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Details
- Place where the work was made
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East Kew
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Melbourne
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Victoria
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Australia
- Date
- 1941
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 41.9 x 52.0 cm stretcher; 51.8 x 61.0 x 4.0 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated c.l., white oil "Eric Thake '41".
- Credit
- Purchased 1964
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- OA6.1964
- Copyright
- © Estate of Eric Thake
- Artist information
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Eric Thake
Works in the collection
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About
A prolific printmaker, known for his ingenious linocuts, Eric Thake considered his rarer oils and watercolours of greater significance. Thake studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School and later with George Bell, whose interest in formal design and abstraction through pictorial organisation, as well as the theory of dynamic symmetry, influenced the young artist.
By the late 1930s, Thake’s work revealed an awareness of the metaphysical experiments of Giorgio de Chirico and the English surrealists, Edward Wadsworth and Paul Nash. 'Archaeopteryx' is a superb example of Thake’s meticulous and witty paintings, its directness derived from his experience as a graphic artist and medical illustrator. The inspiration for 'Archaeopteryx' was a book by Willy Ley in which Australia is described as a world’s-end warehouse of nature’s experiments: the lizard-like head and feathered body of the flying machine evokes the prehistoric creature of the title.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 7 exhibitions
Contemporary Art Society Exhibition 1941, David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, Sydney, 09 Sep 1941–04 Oct 1941
Contemporary Art Society Exhibition 1941, Hotel Australia, Melbourne, 14 Oct 1941–Nov 1941
Patrick White's choice, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Dec 1981–31 Jan 1982
Australian Academy of Art and the Contemporary Art Society (1986), S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 15 May 1986–16 Jul 1986
Surrealism: Revolution by Night, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 13 Mar 1993–02 May 1993
Surrealism: Revolution by Night, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 21 May 1993–11 Jul 1993
Surrealism: Revolution by Night, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 Jul 1993–19 Sep 1993
A Bird in the Hand, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 01 Mar 1999–30 Jun 1999
Lurid Beauty: Australian Surrealism and its Echoes (working title), Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 09 Oct 2015–31 Jan 2016
20th-Century galleries, ground level (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 14 publications
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Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1964 Acquisitions, Sydney, 1964, 24-25. cat.no. 27
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Australian artists'., Art in Australia [series 4, no. 4], 'Paintings recently exhibited, Sydney, Dec 1941-Feb 1942, 63 (illus.).
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Christopher Chapman, Surrealism in Australia, Canberra, 1993, 51 (colour illus.).
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Christine Dixon and Dinah Dysart, Counterclaims: presenting Australian art 1938-1941, Sydney, 1986, 54. cat.no. CAS61
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Mary Eagle and Jan Minchin, The George Bell School: Students - Friends - Influences, Melbourne, 1981, 28-29.
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Helen Verity Hewitt, Patrick White, painter, manqué: paintings, painters and their influence on his writing, 'Patrick White's choice', pg. 114-119, Carlton, 2002, 115.
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Dr Ursula Hoff, Eric Thake: a retrospective exhibition, Melbourne, 1970, not paginated. cat.no. 15; lent by The Art Gallery of New South Wales
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Bruce James, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Australian Collection: Painting and Sculpture', pg. 102-181, Sydney, 1999, 148 (colour illus.).
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Elizabeth Lawson, Birds, Canberra, 1999, 11.
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National Gallery of Australia (Editor), Surrealism: Revolution by night, Canberra, 1993, 265 (colour illus.).
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Barry Pearce, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Australian', pg. 13-35, Sydney, 1988, 26.
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Barry Pearce, Australian Artists, Australian Birds, North Ryde, 1989, 108 (colour illus.). plate no. 89
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Patrick White, Patrick White's Choice, Sydney, Dec 1981, illus.. cat.no. 7
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Natalie Wilson, Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Out of Melbourne: realisms and mythologies', pg. 163-164, Sydney, 2000, 164, 165 (colour illus.), 302.
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