The Night Runner

TIM STORRIER born 1949

The Night Runner

synthetic polymer paint on linen
100.0 x 120.0 cm; 106.0 x 126.0 cm (framed)
signed lower right: STORRIER
signed and inscribed on stretcher verso: "THE NIGHT RUNNER"/ 100x120cm/ Acrylic on canvas/ Storrier

Provenance:
The artist
Private collection, New South Wales

Related Works:
Mandalay 1989, oil on canvas, 212.0 x 283.0 cm; illus. in Capon, E. & Wright, W., Tim Storrier: Moments, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2009, p.162

Estimate: $80000 - 120000

Result Hammer: $85000

The Night Runner is an undeniably impressive and handsome picture, richly imbued with Tim Storrier’s signature symbolism and metaphor. The fiery silhouette of a horse, a somewhat haunting embodiment of resilience, beauty and freedom, evokes an air of mystery worthy of a drover’s campfire tale.

By Storrier’s own admission, he has revisited the subject of fire so frequently throughout his long and distinguished career that he almost considers it an object of fetish within his oeuvre. He has managed to avoid a repetitious portrayal of the subject, however, by developing different emphases and meanings with each subsequent series. Storrier has suggested his fascination with fire may have had its earliest origins in a childhood observation of a ute passing through a fire. However it wasn’t until an inspired experiment late one evening in 1981, when Storrier formally began to explore the potential of fire within his work. While he does not have any recollection of how the idea came to him, Storrier does recall that he decided to create a site-specific installation with some steel posts set a couple of metres apart. He then tethered rope between these posts, parallel to the horizon. Next Storrier applied a coat of accelerant to the rope, which he set alight. Storrier documented the entire scene in photographs entitled Night Passage, which became the springboard for future iconic series and pivotal works such as Point to Point 1986 and Burn 1984 (for which he was awarded his second Sulman Prize).

In The Night Runner, there’s a sense of nostalgia and fondness for the horse and all that it represents. The horse motif and other related images of riding paraphernalia such as surveyor’s leather riding saddles, have featured prominently in Storrier’s work over the years. The fact that the horse is such a persistent motif within Storrier’s oeuvre is of little surprise when his many and varied sources of connection to the equine are considered. Growing up on a rural property, horses were a familiar part of everyday life. Some members of his family before him had been quite exceptional riders, most notably Jack Storrier, who had been a stockhand and drover and was ‘renowned for his great horsemanship and skill as a brumby breaker’.(1)

While Storrier’s formative years provided a fertile source of ideas for an imaginative mind, there were of course both literary and legendary sources of inspiration too. From Banjo Patterson’s epic equine poems through to the tale of soldier Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant, Storrier himself fascinated in the war time stories of the Australian Light Horse.(2)

In The Night Runner, as in so many of his works, it seems Storrier is on a personal quest to search out and celebrate essential truths about his country, and the Australian outback in particular. Whilst the brilliant technical ability and extraordinary attention to detail he has demonstrated throughout his career would be well suited to photorealism, The Night Runner clearly demonstrates why the genre would be far too limiting on an artist with such a powerful and fertile imagination. In this landscape setting, Storrier’s very own dramatic stage, he is able to direct personal motifs, symbolism and palette towards a singularly unique and compelling vision.

Footnotes:

1. Nunen, L., Point to Point: The Art of Tim Storrier, Craftsman House, Sydney, p.3

2. Ibid., p.26

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