Car Painting 2 2009

BEN QUILTY born 1973

Car Painting 2 2009

oil on linen
140.0 x 190.0 cm
signed, dated and inscribed verso: Ben Quilty 09 Crash Painting 7 [sic]

Provenance:
GrantPirrie Gallery, Sydney, 2009 (label attached verso)
Private collection, Melbourne

Exhibited:
Ben Quilty: Critical Impact, GrantPirrie, Sydney, 15 October - 15 November 2009
Quilty, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2 March - 9 June 2019; Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 29 June - 13 October 2019; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 9 November 2019 - 2 February 2020

Reference:
Slade, L., et al, Quilty, Penguin Random House Australia, Melbourne, 2019, p.345 (illus. p.100)

Estimate: $60000 - 80000

Result Hammer: $65000

Ben Quilty’s car paintings present a raw and unflinching exploration of masculinity, mortality, and youth culture in Australia. Laden with confronting symbolism, these works examine the rites of passage and self-destructive tendencies prevalent among young Australian men.

Quilty employs the car as a recurring motif – most notably the Holden Torana, Toyota Landcruiser, mini-van and various 4WD vehicles. Much like his 2006 paintings of budgies as self-portraits, the car serves as both a self-portrait of the artist – an 'auto' portrait – and a uniquely Australian vanitas symbol, reminding us that what we covet could come to nothing, while also reflecting the mateship rituals of his upbringing on the outer suburbs of Sydney.(1)

More than their mechanical function, Quilty’s cars become metaphors for identity, freedom, rebellion, and the precarious tension between exhilaration and danger. As Germaine Greer observes, ‘The male human’s obsessive, unending love affair with his car’ underscores the deeper psychological and cultural themes in Quilty’s work,(2) positioning the car as more than just an object but as an extension of male identity and recklessness.

In his research on Australian youth culture, Quilty collaborated with the New South Wales Police Force Crash Investigation Unit,(3) gaining access to extensive files on road fatalities. Unsurprisingly, the statistics revealed a disproportionately high number of young men losing their lives on NSW roads. This stark reality profoundly impacted Quilty, reflecting on his own youth and the reckless behaviour that inspired much of his work. Remarking, ‘chaotically dangerous times, our collective youth. The higher we could get while still on a flat, earthly plane and four wheels, the better. I’m lucky to be alive and left to ponder why the risk.’(4)

In Car Painting 2, an early 1990s Suzuki 4WD lays crumpled and abandoned, dominating the vast pictorial plane with its twisted form. The sheer scale of the work is confronting, as the wreckage looms large, forcing the viewer to engage with its violent presence. Quilty’s message, much like the oversized depiction of destruction, is impossible to ignore – it demands attention and reflection.

Quilty’s impasto technique lends the painting a raw, almost sculptural quality, intensifying the sense of movement and volatility within the composition. The dynamic and chaotic application of paint conveys a sense of urgency, reflecting the fleeting and often perilous nature of youth. Aggressive brushstrokes and thick layers of black and blood-red pigment are combined with large sections of bare canvas. 

A road snakes its way behind the wreckage, leading the eye towards a seemingly peaceful landscape – blue sky, trees, and the roof of a distant building – creating a stark contrast between devastation and tranquillity. This juxtaposition heightens the emotional impact of the work, underscoring themes the fragility of life. The overwhelming scale amplifies the raw physicality of the wreckage, reinforcing the dangers of risk-taking behaviours that are often glorified in Australian masculinity. Through this striking composition, Quilty compels the viewer to confront these harsh realities head-on.

Car Painting 2 serves as a powerful exploration of masculinity, mortality, and Australian identity. Quilty’s expressive use of impasto, combined with his symbolic representation of cars, provide a compelling critique of societal norms and their inherent dangers – cementing his status as one of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists.

Footnotes

1. Correspondence between Ben Quilty and Lisa Slade, January 2008, in Bullock, N. (ed.), MCA Collection Handbook, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2016
2. Greer, G., ‘Schoolboy doodles? Hardly. Ben Quilty's Cars are a Glimpse into the Male Psyche,’ The Guardian Australia [online], 26 October 2009, accessed March 2025: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/oct/26/germaine-greer-ben-quilty-torana
3. Ben Quilty in conversation with the author, 2011
4. Ben Quilty in conversation with the author, 2017

Joey Hespe

Joey Hespe has seventeen years of experience in the art industry across Australia and London, spanning galleries, auction houses, and institutions. She currently works at Maitland Regional Art Gallery as Gallery Officer and Editor of Artel, its members’ magazine. She freelances as an arts writer and has sat on various art boards and committees. Joey holds a Bachelor of Art Theory from the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

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