CRISS CANNING born 1947
Hippeastrums with Horn Vase 1995
Estimate: $30000 - 40000
Sold For:
$32000 hammer
$39273 inc. buyer's premium
Description
CRISS CANNING born 1947
Hippeastrums with Horn Vase 1995
oil on canvas
57.5 x 44.5 cm; 80.0 x 67.0 cm (framed)
signed lower left: Criss/ Canning.
Provenance:
Gould Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso, stock no.11067)
Private collection, Victoria
Exhibited:
Criss Canning: In and Around Burnside, Gould Galleries, Melbourne, 29 September - 16 October 1995, cat.7 (illus. exhibition catalogue)
Kalianthi: The Art of Criss Canning, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, 9 February - 13 May 2007; Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria, 4 July - 19 August 2007, cat.62 (label attached verso)
Reference:
Thomas, D., Criss Canning: The Pursuit of Beauty, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2008, pp.70, 119, 186, 189 (illus. pl.49)
Estimate: $30000 - 40000
Result Hammer: $32000
Beauty is really important to me…it is absolutely the key. I believe you cannot overestimate the need for beauty in our lives.(1)
Criss Canning is one of Australia’s finest contemporary still-life painters - her vibrant, meticulous compositions are widely celebrated by collectors and critics alike. The artist’s richly-coloured studies of striking flowers and considered interior scenes set her apart from her contemporaries. Canning’s unique arrangement of colour and pattern characterises her paintings, which have been described as ‘remarkable essays in pictorial placement’.(2)
The acclaimed work Canning produced in the mid-1990s displays a greater depth and complexity when compared with her earlier paintings despite a lessening of detail within the compositions. This shift towards a more minimalistic style is evident in the works she produced for the exhibition, Criss Canning: In and around Burnside held at Melbourne’s Gould Galleries in 1996, where the present work was exhibited. As her biographer David Thomas noted, works from this mid-1990s period display an ‘increasing refinement of imagery, sophistication of composition and ever richer colours’.(3)
Hippeastrums with Horn Vase was painted in 1995, following the artist’s relocation to Ascot in regional Victoria with her husband David Glenn, a horticulturalist. Their Victorian bluestone home, ‘Burnside’, set on fifteen hectares, features a well-established perennial garden and commercial flower nursery. The exhibition was a study of her new surroundings and the home they had made at ‘Burnside’ and included interiors, landscapes and still-lifes. Studying the often unusual colours and shapes of flowers in their bountiful garden, the artist challenged herself by experimenting with complex colour and pattern harmonies in her own work.
Through her paintings, Canning invites the viewer into her studio where props of many colours, shapes and sizes are thoughtfully arranged into compositions. Hippeastrums with Horn Vase immediately draws the viewer into the work via the striking crimson blooms. Below, the jewel-toned vases direct the eye to the lower half of the work. To the right, Canning has painted a picture within a picture by including part of a larger work in the background. The reflection on the surface of the small brown vase - possibly a silhouette of the artist - add to the ‘compositional involvement of the painting and to its visual and intellectual appeal’.(4)
Criss Canning has firmly established her place as a leading contemporary painter of the still-life genre – her work both challenges and captivates her audience. Canning’s work is in the permanent collections of national, state and regional galleries across Australia and in local and international private collections.
Footnotes:
1. Criss Canning, quoted in Thomas, D., Criss Canning: The Pursuit of Beauty, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2013, p.65
2. Auty, G., Courier Mail, Brisbane, 25 October 2001, p.19
3. Thomas, D., op. cit., p.69
4. Ibid, p.70
Caroline Jones
Caroline Jones has worked in the visual arts industry for more than 15 years, as an auction house art specialist and commercial gallery manager. She currently works as an independent art consultant specialising in art valuation, research, writing, collection management and curatorial services.
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Location
Sale & Exhibition Details
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Auction
20 November 2024
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Exhibition
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Sydney
7-9 November 2024
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10 November 2024
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Melbourne
14-16 November 2024
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17 November 2024
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18-19 November 2024
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