Suburban Domestic (1997) [W/P]

This work was awarded the 1997 Kedumba Drawing Prize by the judge, Australian artist John Wolseley, who purchased the drawing for his own collection (see https://kedumba.org.au/howard-arkley/, including the reproduction shown here). Critics expressed surprise at Wolseley’s choice, while acknowledging his stated aim to “provide debate about what constitutes drawing today,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald report by Peter Cochrane (see also Auty, McDonald and Watson, as cited below).

The date of Arkley’s work  was given as 1997 in the catalogue (Sayers 1997). However, a Polaroid photo of the completed drawing in the artist’s files is inscribed 1995. Indeed, it is close in style and technique to a number of other 1995 works on paper, especially Suburban Exterior (1995) [W/P] – a monochrome variant of Cosy Clinker (1994) – which the present work replicates almost exactly (the background tree being the most obvious point of difference).

Provenance

• Kedumba Award 1997 (see exh.details below)
• acquired from the above

Exhibited

• Kedumba Drawing Award, N.S.W., 1997, cat.3

Literature

• Auty 1997 (Kedumba exh.review in the Weekend Australian, inc. ill.)
• Cochrane 1997
• McDonald 1997
• Sayers 1997 (Kedumba Drawing Award catalogue) [unpaginated]
• Watson 1997 (Bulletin review of the Kedumba Prize, inc. ill.)