STUDY FOR 'STANDING NUDE', 1970

Part 1: Important Fine Art
Melbourne
27 November 2013
12

JOHN BRACK

(1920 - 1999)
STUDY FOR 'STANDING NUDE', 1970

conté on paper

68.5 x 49.5 cm

signed and dated lower right: John Brack 70
titled on distressed paper label verso: [ST]UDY FOR STANDING / NUDE

Estimate: 
$25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $26,400 (inc. BP) in Auction 32 - 27 November 2013, Melbourne
Provenance

Laurence Course, Melbourne, a gift from the artist
Thence by descent
Private collection, Melbourne

Exhibited

John Brack, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, April 1971 (label attached verso)
John Brack, Crossley Gallery, Melbourne, July 1972
John Brack Drawings, 1945–79, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 9 June – 10 July 1981

Literature

Grishin, S., The Art of John Brack, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, vol. II, cat. p146, pp. 58 and 216 (illus.)

Catalogue text

'In the winter of 1970 Brack made eight conté drawings of the nude from the model and the following summer, working from these drawings, executed a series of eight oil paintings. It was his normal working procedure to use the model for the drawings and then, without the model, take the drawings as his point of departure for the paintings. A comparison between the drawing, frequently preceded by a number of sketches, and the related painting indicates the considerable gulf separating the two. For example, in the conté Study for 'Standing nude', 1970, formal problems of the tradition of artistic convention have been posed and some aspects of the compositional arrangement have been suggested. In the oil painting, Standing nude, 1970, these suggestions are taken only as a starting point; the proportions, the compositional structure and the colour scheme, in short, the whole internal life of the painting is rethought, and worked out on the canvas itself.'1

1. Grishin, S., The Art of John Brack, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, vol. I, p. 117