The Royal Opening

GARRY SHEAD born 1942

The Royal Opening

oil on board
60.0 x 76.0 cm; 67.0 x 83.5 cm (framed)
signed lower left: Garry Shead
signed and inscribed verso: The Royal Opening/ Garry Shead

Provenance:
Christopher Day Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso)
Private collection, New South Wales

Estimate: $60000 - 80000

Result Hammer: $50000

To this day, Queen Elizabeth II remains the only reigning monarch to set foot on Australian soil. Her visit was a monumental occasion that captivated the nation, stirring unprecedented excitement throughout her 58-day stay. Among the throngs of well-wishers was a young Garry Shead, who, like hundreds of thousands of school children, greeted Her Royal Highness and Prince Philip at the Sydney showgrounds on 5 February 1954. Recalling the encounter, Shead reminisces, ‘I remember seeing her and feeling the eye contact as she passed…there was something ethereal and unattainable about her beauty…she passed like an incarnate spirit.’(1) This visit left an enduring impression on the generation that witnessed it firsthand. Decades later, this fleeting memory became the jewel in Shead’s artistic crown.

The Royal Suite, as exemplified by The Royal Opening, steers away from relying on pre-existing narratives or accurately depicting specific events from the royal visit. Instead Shead employs the concept of a narrative series, weaving together threads of an overarching theme. Utilising this approach offers numerous advantages. It allows the artist to explore their imagination, refining pictorial motifs with increasing complexity as the story unfolds. Shead instils the present work with a theatrical and provocative essence, presenting a tableau where one can discern the echoes of royal progress, the republican debate, and personal recollections. Art historian Sasha Grishin notes:

Many elements in this royal iconography appear enigmatic, even slightly incongruous, despite the pictorial clarity with which the artist has defined the imagery. While the participants appear at once recognisable through their various attributes and insignia, a single coherent reading is not possible. Rather, there are several competing narratives, both public and private, brought lovingly together under the glare of the all-encompassing Australian sun.(2)

As the 1999 Republican Referendum loomed, prompting Australians to vote on constitutional amendments that would transform the Commonwealth of Australia into a republic, sentiments were stirred. Disillusionment with a distant monarch reigning from over 20,000 kilometres away was palpable among the Australian public. The pivotal event proposed replacing the Queen and Governor General with a President, potentially severing ties to colonial roots.

It could be argued that Shead did not embrace the idea of a republic wholeheartedly; rather, he created these works as a tribute, aiming to reintroduce Australians to a concept that many still held dear as a significant moment in their collective memory. Furthermore, these works serve as allegories, expressing a naive belief in a perceived white goddess, as seen through the distorted lenses of memory and the eyes of a young boy who encountered the Queen at the tender age of 12. Possibly on the simplest level, the series explores the quest for beauty and a lost innocence, a quest for a new holy grail.(3)

The present work renders the artist's boyhood fantasies into a tangible reality. We see the Queen, magnified in stature, waving to a group of transfixed subjects who congregate like worshiping disciples as she sashays down a red carpet. The onlookers are noticeably smaller than the Queen, possibly drawing on Shead’s own recollections - this size difference also reinforces her perceived divinity. The Opera House and Sydney Harbour serve as the picturesque setting for this procession with a koala dressed in a suit, cockatoo, magpie, and kangaroo proudly brandishing the Australian flag in welcome to the Queen. The inclusion of this iconography is a key facet of Shead’s oeuvre. Much like his fleeting encounter at the showgrounds in 1954, Shead portrays the Sovereign as a remarkable presence whose visit elicited nationwide exhilaration, devoid of any hint of disappointment.

The central mood in present work is one of joyful optimism; the Queen’s first visit to Australia as the reigning monarch. As with the finest of Shead’s Royal Suite paintings, The Royal Opening is adorned with lyrical charm and gentle opulence. It is both a memory painting and direct commentary on wider Australia’s mindset at the time of its creation. Yet above all, it is a work that commemorates a precious childhood memory.

FOOTNOTES

1. Garry Shead quoted in Grishin, S., Garry Shead: Encounters with Royalty, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1998, p.12
2. Grishin, S., op. cit., pp.6-9
3. Ibid., p.27

Clementine Retallack

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