Peter Upward (Australian, 1932-1983) 'Leo with sun' stamped with monogram; further signed, titled and inscribed 'LEO WITH SUN/PETER UPWARD/ROWAN GALLERY' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 122.3 x 91.2cm (48 1/8 x 35 7/8in).
§ PETER UPWARD 1932-1983 Untitled 1961 synthetic polymer paint on board signed and dated 'Upward '61' upper left 98.5 x 101.5 cm PROVENANCE Peter Upward, Sydney Private Collection Australian & European Pictures, Aboriginal Art & Artefacts, Bonhams & Goodman, Sydney, 23 November 2005, lot 4, 'Abstract', illustrated Private Collection, acquired from the above Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above
The Garuda Bird, 1974 screenprint on paper, edition: 6/20, numbered, titled, signed and dated below image '6/20, The Garuda Bird, Peter Upward, 1974' (unframed)
PETER UPWARD (1932-1984) Abstract 1959 oil on board signed and dated lower right: UPWARD 59 29.5 x 19.5cm PROVENANCE: The Collection of Kym Bonython, Adelaide Greenaway Art Gallery, South Australia Private collection, South Australia
Peter Upward (Australian, 1932-1984) "Taurus with Venus" oil and PVA on canvas signed, titled and inscribed "Rowan Gallery" en verso. Framed. 45" x 30", framed 50" x 40" Provenance: Private collection, UK (acquired from the artist through Rowan Gallery in London, thence by descent).
PETER UPWARD (1932 – 1983) JANUARY SEVENTH, 1961 oil and synthetic polymer paint on composition board 190.5 x 136.5 cm signed and dated lower right: Upward 61 bears inscription verso: U Blake Prize 1961 label attached verso [not entered] PROVENANCE Robert Shaw, Sydney Thence by descent Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED New Realities by Peter Upward, Terry Clune Galleries, Sydney, 24 May 1961, cat. 1 On long-term loan to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, June 1990 – January 2003 (label attached verso) Frozen Gestures, The Art of Peter Upward, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, NSW, 20 October – 2 December 2007, cat. 13 LITERATURE France, C., New Directions 1952 – 1962, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, New South Wales, 1991, pp. 16 (illus. in studio), 39 (illus. with artist) Dean, C., Frozen Gestures, The Art of Peter Upward, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, New South Wales, 2007, pp. 8 (illus. with artist), 13 (illus. in studio), 30 (illus.), 54 ESSAY Peter Upward represents a high water mark of prevailing over the ideological battles between Melbourne and Sydney in the fifties and early sixties. His art was the reason for flitting between the two cities and, eventually, leaving Australia. His idiosyncratic single-mindedness establishes him as one of Australia’s most important painters of the late twentieth century. He wasn’t interested in regional variations of new trends: the vastness of his interests and his imagination allow us to view his work as universal. His art makes perfect modernist sense in Australia, East Asia, America or Europe. When we think of his inspired conviction other great painters untroubled with the absence of local focuses come to mind: Ian Fairweather, Grace Crowley, Ralph Balson and Godfrey Miller, each a generation earlier than Upward. He studied at RMIT in 1951, with its capable and conformist modernism, but that lasted for a year.1 When Upward left Melbourne for Sydney later in the year he enrolled at the Julian Ashton Art School under John Passmore. John Olsen recalled the tone, ‘His lyrical nature did not respond to the more stoical side of Passmore’s exercises and he was happier drawing fluently from the model, which satisfied his natural feeling for the immediate.’2 In 1955, he returned to Melbourne, the city of his birth. It was not a satisfying time but his friendship with Clement Meadmore was close. They lived and worked together in a haphazard arrangement in Johnston Street, Collingwood. Jazz was a hugely important part of their lives and never diminished, improvisation and impulse their instinctive drawcard. In 1959, Upward had an exhibition at Melbourne’s Museum of Modern Art, then on top of a three-level warehouse in the city.3 It was the year Gallery A opened in Flinders Lane, later moving to South Yarra, and in 1964 it opened in Sydney.4 The Antipodeans exhibition of 1959 and its manifesto told artists what they should paint. Some felt it made Melbourne an uncertain place where original and adventurous imaginations might not flourish.5 Upward held an exhibition at Gallery A in 1960 and headed to Sydney with Clement Meadmore. Figuration was anathema to them. Upward rented a shed in Brougham Street, Woolloomooloo and it was here that some of his finest works were created. January Seventh, 1961 is one which points to his greatness. In many respects it is just as important as June Celebration in allowing us to appreciate the reach and characteristics of his interests and their execution.6 Abstract expressionism is a term often applied to Upward’s paintings and it’s almost a lazy catch-all. Robert Hughes’ original insight was closer to the mark: ‘Franz Kline has often been invoked as a parallel to, or an influence on, Upward’s dramatic swathes … but this is quite misleading. Upward is a calligraphic painter, Kline is not. The act of painting becomes a form of limited meditation …’7 This observation leads us to Upward’s interest in Japan. He had read and owned a copy of the seminal book by D T Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture.8 Ideas such as practised spontaneity would not be a contradiction to him. January Seventh belongs to a group of large works which