catalogue (Duncan 1991: 24), Arkley was ‘physically exhausted due to his frenetic lifestyle’.
A notable feature of his work in 1984 (and succeeding years) was his use of a series of old romantic novels as sketchbooks. Arkley added a considerable number of drawings to ten 1950s-60s romantic novels published by Mills & Boon (de-accessioned by the Prahran CAE library). His drawings ranged from quick doodled cacti and abstract forms to more considered figurative drawings, including a number of life drawings. Some are signed and dated, mostly 1984 or 1985. Most are in black fibre-tipped pen, usually on odd-numbered pages only (owing to the fibre-tipped pen bleeding through onto reverse side of page). Several individual pages from these books were exhibited subsequently, but the majority remain, still in their books, in his studio collection (now in the Howard Arkley Archive, State Library of Victoria, MS 14217). For summaries and selected reproductions, see linked entry: Mills & Boon books
1984 Exhibitions
‘Form-Image-Sign: the Third Biennial Survey of Australian Contemporary Art,’ Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 3 Feb.-18 March 1984 (curated by Tony Bond)
(NB sketchy details only in Arkley’s archive)
- Suburban Exterior (1983) [AGWA documents in file] (sole Arkley included?)
‘HA: Cacti and Succulents,’ Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney, May 1984
– refer linked entry for full details
‘3 Artists / 3 Rooms,’ Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Dallas Brooks Drive, Melbourne, 14 May – 2 June 1984 [HA, Juan Davila, David Larwill] (photos and copies of reviews/articles by Clarke 1984 and Cramer 1984 in Arkley’s files)
- Untitled room installation (ACCA mural) (1984) [3/M]: no longer extant [see archive photos, including one reproduced in black and white in Duncan 1991: 24; see also photo reproduced below]
‘Meaning and Excellence’ ANZART exh.at Edinburgh Festival, 5 Aug.- {?} 1984 (curated by Denise Robinson; subsequently exhibited in Melbourne in 1985)
‘Symbols, Emblems, Signatures’, New Zealand touring exh., starting at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, N.Z., 5-30 Sept.1984 (23 drawings by 11 Australian artists, cur.Jennifer Phipps; other artists included Dale Frank; reviews in Arkley files)
- Pittoresque (1984) [W/P]: also exh.at Roslyn Oxley9, May 1984 (see separate entry)
‘The Australians: Three Generations of Drawings’ CDS Gallery, New York, 24 Sept.-20 Oct.1984 (drawings by 16 Australian artists, curated by Memory Holloway; exh.cat.: Holloway 1984; reviews on file, but no explicit mention of Arkley; however, the Age report by Cole-Adams 1984 notes him as 1 of the 4 artists whose work was purchased from the CDS show by Met.curator Bill Lieberman)
- Untitled (1983) [W/P]: ill.and cat.in Holloway 1984 as W/P 1984 (22” x 30”), but NB CDS receipt for US $400 in Arkley’s files (dated April 19, 1985), correctly listing the work as Untitled, 1983, and giving the size as 60” x 44”
George Paton Gallery, 28 May-30 June 1984: collaborative installation by Arkley with Juan Davila and Maria Kozic: ‘Untitled’, 1984: exh.in foyer window space (co-commissioned by Denise Robinson and the student union, University of Melbourne, and curated by Denise Robinson; details & ill: Vivian 2008: 83)
- Untitled (‘Exquisite Corpse’) [1-4] (1984) [W/P] (Arkley, Davila,Kozic]