Untitled [Icon #1] 1984 [W/P]



Fibre-tipped pen on paper, 29.5 x 21

signed and dated [l.r.: ‘HA 84.’]

Coll.: unknown

The source image for this work (probably derived from a late Byzantine icon) was also the basis for two later works on canvas: Icon Head (1990) and Icon Head (1994); the latter subsequently became the centrepiece of Icon Interior (1994-2001) [3/M]; see also Icon Head (1996) [W/P].

The precise Byzantine source used for this image has not been established; the blessing gesture of the figure may suggest that it shows Christ, but the type is generic: see further discussion in Gregory, Icon Interior (2001), p.16, citing Michael Alpatov, Early Russian Icon Painting, Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1974, colour pl.57 (an early 15th-century Novgorod icon depicting the Prophet Elijah).

Provenance

  • recorded in the artist’s collection in 1991 (HA Monash 1991)

Exhibited

  • HA Monash 1991, cat.52 (details as above; shown with Untitled [Icon #2] 1984 [W/P]: documented in installation slide formerly in Monash VA slide library)

Literature

  • Spray 105 (as ‘Study for Icon Head; size as above)