Three figures

Kevin Connor's reputation was established early in the 1960s with his Haymarket paintings - in which the spirit of inner Sydney life, its individuals, its street life and architecture is given ebullient expression. Similar themes have sustained Connor as an artist since then; he is responsible for having produced some of the most memorable and powerful contemporary urban images of Sydney.

Connor is keenly aware of the importance of his early Haymarket works to his development, which prompted his gift of a number of drawings for these in 1980 and 1998, so that a strong and comprehensive group of Haymarket drawings is now in the Gallery's collection.

Kevin Connor is aware of this particular Haymarket drawing 'Three figures'. It is, in his opinion, one of the best from his early Haymarket series. He used it as an illustration on the invitation card and catalogue for an exhibition of his work at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney and Toorak Galleries, Melbourne in 1974. He made a tracing of it before it was sold, with a screenprint in mind (which wasn't made), and as he did not know the owner of the original drawing, used the tracing in order to illustrate the drawing in the limited edition book of his Haymarket drawings published by the Centaur Press (Berkelouw's) in 1990, plate 9. He gave this tracing to the Gallery, as part of his gift of drawings in 1998.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000