Study for Nick Cave (1999) (double sided drawing) [W/P]





Synthetic polymer paint on paper, 160 x 121
Private collection, Melbourne

Produced in connection with the work on Nick Cave (1999), and subsequently exhibited on several occasions with the painting and other related works on paper (although usually showing the recto only – the lower image reproduced below). At the 2006-7 Arkley retrospective, however, both sides were shown, lending the final section of the exhibition a complex, brooding air.

The dark, introspective quality of both drawings opens up very different insights into Cave’s music (and Arkley’s late style, and perhaps, his state of mind) than the vividly coloured painting.

Provenance

  • artist’s collection
  • P/C Melb.
  • acquired from the above, P/C Melb., 2018

Exhibited

  • ACAF7 (7th Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne, 4-8 Oct.2000), Tolarno stall
  • National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 14/12/01-17/2/02 (‘So You Wanna Be a Rock Star’): recto only
  • Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 8/02 (‘Nick Cave: the Good Son’): : recto only
  • HA retrospective 2006-7 (shown in Melbourne only)
  • Nick Cave exh., Vic.Arts Centre 2008: : recto only

Literature

  • Spray (rev. edn., 2001), 142 (ill.: recto)
  • Smith 2006 (ill.: endpapers)