A Distance Away (Study) 2018

TIM STORRIER born 1949

A Distance Away (Study) 2018

synthetic polymer paint on canvas
54.0 x 91.5 cm; 65.5 x 103.5 cm (framed)
signed lower right: STORRIER
signed, dated and inscribed on stretcher verso: 'A DISTANCE AWAY' (STUDY) Storrier. 2018

Provenance:
Institute of Public Affairs Charity Auction, Melbourne, 29 November 2018
Private collection, Melbourne
Art Index, Sydney
Private collection, Sydney

Estimate: $40000 - 60000

Result Hammer: $46000

Tim Storrier’s work is born from his ability to isolate a moment in time and perfect it with intense detail. His work is synonymous with the Australian landscape, and he has rightfully solidified his place amongst the most sought-after Australian painters of the 20th and 21st centuries. One can only assume his lifelong affinity with the land drives his practice as he returns to it time and time again, making it inherently his own.

Working in a grand romantic tradition, Storrier returns to three key elements; land, fire and air, their relationship to each other being infinite. The limitless combinations of these elements are what encompasses his practice, a slight tweak to the formula delivers a vastly different experience. A Distance Away (Study) 2018 offers an exquisite example of Storrier’s systematic approach. Smouldering embers and remnants of a fire glow in the foreground, its smoke twirling and evaporating into the sky above. The embers sit atop the arid earth that is strewn with rocks that form a mesmerising and almost unnatural patterned effect. The sky occupies two thirds of the composition and is littered with formidable bands of clouds that pierce the blanket of blue. The present work is void of the sun, yet the light moves across the canvas in a wedge that highlights the smouldering logs. The fire appears to be glowing, pulling the viewer into the landscape and holding their attention against the outlook. Fire is primal, our relationship to it is ambiguous, as it is a source of life and death. The present work is devoid of human beings, yet the ‘inclusion of flames acts as evidence of their recent occupation’,1 the detritus of man that scorches the land and marks its intrinsic beauty.

The resolution of A Distance Away (Study) 2018 is startlingly fierce and beautiful. Photographic perfection is not what Storrier strives for and although it is inherent, he paints from his memory and imagination noting, ‘whether I am painting a bottle or a sunset, it has more to do with mood, memory and the distillation of time than realism.’2 Storrier is a surveyor and a custodian of the great Australian landscape, and his work dares to access the interior landscape of one’s dreams. Yet it is the lifelong affinity Storrier has with the Australian landscape that drives him.

Footnotes

1. McDonald, J., Tim Storrier: In Absentia, The Australian Galleries, Sydney, 2010, exhibition catalogue
2. Tim Storrier quoted in Klepac, L., Tim Storrier, Beagle Press, Sydney, 2018, p.39

Clementine Retallack

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