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Details
- Date
- 1929-1930
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil and egg tempera on canvas on board
- Dimensions
- 48.0 x 40.0 cm
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the the Australian Art Collection Benefactors 2017
- Location
- South Building, ground level, 20th-century galleries
- Accession number
- 512.2017
- Copyright
- © Murch Family/Copyright Agency
- Artist information
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Arthur Murch
Works in the collection
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About
Of his time in Europe, during the years of his Travelling Art Scholarship from 1925, Murch stated that he explored painting “as if I were a pilgrim traversing the years”. Equally exhilarated by the great frescos of the Italian Primitives; the masterpieces of the Renaissance and the invigorating force of the modern masters, Murch returned to Sydney in 1927 reinterpreting the forms of artistic tradition and modernity within his own practice.
'The aeroplane' (1929) was painted in Murch’s grandfather’s Croydon backyard. Merging elements of the traditions Murch studied in Europe along with a feel for the American art of the New Deal of the Depression era, the work depicts a scene in a local backyard as an unseen aeroplane flies overhead. With its stylised posing of figures and backyard animals, the work is more of an allegorical composition; a metaphorical or symbolic rendering of an encounter between tradition and modernity. The stilled atmosphere and the mural-like qualities of the work invoke a sense of the monumentality of the changing world.
It is often children that are at the centre of the themes of Murch’s art. Here, the young girl is the only human figure who appears unperturbed. With her gesture and air of inward knowing, her figure is reminiscent of the Christ child of Renaissance painting. Placed in a suburban Australian scene, Murch paints her as a gatekeeper to the new world.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 5 exhibitions
Society of Artists Annual Exhibition (1929), Education Department Gallery [Loftus Street], Sydney, 07 Sep 1929–04 Oct 1929
Exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculpture by Arthur J Murch, Fine Art Society (Melbourne), , 17 May 1934–29 May 1934
Project 19 - Arthur Murch (1977), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 Jul 1977–28 Aug 1977
Arthur Murch 1902-1989: A Retrospective, Art Museum Armidale, Armidale, 10 Jul 1992–16 Aug 1992
20th-Century galleries, ground level (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 4 publications
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Joseph Eisenberg, Arthur Murch 1902-1989: A retrospective, Armidale, 1992, 18. cat.no. 1
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Society of Artists, Society of Artists Annual Exhibition (1929), Sydney, 1929, 10. cat.no. 8
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Daniel Thomas AM, Project 19: Arthur Murch, Sydney, 1977. cat.no. 2
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Exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculpture by Arthur J Murch, Melbourne, 1934. cat.no. 21
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