were painted on the floor. Brushes, ladles, even brooms were essential to the physical energy used in an act of creative and masterly intuition. Nothing is reckless and the gestures hold an expressive poise and grand elegance. In one sense they might be seen as evocative of Shoji Hamada’s ladle-poured glazes and, of course, the ink-loaded brushed and single-gestured Japanese calligraphy.9 The Gutai Group emerged after the war and embraced radical individualism as a way of breaking free from the Japanese collectivist mindset. Their desire was physical action with materials themselves – the connection between Gutai and Upward is inescapable. He spent almost a decade in London from 1962, but his gaze was to the East, counterculture and the Beat Generation. Ideas shaped from curiosity and well beyond a modernism taken and adapted to incorporate local subject matter is the cornerstone of Upward’s career. While June Celebration might be his familiar and much quoted career highlight, January Seventh is no less significant in a life which ended prematurely and unexpectedly at the age of 51, walking near Balmoral Beach, Sydney. 1. The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology was established as the Working Men’s College in 1887. In 1951 the painting teacher was Lindsay Edward. 2. Olsen, J., ‘Obituary: Peter Upward’, Art and Australia, Sydney, vol. 21, no. 4, Winter 1984, p. 456 3. The Museum of Modern Art was founded by John Reed in 1958. 4. Gallery A opened in 1959, backed by businessman Max Hutchinson and run by Clement Meadmore. It moved to South Yarra in 1962 with James Mollison as a director. 5. The Antipodeans Exhibition was held at the Victorian Artists Society in August, 1959. Bernard Smith wrote the manifesto. The Sydney Nine group, all abstractionists, of which Upward was a member, was created in response to the Antipodeans. 6. June Celebration, 1960, synthetic polymer paint on composition board (three panels), 213.5 x 411.5 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Purchased 1972 7. Hughes, R, The Art of Australia, Penguin Books Australia, 1966, p. 282 8. Suzuki, D. T., Zen and Japanese Culture, Pantheon Books, New York, 1959 9. Shoji Hamada (1894 –1978) was a significant influence on Western studio pottery. In 1955, he was designated a ‘Living National Treasure’. DOUG HALL
PETER UPWARD (1932-1984) Abstract 1959 mixed media on card signed and dated lower left: Upward 59 37.5 x 55cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne
PETER UPWARD (1932 – 1983) UNTITLED (BROWN AND GREEN), 1972 synthetic polymer paint and polyvinyl acetate on canvas SIGNED: signed, dated and inscribed verso: TOP / Peter Upward / 1972 DIMENSIONS: 27.0 cm diameter PROVENANCE: Brian Brown, Melbourne, acquired directly from the artist in the 1970s Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne This work is located in our Melbourne gallery.
PETER UPWARD (1932-1984) Monkey Savouring the Moment before Eating the Louse Found on the Barong 1974 screenprint 10/20 editioned, titled, signed and dated below image 62 x 88cm PROVENANCE: BHP Collection Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne
PETER UPWARD 1932-1983 Crown Street Indigo 1960 oil and synthetic polymer paint on board signed and dated 'Upward '60' upper right; signed and inscribed 'UPWARD / CROWN ST. INDIGO' verso 173 x 134 cm PROVENANCE Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Private Collection, New South Wales Southern Cross Galleries, Melbourne J.G.L. Investments Pty Ltd, Melbourne, acquired from the above on 5 November 1984 EXHIBITED Clement Meadmore - Peter Upward, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 31 August - 12 September 1960, no. 2, 100 gns
Untitled, oil on board, signed u.r.c. 'Peter Upward', 25.5 x 25.5 cm, Provenance: Leonard Joel, The Sunday Art Auction, Melbourne, 28/08/2011, Lot No. 149
PETER UPWARD, (1932 1983), UNTITLED, c.1971, synthetic polymer paint and polyvinyl acetate on canvas SIGNED: signed and dated verso: Peter Upward / 1971 / No. 21 DIMENSIONS: 83.0 cm diameter PROVENANCE: Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Sydney, acquired from the above in May 1988 EXHIBITED: Peter Upward Paintings 1970 1973, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, 9 27 September 1986, cat. 10 The Laverty Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 20 June 23 August 1998 Frozen Gestures: The Art of Peter Upward, Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest, New South Wales, 20 October 2 December 2007, cat. 45 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) LITERATURE: Loxley, A., The Laverty Collection, Art and Australia, Sydney, 1996, vol. 34, no. 1, p. 72
Peter Upward (1932 - 1983) Jungle Near the Elephant Caves, from the Sandura Suite colour screenprint on ivory wove paper, edition 7/20 90.4 x 63.0 cm (image) signed & dated 1974 lower right
Untitled, c.1971 inscribed 'Dear Mark / went over to / David McMurta to / grind off a wall in G/Box / Back by 1PM' verso PVA on canvas diameter 101cm (39 3/4in).
October Still, 1962 signed and dated 'Upward 62' lower right; inscribed 'PETER UPWARD / OCTOBER STILL' verso oil and PVA on board 184 x 127cm (72 7/16 x 50in).
Peter Upward (Australian 1932-1984) Untitled (Abstract) Signed Upward and dated '63 l.r. Synthetic polymer paint on paper; apparently in good condition. Framed.* Sight size: 27-1/4 x 21-1/2 in (69.2 x 54.6 cm)
Orange Accent signed and dated 'Upward 60' (lower centre); titled 'Orange Accent' on gallery label (affixed to the reverse) oil on board 61 x 45 cm PROVENANCE Macquarie Gallery (King Street), Sydney.
