Zappo (Cityscape mural) 1984 [W/P]

Clearly a variant of Zappo 1983, but in the same tall format as Arkley’s late 1970s ‘doors’, this work evidently relates to a large-scale mural project dating from the early 1980s.

An archive image showing a detail of Fast 1986, also in door format, collaged onto a photo of Pitt Street, Sydney (see Carnival in Suburbia, Fig.3.20 and p.107) suggests a later version of the same scheme, which was never carried out. However, Arkley’s idea of a monumental urban mural based on one of his canvases was realised eventually, in Melbourne, with Zappo Head on Republic Tower (1999) [3/M] [aka Zappo].

Provenance

• Tolarno-P/C Melb.(acc.to Lawson-Menzies 12/07)
• auctioned by Lawson-Menzies, Sydney, 6 Dec.2007, lot 231 (details as above, inc. previous provenance; est.$40-50,000; sold for $36,000)
• auctioned by Deutscher-Menzies, Sydney, 26 March 2009, lot 27 (same details; est.$28-38,000; sold for $26,000)
• auctioned by Lawson-Menzies, Sydney, 23 Feb.2011, lot 33 (same details, and illustration; est.$30-40,000; sold for $27,000 plus buyer’s premium)
• auctioned by Menzies, Sydney, 6 Dec.2012, lot 14 (same details, ill.; est.$24-30,000; sold for $24,000 plus buyer’s premium)
• auctioned by Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2019, lot 66 (same details, ill.; est.$24-30,000; sold for $61,634 inc.buyer’s premium)