65
Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983)
Estimate:
€1,500 - €2,000
Sold
€1,400
Live Auction
Important Irish Art
Size
30.50 by 23in. (77.5 by 58.4cm)
Description
Title: ACROBATS, 1972
Note: This unusually large and ambitious drawing, relating closely to a painting of the same title, epitomises many of Middleton’s concerns in the early 1970s. His reconciliation of the images of the landscape with the female form, both visually and symbolically, became wittier and more sexually charged around this period. One could view it as a shift away from Middleton’s interest in Henry Moore and towards a renewed looking at Picasso. The conceit of the acrobats encourages Middleton’s selective re-arrangement and distortion of the human form, with the two acrobats’ bodies rising layered and suggesting the rising of a landscape towards the sun.Dickon Hall
Frame dimensions: 36 by 28.25in. (91.4 by 71.8cm)
Note: This unusually large and ambitious drawing, relating closely to a painting of the same title, epitomises many of Middleton’s concerns in the early 1970s. His reconciliation of the images of the landscape with the female form, both visually and symbolically, became wittier and more sexually charged around this period. One could view it as a shift away from Middleton’s interest in Henry Moore and towards a renewed looking at Picasso. The conceit of the acrobats encourages Middleton’s selective re-arrangement and distortion of the human form, with the two acrobats’ bodies rising layered and suggesting the rising of a landscape towards the sun.Dickon Hall
Frame dimensions: 36 by 28.25in. (91.4 by 71.8cm)
Condition
Excellent condition.
Medium
pen and ink with watercolour
Signature
signed in monogram lower right; inscribed, dated and signed again on reverse
Provenance
Caldwell Gallery, Belfast;Irish Paintings and Drawings, Christies, Belfast, 27 October 1989, lot 233; Collection of Dr Henry McKee;Whyte's, 29 September 2008, lot 11;Private collection
