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Details
- Date
- 2019
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on Lubugo bark cloth
- Dimensions
- 220.0 x 170.0 cm
- Signature & date
Signed and dated u.l. verso, blue felt tipped pen ".../ MArmitage/ 2019".
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Mollie and Jim Gowing Bequest and the Lawrence Hinchliffe Bequest 2019
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 201.2019
- Copyright
- © Michael Armitage
- Artist information
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Michael Armitage
Works in the collection
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About
'I wanted to make a painting that was riffing off the idea of ‘the promised land’. I had thought about making two paintings, one of a man and one of a woman. Paintings by Courbet of women in waves began to interest me but I couldn’t find an image that would work for my painting. When I came to the Art Gallery of New South Wales I saw, for the first time, Ernst Kirchner’s 'Three bathers' 1913. It is such a strange painting... The figures’ bodies are subtly distorted, with a strange exotic floating flower that make the waves seem like large banana leaves. The composition is deceptively simple with the arch of the waves providing a rhythm across the painting. I had wanted to link the depiction of Utopia and the promise of young fertile women to the idea of sexual promise in a young virile man from the tropics (a slice of paradise!) and the 'Three bathers' gave me a way to do this.' - Michael Armitage
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Michael Armitage: the promised land, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, 28 Jun 2019–22 Sep 2019
Some mysterious process, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 01 Jun 2020–13 Sep 2020
20th-Century galleries, lower level 1 (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
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Natasha Bullock (Curator), Michael Armitage: the promised land, Sydney, 2019, 113 (colour illus.).
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